9 ‘No Fail’ Tricks For Happy Piano Practice With Multiple Learners

If you have multiple children at different levels learning to play piano in your household, then you must be having a very hard time, come daily piano practice. 

How do you handle it?

Most parents I know are unable to handle it and are extremely stressed out, or they compromise on the practice time, and as a result kids don’t get the piano practice they need.

If you are one of those parents, then you are going to love this post, because I will be sharing 9 ‘No Fail’ tricks on how you can have them all practicing happily together. 

Let’s get started with the first trick

Bring Out The Games

Unlike in the past, when I learned piano, today pedagogy has come a long way and games are part and parcel of the learning process. 

So, start off with the different piano games and encourage all the kids to join in irrespective of age. 

Pair Up Learners

From my experience often the older kids are more patient and therefore, they would make ideal partners for the very young ones, who need more attention. 

But, you know your children best, so I will leave you to decide how to pair them up. 

Have A Plan

When I say have a plan, it means have a daily routine and include that in your daily schedule. 

If you schedule an hour for practice for all your learners, then divide up the time and decide what order the kids will play in. 

Also decide how you will proceed from the games and transition into practice and how long each player should have – remember not to make each person’s time too long, or else practice will become very tedious for them. 

Decide To Be A ‘Piano Family’

This is very important, if you are serious about making time and learning daily. 

Make sure there are no distractions and that you support the players as much as you can. 

Becoming a ‘piano family’ and calling yourself that, like many families I know call themselves the ‘hockey family’ will give your kids a sense of identity and indicates to them that piano is a priority. 

Get A Second Keyboard

This will definitely help if you have two kids learning at the same level and practice or accompany each other. 

Also with a second keyboard, you can have kids play simultaneously. 

Of course if they are not playing the same melody, then one will have to use headphones. 

The upside of this is that practice time can be done really fast and if you have eight kids for instance, or even four kids it can be really helpful. 

Celebrate The Victories

I keep saying this over and over again, and I’m sure you’ve no doubt heard me say it before and I’m going to reiterate it again. 

Celebrate each and everyone’s victories as a family. But please give each child some individual attention. 

Support The Failures

Make sure to support the failures as much as you celebrate the victories. 

So, if one child has a victory and the other a failure, the idea is not to make the second child feel like a failure or to discount the first child’s victory. 

But rather to celebrate the victory, and help encourage the child who failed, and assure her that with practice and time, she too will have a victory. 

Let The Younger Ones Win

When playing games, it is easier for the older kids to win than the younger ones. 

Therefore, it is important to ask the older ones to go easy and allow the younger ones a chance to win, on and off. 

Encourage Playing Together (Even The Hard Ones)

Wherever possible if the pieces allow, then allow kids to play in turn and together. This will make it really fun, and over time the younger, weaker ones will progress really fast. 

So, what do you think? Do you believe you can implement these ideas starting today?