The Creative Practice Session
Julie Lyonn Lieberman: The Creative Band and Orchestra

Without guidance, a child has no idea what amount of effort will yield what kind of results. Your expectations — with the guidance of their teacher — and your support, will increase his or her progress significantly. Through practicing on a musical instrument, your child has the opportunity to develop spatial, mathematical and listening skills, mental stamina, fine motor control, and pride in his or her accomplishments.

As with anything, when a parent becomes involved too closely the wrong way, the opposite results can be created. Children already have homework. We have an opportunity at home to make sure that time on an instrument doesn't becomes just one more task before the child can finally have some fun. If discipline around music-making becomes about doing something distasteful on a regular basis because it's supposed to be good for us at some point in the future, the child will eventually lose interest or develop a muted relationship to their instrument.

Practice time can be a time of sharing and bonding rather than yet one more area when they hear you say "Johnny, did you practice yet?" Your participation in their practice sessions can create quality family time. Clearly you, as a parent, are overwhelmed with professional and domestic responsibilities in addition to parenting, but even once a week is better than not at all.

Here are some suggestions that will help you make a difference:

You can start or end each practice session with an improvisation. Ask them to describe an image in sound. What does a zipper sound like? How about a train traveling from far away right into the backyard? You can use dreams: "Describe a dream you had this week, and then try to describe it without words by making sounds on your instrument." You can ask your child to write a story (or use a story they've written for school) and illustrate it with music.

If they are working on a new technique, challenge them to use the technique correctly for the amount of time it will take for a wind-up toy to walk across the room, the sands of a minute-glass to run out, or the time it takes the dog to eat his dinner!

Sing a note and ask them to find it on their instrument. If you play an instrument, play a phrase from a piece they've just started to work on and ask them to figure it out by ear.

Try to turn all of their exercises into games rather than work, and you will be on the road to teaching them that consistent playing time while having fun can create success.