For Parents

For Parents

I wrote these articles for parents of my young students. They address questions I am commonly asked.

For important information about piano learning materials and my approach to teaching music reading, please see articles in my "Resources" category.

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PP Tips: Practicing the Entire Assignment

Positive Parents’ Tip - Touching All the Bases

Your child has a fantastic piano teacher, but needs help practicing at home. You sure wish you could decipher those seemingly cryptic weekly assignments. There must be some way to help! But you’re a parent who knows nothing about music! What do you do?

A) Throw your hands up in utter despair. It’s all Greek to you, so how could you possibly be of any assistance to your budding pianist?

- OR -

B) You may not know what any of it means, but that doesn’t stop you from helping to ensure that all the parts of the assignment are practiced.

Good for you, if you said B! Anyone who can consult a teacher’s list of things to practice is in a position to help. Exactly what does a teacher assign for the student to practice in between lessons? Sometimes, well-taught students can work “on autopilot.” But more often, there are several different parts to an assignment, and the teacher will write them down for the student to consult during the week. These may include some or all of the following (this is by no means an exhaustive list!):

Practice Slips

As an aid to practicing, many teachers ask students to fill out a practice slip for each week of the term. Students write down the number of minutes practiced each day. The slip is signed by a parent or guardian and returned to the teacher at the lesson. At the end of the term, practice awards may then be given for both the amount of practice and the quality of practice.

Many young students have also been known to create practice slip art.

Practice Slip Art

Practice slip art is often found on practice slips that young keyboardists turn in to their teachers at the end of each week, and may include smiley faces, shining sun faces, encouraging or humorous comments, and/or any other decorations designed by creative students in an attempt to make something interesting out of an otherwise plain-looking piece of paper!

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