Thomas J. West Music

My blog started out back in 2008 as a series of practice tips and featured articles about the neurology of musical practice. The basic observation is that many elementary band and orchestra directors tell their students to "practice 30 minutes a day and fill out this practice chart", common practice I discussed at length in this article. The fundamental flaw in this approach is that the teachers do not teach the students how to practice, expecting them to figure it out on their own or rely on parents to fill in the gaps.

Playing a musical instrument is a complex skill requiring at least ten years of regular study to achieve a level of proficiency, let alone mastery. To wit, I occasionally continue to pass along good strategies for practicing instruments. I often receive links to blog posts in my inbox that people think will be a good fit for my readership. This following article is one such entry.

5 Tips for Encouraging Kids to Practice Piano is a great blog article with some time-honored techniques that apply for practicing just about any instrument. I caution readers on the use of a reward system, however. Music practice needs to become intrinsic to a degree if the student is going to have longevity. Many of us skated by with doing minimal practicing, but when push comes to shove, the students' pride in their own performance needs to stay the centerpiece of their motivation to practice.

This article (c) 2013 Thomas J. West. All content on ThomasJWestMusic dot com is licensed under a Creative Contributions Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Please contact the author before publishing on or off-line.

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