Friday 9 May 2014

How Can I Support My Child in Learning an Instrument?

When a child starts the journey of learning a musical instrument it is often the start of a very long journey.  To truly master any musical instrument takes years, often in the region of a decade in total.  That is a long time and many things can happen.  Your teacher could move on.  There could be a house move.  There could be a loss of interest generally.  Exams could crop up at school.

So how do we cope with this?

Well - the first thing is to realise that this journey is a marathon and not a sprint.  There are going to be times when your child hits the wall.  They really don't enjoy it at the moment.  Don't always be tempted to throw in the towel.  It could be that other things are getting in the way such as exams, or perhaps they just find it hard at the moment.  The flip side is that there are going to be times when progress is obvious and everyone is enjoying the journey.

Learning an instrument is about taking the rough with the smooth.

When there is rough - keep encouraging.  Communicate.  Find out what the problem is.  It may be something small that can be adjusted to get back on the right track again.  Take baby steps to get back on course.  Maybe 5 minutes playing something fun to relight the passion that had been there before - it often does come back.  Keep speaking to your Primavolta music teacher.  It is likely they will have noticed as well.  It is important to discuss different strategies with your teacher.  Only when all strategies have been attempted should the idea of stopping be considered.  After all, learning an instrument is not like riding a bike.  Once you stop, all that learning does tend to evaporate!

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