Okay I lost it with Ds whilst practising piano (shouted at him which I very rarely do). He is 5 and gets side tracked easily. He will say oh look at this song/tune etc which is further on in the book. I am a bit obsessive in personality (eg do set number of songs set number of times through..) and think I have done my good mother bit if I do this each day (and I stay with him whilst he does it). The fact is I find the practice boring but we don't have much money and his lessons aren't cheap so he should practise. Does anyone else find listening to their child tedious, is there any way to overcome the boredom?
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Elibean ·
11/08/2011 10:42
I would add some tick boxes for myself, along the lines of 'tick six boxes per practice for sitting calmly and smiling when I feel anxious and impatient inside' 
I do sympathise (though not at all a box ticker by nature) its so hard not to get frustrated with piano practice, and yes lessons are very expensive. That said, dd is 7 - not 5 - and her teacher suggested letting her practice for shorter periods twice a day, as she was getting mentally tired/losing patience and concentration after a short time. Its worked beautifully, she now sits down and practices, figures out new pieces, etc for pure pleasure - which was my goal for her 
iggly2 ·
11/08/2011 11:54
Wow. Thanks, some great ideas there. I like the dice idea (great as it is usually 6 tunes), also the him teaching me (he loves doing that eg: pointing out what the notes are, saying what little dots on notes mean).
Eilbean yes I think at times I deserve a tick box (homework done, reading done, piano practice, appropriate feeding and watering of child, ensuring lots of sport...!). I think I might initiate a reward system for me with 
and
.
I guess I like him to do the practice THEN do the extras (eg different tunes he likes or the odd bits of theory in his piano books). He wants to mix it all up! The problem with the tunes later in the book is he has not learnt the notes needed etc. I think as he is only a beginner I feel I have to be there for the practice is he likes having Mummy there and also to check for mistakes.
OP posts:
JemimaMuddledUp ·
11/08/2011 12:03
I sympathise with you. DS1 is a bit older (almost 9) but I find myself nagging at him about his piano practice and I can be a bit anal about making sure he is doing exactly what his teacher says when he wants to be experimenting with other pieces.
His teacher has set him a list of pieces to practice every day over the summer, and he is supposed to practice for half an hour a day. I have told him to run through those pieces twice each time (I come and listen to him on teh second practice) and then spend the rest of the half hour playing pieces of his choice. These might be pieces he has learnt previously, or new ones that he fancies trying. As he is a little bit older he doesn't need me to sit with him the whole time, so I just pop in and out and make appreciative noises at what I hope are the right moments 
If I sat with him the whole time I would just be too stressy about it all and that then stresses him.
DS2 is hopefully starting to learn an instrument when they go back to school in September. I am going to need lots of then!
strictlovingmum ·
11/08/2011 12:13
Oh and also most helpful is not to go through pieces during practice time more then twice, first time is to identify week bars(ones with a lot's of mistakes) and then go through individual bars and try to correct mistakes, once difficult bars start to sound more like it, then child is to repeat the whole piece with everything learnt, it is going to sound a lot better in second playing.
Also this minimises boredom and wrong repetition, hopefully minimises getting used to playing a piece in the wrong way.
Much easier on mums frayed nerves, too
stealthsquiggle ·
11/08/2011 12:19
It's the holidays. I leave my DS (8) to play by himself - and he chooses a combination of working on the pieces and messing around, which is more than fine by me. If I nagged him, it would become a chore - as it is, he does it by himself (has to be dragged off piano when we need to get somewhere 
) and drives me demented by "practising" on kitchen table, etc (playing imaginary piano). Come to that, I leave DD (4) to practise guitar by herself/with DS as well [bad mother] intervening only when the guitar desperately needs tuning.
however - I am exceptionally lucky in that term-time practice is done (and supervised) at school.
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