Learning more than one instrument

Mine also started on piano and then took up classical guitar. She took to CG like a duck to water, is around G4 for having only been playing a year. She’s just about to do G4 piano. Practice happens in the morning. 20 mins on both instruments before school. It’s just routine, she never complains.

Dd took up Bassoon two years after starting clarinet. It is catching up in terms of grade a bit but not there yet.

Five minutes every day doesn’t work so well for us, takes longer than that to put the Bassoon together. We have at least one instrument a day as a rule, usually they alternate, but if there is an upcoming concert or exam then one may take priority. I say at least twenty minutes, usually it stretches to 45 plus, and at the weekend with no time constraints it can be two hours

Piano is an excellent second instrument to take up (my 10 and 7 year old started on piano). 5 mins a day is all it needs in the beginning, and that 5 mins is so important for them (and you) to gain enjoyment and progress. It's what I tell all my beginning piano students to do. My children then found taking up other instruments easier because they could already read music (I appreciate this is the other way round for OP). When my 7 year old took up drum lessons just before the summer she was wanting to stop piano but one comment from the drum teacher in the first lesson on hearing she was learning the piano (keep up with your piano, that's really important) had her back on it and she's really enjoying both now, she's just started working for piano prep test and does about 5-10 mins per day. My 10 year old is working for grade 6 now on both piano and trumpet, he's chosen trumpet as his priority which he sets himself two sessions of 45 mins per day and piano he does about 30 mins per day.

I'd say that the right time to introduce a second instrument is when a child is sufficiently interested to ask about it! My DDs are both brass players. DD1 was lucky enough to have free recorder lessons at school and added a brass instrument a year later. She no longer plays recorder regularly but has added singing lessons and double bass to her repertoire. DD2's first instrument is a brass instrument and she'd been playing for two years and had passed G3 before taking up a second. The one she's gone for is brass again but in a different key, has different fingering and uses completely different techniques. She's coping well and has picked up the second instrument far more quickly than the teacher is used to.

We expect productive practice to happen on 6 days out of 7. In the early stages, that's ten minutes per instrument, per practice but these days DD1 will do 40-60 minutes on her first instrument and 10-15 on the double bass. DD2 does 15-20 minutes on both of hers but regularly does double this. Being brass players, they do find that if they don't set aside a decent amount of time to practise, they've not had enough time to warm up their lips and the instruments so the session can feel very frustrating.

If a child is prepared to practise, then that's a good sign that they grasp the notion that progress generally happens because of the effort put in. If they're not willing to give up a few minutes a day to practise, then they probably don't have the maturity to understand this so I wouldn't waste money on lessons.

I challenge the kids in my recorder ensemble to do 5x5 ie 5 mins 5 days a week. To be honest, I don't mind what they do but once you sit down and start playing, many will do a lot more than 5 mins, it's just that sounds achievable. Many don't do any except at the club , others do loads. My kids practice 6 days a week, ie not the lesson day unless they want to. Some days D's might only do 10 minutes but the daily habit is best personally as it is then routine and the only discussion is how long not whether to do it! If it's a short one, it needs to be more focused. Go for it and have fun!

Mine all started piano at a young age but added a second instrument quite quickly. One did violin from 4, then we had bassoon and flute. They’re all higher grades on their separate instruments but probably play the piano more as young adults. Piano is a really useful skill to have.

From personal experience of clarinet then piano much later (when I'd reached g5 and wanted to take theory further as well) I found it quite hard to add in the piano later because the left hand is so much more independent than on wind instruments. I would let her start earlier, it's not confusing switching between the two. The small and often "fun" style of practice sounds good :)

We have also har a 'rule' that practise happens every day but havent specified a length of practise (so 5 minutes is certainly not unheard of). We mainly focus on quality of practise and as they get older then that clearly also sets certain requirements for quantity......

Yup, increase of practice time happened here too. But I didn't certainly expect that kind of diligence from the beginning. I let him try many activities and he dropped some and kept some on the course. He absolutely loves violin now so no practice isn't happening.

catkind that’s exactly what I do! The older 2 kids now choose to do much more than that. Of my younger two one is keen and will do more at the weekend when he’s not as tired, the other not so much but as you say the 5 mins keeps up steady progress and they’ve usually covered what the teacher has set

I don't mean 5 minutes time limit, I mean just make sure that a certain baseline 5 minutes (or whatever) happens every day.

Firstly, it's a simple rule to enforce as a parent. My balance between just leaving them to it and being full on pushy. Then it makes getting the instrument out a habit, and hopefully at some point or some days the amount of time spent will increase. And generally I do think a little bit every day builds skills better than the same amount of time all in one gulp.

Well we have a baseline of sit down with instrument and make something better. I doubt DS does much more than 5 minutes on his second instrument, he's a beginner so that's time to play through 2-3 pieces and work on a few bars. Not ideal but it's enough to keep him ticking over till the next lesson.
DD has always played for more than that time anyway.

I tend to find for myself if I make myself just get the instrument out, I end up playing for much longer than any minimum I set myself. We do do music because we enjoy it after all!

Everyone can have their opinion. But the message was 'little but often'. DS did 5 mins or so practice when he was younger and it worked fine for us. He didn't need to go through scales, studies and many pieces at younger age so it was totally doable! It was like, play 4 bars of the right hand or play open E with a couple of different rhythms sort of contents. Sometimes he played around more sometimes no practice for days.

5 mins everyday was actually recommended in Suzuki method, druid. But obviously we are talking about a lot younger age than your DS!

Just for balance, both DD's did their Grades without practice at home at all - they used to get in trouble for it, but passed never the less.

I am very much of the opinion that the playing for enjoyment is much more important than the grade slog. DD's both played Clarinet up to Grade 6 and just gave up due to frustration and boredom with the proscribed syllabus. Somewhere in the middle of their Clarinet playing I bought a piano, and it was the best thing I ever bought. DD2 in particular has taken it up as a recreational instrument, and plays for enjoyment. She did Grade 1, gave up and then self taught, and is doing really well. She picks pieces she likes, learns them, and moves on. She regularly plays for the school, and genuinely enjoys the music.

So, yes, take up another instrument, but perhaps don't insist on formal learning, or grades, unless they really want to.

Moominmammacat, passing diplomas with mere 30' (max!) is pretty impressive!

The instrument they actually want to learn is often the one they carry on learning, in my unscientific sample of three.

5' is more than enough up to about Grade 3, providing it's five proper minutes. Mine did their diplomas on a max of 30' on school days but it has to be super-focused.

I do like the 5 mins a day approach, cat.

Of course, I'm not encouraging not to practise and if you can handle two instrumental practice regularly that would be ideal. But my point was you may not need to worry about fitting all in too much, at least at the early stage, just to keep it casual and fun wound't be harmful especially if the child is learning another instrument formally already. If a child expresses interest persistently, and if you can afford it, why not let her try even though she may not practise as much as another instrument. If she has desire to be better or simply wants to reach a certain target, practice will happen I think, and you just adjust the amount of practice and balance between two instruments accordingly.

You never know if it's time for a child to take up another instrument without trying. If it didn't work out, you can stop and revisit when asked again or simply ready. I have slight regret I didn't let DS start violin when he started asking me. I made him wait for quite a long time. But I think when a child asked that's the best time to let them try.

Um, don't think your DS is typical patrick. Maybe not practising is the best approach when you have a super talented child learning at school group pace! For most kids I think it would result in frustrated teacher and a frustrated child. I'm a big fan of the 5 minutes a day approach to learning anything, then it just becomes a habit.

Oh, I know people who rotate which instrument to practice daily and termly. That's another option to manage more than one instrument. I am not sure how effective it is though. I prefer our way - focus on one and have fun with another. Somehow the fun instrument gets the benefit of the serious study, like in DS's case!