“Are you actually practicing in there”

I heard my mom yell from the kitchen while she was washing the dishes from breakfast.

I looked down from my Nancy Drew novel to my hands where I realized I must have been playing the same chord for about 10 mins while Nancy was being chased down by the banks robbers.

Yes, I was that student! I spent many hours at the piano but I was either writing my own music or ‘practicing’ scales while reading mystery novels (probably why I think cinematically when I compose now lol).

I remember my poor mother who was at her wits end, would send me to study with her friends hoping I would practice for them. I remember one of the teachers would even create wonderful practice sheets where she would ask for reflections and thoughts. I would write elaborate explanations of my thought process while practicing and my reflections of what possibly the composer must have been feeling on the way to my lesson. I would even get my dad (my mom would refuse) to sign it  as I would tell him: “yes of course I practiced.”

I remember the teachers would be all impressed and I would just fake it during my lessons asking teachers to play for me so I could play most of it by ear in the moment but naturally my progress would be slowed down.

When I was in my third year at university when my dear piano teacher and mentor Ron Moir (RIP) called me out on practicing and helped me understand that practicing was an art form in itself and taught me methods on practicing. I then fell in love with the process of creation and crave practicing.

So how do we approach practicing as parents and educators?

First and foremost, I believe we must have transparency, honest and most importantly accountability as teachers, students and parents.

Francis Clark said that for music education to work properly it has to be a triangle - student on top and then parent(s) and teacher on bottom two points.

We must remember that we all play an equally important role.

I’m in constant communication with parents and students on what is expected from everyone. More often than not, I find students don’t practice for two reasons.

1. Many parents, in wanting their children to succeed in life put them in too many activities. Be careful when figuring out extracurricular activities so children have time to practice. As well, I will often help the student and parent(a) create practice schedules to work with everyone’s schedule. Once mom/dad etc is an active member of the team - practicing isn’t pulling teeth. And on weeks practicing doesn’t happen, the kids don’t hide it and are honest how their week went. My last student today literally just said to me: “so practicing didn’t happen over the break”

2. Sometimes I know it’s impossible for a regular practice schedule so this is where open conversations happen and a progress plan is made. I then adjust my teaching based on it. Is this ideal? Not at all but often it becomes a temporary situation and then the student doesn’t lose interest in playing the piano.

I think we need to challenge ourselves to practice - it needs to become a habit like brushing our teeth or going to the gym. Sometimes we think we need to be practicing long hours to get ahead but remember - when we do that in the gym, we burn out and end up not going - practicing the piano is no different. Start slow and steady - remember less is more. Be intentional in what you are playing!

So as we make new year resolutions, I hope practicing with intention is one of them … without the Nancy Drew novel.