Tip #27

We can consider 'playing an instrument' as 'watering a plant'. As a plant would turn brown without proper watering, a similar effect would happen with taking a break from practicing an instrument. This could be because of a summer break, an injury, focusing on other subjects, etc. It is never too late to go back to playing an instrument. Although it might take a while at the beginning, it flowers very soon with patience and compassion.

Here are some helpful notes to implement while tackling the challenges:

Having realistic expectations and patience

Instead of playing that one hard piece we have been wanting to play or picking up 5 pieces to practice or figuring out a piece in a day, we can be easy on ourselves and observe our current speed of learning and our motivation. Patience and believing in ourselves are our best friends. We can remind ourselves that "if we did it before, we can do it again!'

Playing old pieces

When we learn a piece well, we keep that information somewhere in our minds as our muscle memory even if we have not played that piece for a while. Bringing back old pieces is the best way to get back to practicing even though it might be disappointing to see that we are not as good as we were before. Our muscle memory will come to save us very shortly!

Coming up with a practice routine

Telling ourselves that 'I will practice at some point today' might sound like a good idea but not having specific times might let us choose another activity over playing the piano. We can help ourselves by coming up with a practice routine (please look over the previous tips below to come up with a productive practice routine).

Building up the practice time slowly

We might think that coming up with a full and rigid practice routine would be helpful. However as we get back to practicing, it is important to start with a minimum practice time and increase it by days and weeks. We should make a note to ourselves to finish our practice before getting too frustrated.

Encourage rather than push

As adults, we might expect quicker outcomes. It is important to remember every child has their own talent and their own pace (please look over the previous tips below to find ways to provide motivation and nurture the love of music).

Focusing on the process and not the outcome

Things we would like to accomplish might not happen within the time we would like however embracing the music making part of practicing would provide so much more motivation than making the outcome the only source of satisfaction.

Staying in touch with your teacher

It is important to be open with our teachers about what we remember and what we do not. We might not want to mention things or ask questions because we would not want to disappoint our teachers however it is important to remind ourselves that our teachers want the best for us and keeping things from our teachers is only a waste of time.

Reminding ourselves that forgetting even the basic things is very normal

All it takes is to look back to our books to find answers and talk to our teachers.

Having continuous goals

It is helpful to determine some goals such as finishing a book, playing a song for the family, recording a video to post on social media, virtual/outdoor recitals, virtual auditions and more. Finding goals is only limited with our imagination!

Please see the tips we shared previously! CLICK HERE

May you know you are making a difference, even if your children never tell you themselves.

We would be more than happy to answer any questions and provide more specific consultancy if needed.

Thank you for being a part of the PianoAlpharetta community!