Making the Most of Music Lessons
It should go without saying that one of the most crucial parts of a music student’s success is the quality and consistency of their practice at home, so the Practice Space Team wants to be sure to give you all some great practice tips!
There are so many similarities between learning a language and learning music. Numerous studies exist that demonstrate a link between music education and increased verbal skills and an increased ability to learn languages later in life. (Check out this article if interested) When you take the fundamental components that go into language acquisition and apply them to music education, you get some really simple yet powerful strategies for great music practice.
CONSISTENCY
We all learned our native language (or “mother tongue”) by being in an environment where it was spoken and then constantly trying to mimic the sounds we heard in our surroundings. Consistency with respect to practice is no secret - every music teacher everywhere will tell their students to practice piano, guitar, or whatever instrument everyday. And you should! The issue, of course, is time and motivation. Here are a couple ideas to help make this easier:
Try to practice at the same time everyday. Make it a routine. Some students do it before they go to school, some do it after dinner, but the point is to try to help your child develop regularity. You can even set an alarm as a practice reminder and soon it will become a habit!
A little goes a long way. When students first start out, 10 minutes can be enough. If you only have 5 minutes, then just play for 5 minutes. The point here is to fight the all or nothing mentality.
Awards work and they help create habits. By logging practice time in the Practice Space app, students earn gems that they can redeem for prizes, avatars, and other exciting features! Practice Space also automatically calculates each students practice streak, which may earn them an extra prize!
LISTEN TO MUSIC
Just like the “mother tongue” idea mentioned above, listening to music consistently will help students develop their vocabulary. When babies start learning a language, the first sounds they hear are called phonemes. There are about 150 that are used in around 6500 languages, and English uses 49. When the brain starts to realize it only needs to recognize combinations of those 49, it starts only focusing on these, which is why its harder to learn languages later in life.
What’s your point?
Younger kids often only play “baby music” or let’s say, at the risk of sounding pretentious, simple music. This quickly starts to limit their capacity to recognize pitch, harmony and more complicated rhythms. Classical music is a great option for students’ ears to take in more complex harmonies, pitch structures and rhythms, among other things. If you don’t know what to listen to, just put on a playlist on Spotify or Apple music. You can just let it play it in the background at home and in the car. “Ok Google play some classical music” works too! More advanced students should listen to pieces they are working on to get ideas from mature artists on phrasing and expression. Imagine a writer who didn’t read or a painter who didn’t see! Listen to music people!
Another component that’s super crucial in effective practice (and also a part of language acquisition) is the idea of repetition, which we talked about in last month’s blog. Check it out if you haven’t already!
Key Points:
Successful music students practice on a daily basis. Try to make it a habit. Routines and rewards can be super helpful in making this easier!
Listen to classical music - it’s a beautiful treasure and it will help develop your ear!