The Best Structure for Music Lessons and Practice Schedules

Staff Writer - February 11th, 2010 4:37 PM PST

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There are many different thoughts and opinions about practice schedules when it comes to music lessons. Ask ten different private music instructors and you may find five or more different ideas about this topic. Some will be quite fervent and adamant that their approach is the best and only way that works, but the truth is that it will all depend on the individual student.

Each instrument will pose its own unique set of challenges as well. If your child is taking guitar lessons, for example, then the first months will be the most challenging, and the most frustrating. Guitar strings will dig into the fingertips and hurt, but not only that, the strings will tend to be muted and dull when strummed. It can be difficult to notice improvement when day after day, week after week, he or she simply cannot hear the notes ringing out.

This is why it is strongly recommended to break up guitar practice schedules into shorter increments, rather than hour-long blocks of time. This idea is geared toward beginning guitar students who have just started, or are planning on starting to take guitar lessons.

By breaking up the practice time into ten to fifteen minute increments, for example, the student is given the opportunity to rest his or her fingers as well as the muscles in their hands. When we first start playing guitar, the longer the practice sessions go, the harder we try to press down on the strings, being told to play through the pain in our fingertips. By pressing down harder, though, what happens is that you begin to use the wrong muscles. Even the correct muscles begin to work in a way that isn’t natural or appropriate.

This can potentially lead to other problems far into the future, but we don’t often worry about Carpal Tunnel Syndrome when we’re talking about children. Yet the seeds of positive performance and habits are sown in these earliest days.

Dividing the practice schedule helps the student rest and have time to think about what they were working on, what went well, and what they may have been doing wrong. It also helps with posture. If you’ve ever watched over a child who is taking guitar lessons, as they practice, they slowly hunch over the guitar further and further, which is neither good for their playing habits or their body.

Guitar lessons, as with any music lessons, are like a marathon. Runners of all kinds go through a ritual of stretching that helps get the blood moving through the body and keeps muscles from being damaged during the run. When the student is getting ready to sit down and practice, they should develop a routine that will help get their body ready to play. If you watch some of the worlds best musicians prepare to go out on stage and perform, you will notice that they have a routine they go through themselves.

This routine could consist of stretching the fingers or playing air guitar or air piano, rolling their head along their neck to loosen up, or even doing jumping jacks. Any time the body is going to be straining muscles to perform a task is to spend a good time to warming up and playing music is no exception.

Children don’t offer consider warm-ups necessary as they are extremely limber and active to begin with, but it’s about routine. The body remembers routine and begins to expect it and prepare for it each day. If your child is taking piano lessons or guitar lessons, for example, or any music lessons for that matter, you can help them develop a positive practice routine by exercising with them. Go through some finger exercises and stretch the arms and neck. Once the blood is flowing, a positive feeling will be inherent in the student as they practice and their body will begin to anticipate practicing in a positive way.

As far as what time of day is ideal for practicing, this is entirely up to the family and the student’s unique schedule. Many children play sports or do other after school activities and don’t get home until dinnertime. Homework should always come first, however, but if there is only fifteen minutes available at the end of the day to practice, then it should still be taken advantage of.

There is a school of thought that believes that practicing right before bed is not the best time, and they may be right, but it’s still better than not practicing at all. Whatever time that your child practices for his or her guitar lessons should be consistent from day to day. If it’s at 7pm, then it should be at 7pm every day unless a meeting or special event comes up.

When a consistent schedule is developed, then the student will already be preparing to practice even before he or she gets into the room and picks up the instrument.

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