Children's piano playing doesn't last! Two tips to make it last longer

I tried to make my child learn to play the piano, but after a while he lost interest and stopped touching the piano at home.

This is not limited to the piano, but there are things to learn.

Some piano instructors (teachers) are good at controlling not only piano technique but also motivation, but this is not necessarily the case for everyone.

There is also a good chemistry between the child and the teacher.

So, should I keep changing piano teachers to get my child motivated again?

That's not necessarily the correct answer.

The reason is technical.

This is because the skill that the teacher wants to teach the student may be left unfinished and the teacher may have to redo the previous practice with a new teacher.

what can parents do to increase their child's motivation to play the piano ?

I would like to share some tips based on what I actually experienced when I was a child.

Why do you lose motivation in the first place?

There are two main reasons for demotivation.

① Gap between ideal and reality

The first is the gap between ideal and reality.

There are times when you're interested in something and want to start, but you feel a gap between your ideals and reality and lose motivation.

Children are also with me.

Even if you think, ``I want to be able to play this song well,'' you can't move your fingers, and stress builds up.

Then, your body unconsciously moves away from the piano as a defensive instinct to prevent stress from accumulating

This is the reason why motivation decreases due to the gap between ideal and reality.

② Can't see the future

The second thing is that you can no longer see the future you are aiming for.

When practicing the piano, you often practice the same thing over and over again.

As a result, you end up focusing on what's right in front of you, and you end up losing sight of what kind of pianist you ultimately want to be.

If you don't know what you're aiming for, even if you move on to the next step, you 'll gradually lose your motivation .

Tips to regain motivation

So how can we eliminate the two causes mentioned above?

We will provide hints for each cause.

① Show past performances → Perform the same performance

First of all, let me reaffirm how much I have grown.

When you learn to play the piano, especially in the beginning, you will notice that you will grow and grow.

Show them what kind of performance you have become able to do through your own efforts.

For example, this is a video of a piano recital.

At first, it must have been played with only one hand, or innocently with both hands.

After watching the video, have them play the same song.

I'm definitely playing better than I ever did in the past.

If you have a particularly difficult piano recital, you can perform for 10 years without sheet music.

If you understand that you can now easily play the songs that you had so much trouble with, you will naturally gain confidence and become more motivated.

If you don't have any past videos, you can show videos of beginners playing on YouTube.

If possible, choose a song that your child has played before, and that should be performed by someone older than your child.

When you learn that people older than you can't play as well as you, you realize that your piano isn't as bad as you thought.

If you're struggling with the gap between your ideals and reality, look for ways to boost your confidence

② Show a real performance

This was a method that particularly worked for me.

Take your child to a live piano recital or concert.

, people become interested and think, ``There's such an amazing world out there,'' ``I want to play like this,'' and ``I want to do this kind of work .

You will naturally want to touch the piano again and want to play it.

If you can't listen to such a live performance due to space, time, or financial issues, you can also use YouTube.

In fact, Youtube has a wide variety of non-classical performances, so children may be more interested in songs from their favorite anime.

However, please make sure that you can clearly see the pianist's fingers and movements.

If it's just music playing, it's hard to get a sense of reality and it's not effective.

Let's look for a way to clearly show what it looks like as an extension of what we're doing now

lastly

In most cases, once you've lost motivation, you won't be able to get motivated again by continuing to do the same thing you've been doing.

Resetting your mind regularly is very effective for improving your piano skills.

You won't know which method is best for your child until you try it.

I think the common trick to resetting your mind to make yourself feel everything about the past, present, and future

introduction

As I touched on briefly at the beginning, there is definitely a compatibility between piano teachers.

Depending on the situation, it may be a good idea to change classrooms.

If you live in the Tokyo area, there is a piano school called ``Bee Music School'' where you can take one lesson for free.

We recommend it not only because it has a wide variety of instructors, but also because the courses, fees, and hours are divided into detailed sections.

If you are interested, please click here↓↓

Piano class with free trial “Bee Music School”