If you’re a piano parent keen on your child getting real learning in piano lessons with device-free practise motivation, and you’re willing to invest in the effort, read on.
Video Link here (shortly), if you prefer to get this post on YouTube.
Some Truths About Learning In Piano Lessons
- Lessons teach students the daily habits needed to bring music into their lives.
- Students have music in every day when they practise these daily habits.
- Children find routine challenging and will practise daily when parents support them. By scheduling daily practise. By listening and enjoying their efforts at the piano. And sometimes by just being around because home piano practise is a solo activity and they might like company.
- Books with songs and sight-reading repertoire motivate students and foster a keenness to learn, making it a lot easier to get children to the piano at practise time.
- Parent interest fosters a resilience during times learning and piano homework addresses weak areas.
- Concerts, music events and student group meet-ups amp up student interest.
TIP: It’s easier to support piano practise consistently from the beginning, rather than let it crash and then rebuild it.
TIP: Make attending a music concert a family event. Even once a year is good if concert venues are far away. The memory will stay and bring enthusiasm to daily practise.
When The Piano Parent Is Busy
I know of families where dads are the primary parent for piano lessons. In my teaching experience so far, I’ve almost always interacted solely with mothers so that’s what I’ll talk about.
There’s a genuine struggle when piano mom holds the primary role as parent, elder caregiver and home manager. And is often the one who supports the work routine of other working adults in the family, while managing her own career.
I see practise routines coming to a halt during her busy times and it appears to me that she often has no support system for times she has an extended busy. The learning pace changes during these times because her children’s practise schedule gets erratic. And learning falls short of goals parents and students are interested in.
TIP: Talk to your child’s piano teacher about ways to support your child’s piano practise on your busy days. About scheduling regular parent support breaks to teach independence. And for ways to help the secondary parent step in with specific tasks.
The Need to Replace Texting with Real Communication
Busy parents often prefer texting to real communication, and this works well with children and teens who practise. It doesn’t work at all when there’s no practise routine at home.
In my experience, overbusy parents are more likely to have children averse to routine or children who need higher levels of support to stick to routine. And these parents will benefit from the kind of teacher support that needs conversations that cannot occur over text messaging.
A phone call or a meeting gets the teacher on board with what’s going on at home practise sessions. The teacher gets an opportunity to address any issues and contribute with ideas that help piano moms. Teachers teach more effectively because parents provide information on learning styles and habits. And the student learns better.
TIP: 15 minutes of real interaction with your child’s teacher once a month is so much more effective than texting. A call or a meeting in-person or online can build parent-teacher-student relationships in a way that texting cannot.
Is It Getting Harder For Mothers?
It’s not uncommon for all teachers, not just piano teachers, to see maxed out moms who are struggling to cope.
Moms seem to manage the mental work of organizing study, piano practise & home routines even when they’re busy, with dads taking on specific tasks during these times. I’d think this division of roles happens in enough student families I’ve taught over the years, to be worth a mention. Because, as I mentioned earlier, piano practise routines often crash when moms are busy.
There’s definitely an increase in lifestyle related stress. There also is growing realization that women or any person immersing themselves fully in family, caregiving and education support to the exclusion of all else, isn’t healthy.
Society has lost the village and community that supported raising young children. And it’s true that parenting today is just much harder than it used to be. More so I feel, in cities where families are more spread out and meeting family needs a long commute. I’m currently reading the October 26, 2026, publication of the Indian edition of Outlook magazine. It has very interesting articles on parenting and motherhood.
I often wonder how prevalent it is to have one parent doing most of the parenting in dual income families? Whether this works effectively? And whether my student families now look for more equitable parenting as a means to support piano practise, education and family in general.
It would be interesting to know about this from a teacher who has worked in different localities and can talk about differences in parenting styles.
Dear Piano Parent,
Learning to play the piano is demanding. It needs focus, multi-tasking and a flexibile approach to learning. I think student families living closer to concert venues and music events find it easier to make music a part of their daily lives.
My husband and I now live in two locations, Versova (Andheri West) & Kharghar. Living in Versova has made it possible for us to attend concerts and for me to have more music in my life without long late-night commutes.
Prior to this, concerts were a once-a-year family activity. Not enough for us but something. It kept music going for me during those years and I recommend that my Kharghar students do just that.
To music in EVERY day.
Best wishes,
Anitaelise.
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