We often get questions from frustrated parents asking how they can make their child’s guitar practice fun, so that they actually want to practice. The trick is to turn practice into a series of fun games. In this video I demonstrate with my 5 year old daughter how to keep the practice fun and engaging….
Category: Parents
PLAN your PRACTICE
One of the best pieces of advice I can offer any student is to plan your practice. Time is precious and you need to make every minute count. Start with short practice sessions of 15 to 20 minutes and break it down into 5 minute topics. Example; 5 minutes picking practice. Leave your left hand…
“How do I get my child to practice?”
While some children will practice everyday without any prompting many parents know that getting their child to practice is at times a challenge. Chances are if you leave it up your child to decide to practice when they feel like it you are going to be disappointed when they guitar becomes largely neglected. Forcing your child to practice…
Parents – How to inspire your child to learn guitar
Bruce H. Lipton Ph.D. in his book ‘The Wisdom of Cells’ describes how a child’s brain from birth goes through different stages of learning starting from the low frequency of ‘delta’ in the first 2 years (a frequency in adults that only occurs when sleeping or unconscious) to the next stage from ages 2 to…
Will your child will be a success on guitar?
In 1997 University of Melbourne Music Education Professor Gary McPherson randomly selected 157 children to choose and learn a musical instrument. McPherson was trying to identify the traits of those children who went on to become accomplished musicians and those who did not. Expected indicators like I.Q., a sense of rhythm and aural ability surprisingly played no…
Why won’t my child do her/his guitar practice?
Very good question and one that I often hear from frustrated parents. In fact all parents will usually have to ask this question at some point because rare is the child who conscientiously practices without the need for parent intervention. Let us say your 6 year old has come home from school all excited asking…
The average 21 yo American has spent 10,000 hours on video games. Why not guitar?
This is an intriguing question. Almost every 21yo I speak to would love to be able to play guitar but few find any real satisfaction in their mastery of video games. In fact they usually won’t even admit their gaming obsession. There are no real long term benefits to playing video games and in fact…
How to positively influence your child to practice guitar
This is a good question and I will begin by saying that forcing a child to learn against their will tends to backfire over the long term. There are definitely responsibilities in life that children need to accept whether they like it or not but guitar should not be one of them unless you live…
Your child is NOT too young for guitar
Any parent who witnesses the development of their child can’t help be amazed at how much they learn in such a short period. Their development is truly phenomenal. To put this into perspective, a child under 5 learns an average of 1000 new words a year and manages to put it all together to the…
A Lesson in Persistence
As children we are all born into particular circumstances. Our family, neighbours, local community and even country will have an impact on how we turn out as adults. In the USA for example there are certain neighbourhoods where your odds of ending up in prison are high. Children who grow up in these areas are…
How to get your child to practice guitar
Many parents worry that they may be too strict with their children when it comes to learning guitar. Their main fear is they will turn them off music forever. We have all heard stories of adults who say as a child they were forced to learn a musical instrument but many of these examples do…
How Children Learn Guitar
Children learn music very differently to adults. I have been teaching guitar and studying teaching for close to 30 years. What I have found is children learn primarily by association. That is they associate some kind of meaning to learning music. If that association is positive they will most likely continue to pursue music their…
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