Piano lessons in West St. Paul
I’ve been thinking about this article about why we shouldn’t force kids to learn a musical instrument. For the most part I think Oppenheimer’s arguments are weak (violin lessons are as pointless as foosball lessons), but he does have one interesting point: most of his friends that had taken music lessons as children put down … Continue reading How to help your kids form an emotional attachment to classical music
So, we’ve got: 1) Form a practicing habit. 2) Find motivating materials. 3) Practicing environment counts. Now on to : 4) Work through resistance. When I lived in Oregon about ten years ago, I had a jazz saxophone player friend who told me, “I practice everyday whether I want to or not.” Wow. This is … Continue reading How to get your kid to practice, Pt. 2
“Inspiration usually comes during work rather than before it.” —Madeleine L’Engle “Not only is practice necessary to art, it is art.” —Stephen Nachmanovitch So we’ve come to the mid-year doldrums in which getting your kid to practice is harder than making them eat that last bit of eggplant or forcing them through the door at … Continue reading How to get your kid (or yourself) to practice, Pt. 1
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