You hear someone play or sing masterfully and are INSPIRED!
They make it look so easy, that’s hard to imagine the thousands of hours they’ve put into developing their skills.
“I want to do that too!” Piano lessons! or “I’m going to take voice lessons!”
You agree to look into it and find that the lesson is a 30-45 minute time commitment per week.
SWEET! We can swing that! We can probably wedge that in between soccer and horseback riding lessons. Oh and Bella Voce Studio offers lessons during the school day! Even better. We don’t have to add another afterschool activity!
(I will be the first to say that yes! Bella Voce offers the convenient option of in school lessons for students of Dayspring Christian Academy! You should take advantage of that!!)
I’ve been teaching music lessons for a LONG time now. AND, I have the added bonus of being a mom of 4 kids.
Consider this before you commit to music lessons.
I’d like to share with you some perspective, right up front, on some considerations you’ll want to make before committing to music lessons so that you have the most positive and rewarding experience!
These are the honest questions and the REALITY CHECK that will make or break your experience with music lessons.
The first step is being realistic about how much time you’ll practice and where that fits into your current lifestyle.
Do I have time to invest in practicing?
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Is there room in your life for the lesson AND for the time it will take to practice?
I’ve made this mistake so many times in my life!
I say yes because the initial commitment looks very neatly packaged in a one-time hour block on my schedule.
But the reality check is that I will need more time before and after that event to actually execute it. If I had considered that at the time of agreement, I would save myself quite a bit of stress as I struggled to make time for the commitment.
Think of lessons as a multi-day commitment per week, so your calendar doesn’t become too crowded and you can’t follow through on practice.
2 more considerations for parents…
Does your child have time- with all the other family activities and commitments you’re involved in- to regularly practice building their skill?
My daughter is taking piano lessons and when her older brothers have basketball practices and baseball games, guess what, it affects her ability to practice!
Can you make the time to help them learn to practice, stay on task, put in the daily practice time necessary?
As a busy, work-outside-the-home-running-a-business-mom-of-4, sometimes it feels like even 15 minutes of practice is impossible because my kids need my input and accountability.
(They need this even if music is a foreign language to you!)
They are learning how to practice and need me to help them establish routines and stay on top of them.
That 15 minutes of piano practice suddenly becomes my 15 minutes of piano practice.
Because I’m making dinner, helping with math homework and putting a load of laundry away, sometimes piano practice doesn’t happen because I’m not there to walk alongside them.
Are you feeling discouraged? I HOPE NOT!
I want you to go into lessons with your eyes wide open!
If you know what to expect, it will be so much smoother for you! Then, you can make an informed decision about adding music lessons to your life.
I want you/your child to be successful in this endeavor and for it to bring JOY to your home!
We are naturally people-pleasers, and I’ve seen it time and again.
Students of all ages who don’t make time to practice end up dreading their lesson each week as they feel they haven’t lived up to the expectation or the assignment.
Week to week lessons without consistent practice is going to end up creating feelings of frustration, shame, embarrassment, and ultimately, the student will quit.
I don’t want this for you! I want you to feel excitement for your lesson, joy and pride at showing how far you’ve come during the week!
So as you’re considering music lessons, take an honest look at your calendar.
