Motivating Practice

You've done your job. You've made it through the full 30 minute lesson; you've given your student new things to practice. Now it's all in your student's hands. And their parents'. But surely there must be something you can do to encourage your student to practice during the week! Maybe going over to their house every day to remind them? Is that too creepy? Okay. Scratch that. How about just calling them every day? Hmm...🤔🤔🤔 Nope. That's not gonna work. There has to be something!

There is! SURPRISE! Okay. So it's not really a surprise. And I'm sure most of you already have some great ideas that you've put into practice. So this post we're just going to talk about pros and cons of certain practice motivators so you can decide what will work best for you and your students!

Practice Sheets/Prizes

This is a piano lesson classic. Give your students a piece of paper with squares. Every day that they practice, they get to color a square. After they color so many squares, they get to pick a prize (I usually get my prizes at the dollar store).
Pros: 

• Students feel rewarded for practicing
• You decide how much they have to practice to get a prize
• Parents can be included in this (have the parents in charge of the paper)

Cons:

• There isn't a specific amount of time that they have to practice
• Students could just rush through their pieces
• Often students lose the paper

Stickers

This was my favorite when I was little. Get some fun stickers (dinosaurs, minions, princesses, robots, etc.). If a student has trouble with a certain part of the song, put one sticker at the beginning of that part and one at the end. They have to practice that part 3 or 5 or 10 times before playing all the way through. When they pass off a song, they get to put a sticker at the top of the song.
Pros:

• Your student works on the hardest part of the song
• You reward your student for good practicing (not for just rushing through the songs)
• You don't have to give prizes

Cons:

• Some students get burned out after practicing the challenging section over and over
• Some students don't see stickers as motivators
• For the first several months, songs are too short to have a "challenging" section

Practice Parties

Once your student passes off so many songs or practices so many days, they get to come to the piano practice party. All the students that have met their goals get together to play piano games and eat some snacks.
Pros:

• You only have to deal with the reward system every so often (every 3 months, every 6 months)
• If your students are friends, they can encourage each other
• It allows you to dive into some more theory than lessons allow you to (you can even teach about a different composer each party)

Cons:

• You would have all your students at the same time
• You can't work around everyone's schedule, so some might be left out

Parental Motivators

Get parents involved in practicing at home. Have the parents sit with the student so the student can show off what they're learning. Send some games home that your students can play with their parents. If you have parents sit in on lessons, give them specific things to do with their child.
Pros:

• Kids are more likely to practice every day
• Parents can see the progress their child is making week to week
• You don't have to worry about rewards

Cons:

• Parents and kids can have a war of wills during practice sessions
• Some students will burn out if they feel like they're being bossed during lessons and practice

What do you think of these motivators? Do you have other practicing techniques that have worked for your students? Let us know in the comments below!