How much should my child be practicing?

Initially, just a few minutes per day for a beginner is sufficient. Because young beginners have not yet built up the physical endurance required for their particular instrument, spending more time than that can result in fatigue. Fatigue can adversely affect things like proper breathing, embouchure (the fit of the instrument against your child's mouth), hand positions, and posture. It is very difficult for a teacher to "un-teach" a bad habit. So with young children, less is more. As your child's skill level increases, so should the practice time. By fourth or fifth grade, elementary students should be able to commit to 10-15 minutes per day.

Keep a practice record with your child. Each time he practices, ask him to record the number of minutes. When he reaches the agreed-upon amount of practice time each week, reward him with a sticker or another small treat.

Practice is very important! Adequate preparation for the weekly session with the private teacher is absolutely necessary. It is unfair to your child as well as his or her teacher to use the weekly music lesson as a practice session.

As your child moves into middle school, daily practice should increase to 30 minutes per day. Just as a student could not expect to make the track team without adequate training off the field, a music student cannot expect to maintain and improve any mastery of an instrument without daily practice sessions.

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