Does My Child Need to Practise Every Day?
One of the questions we hear from parents when a child starts learning an instrument is:
“How much should they be practising at home?”
And usually, the next question is:
“Do they really need to practise every day?”
The short answer is no.
Regular practice is important, but effective practice matters much more than simply spending a certain number of minutes sitting at an instrument.
At Presto, we want students to develop good practice habits from the beginning – but we also want them to understand whythey’re practising and what they’re trying to achieve.
More practice doesn’t always mean more progress
It’s easy to assume that the student who spends the most time practising will automatically make the most progress.
But imagine a child playing the same difficult section of a song ten times without really thinking about what they’re doing.
They might have spent twenty minutes practising.
But have they actually improved?
Now imagine another student who spends five minutes identifying the difficult part, works out exactly what’s going wrong, slows it down, tries a different approach and then plays it successfully.
That’s five minutes of purposeful practice.
The second student may have achieved far more.
This is why we don’t simply want students to practise more. We want them to learn how to practise.
So how often should they practise?
There’s no single answer that works for every student.
A four-year-old starting their first instrument will have very different needs from a teenager preparing for a Grade 6 exam.
Some students might benefit from short sessions several times a week. Others may be able to concentrate for longer and work through more challenging material in one sitting.
The important thing is consistency.
Playing for ten or fifteen minutes regularly can be much more useful than leaving everything until the night before the next lesson.
And practice doesn’t always have to feel like “practice”.
Playing through a favourite song, experimenting with a new sound, working out a melody or playing along with a backing track can all be valuable parts of becoming a musician.
What should my child actually practise?
This is where having clear goals makes a big difference.
At Presto, our students have progress tracking systems that help them and their teachers see exactly what needs to be worked on. Students working towards exams can see which areas need attention, while teachers can tailor what happens in lessons to the individual student’s needs.
Instead of:
“Go home and practise.”
the aim is to give students something much more useful:
“Here’s what you’re working on, here’s why it matters, and here’s how you can improve it.”
That makes practice much less overwhelming.
Learning how to practise is a skill in itself
One of the things we focus on at Presto is helping students become increasingly independent learners.
That means learning to recognise when something isn’t working and deciding what to do about it.
What’s difficult?
Why is it difficult?
What could I change?
Do I need to slow it down?
Do I need to practise a smaller section?
Do I need to ask my teacher for help?
These are musical skills, but they’re also valuable learning skills that students can take into other areas of their lives.
Our teaching approach includes this idea of learning how to learn, helping students understand not just what they should practise, but how to approach something they find difficult.
What if my child doesn’t practise?
This is probably the bit parents worry about most.
And the reality is that not every week will be perfect.
There will be school work, holidays, football matches, birthdays, tired evenings and plenty of other things competing for attention.
The answer isn’t necessarily to turn music into another source of pressure.
Instead, we want to help students develop a positive relationship with their instrument so that practising gradually becomes something they can manage independently.
Sometimes five focused minutes is better than being forced to sit at the piano for half an hour.
Sometimes the best thing is to take a break and come back to it tomorrow.
And sometimes a student simply needs their teacher to explain something in a completely different way.
The goal isn’t to create children who practise for hours
It’s to create musicians who know what to do when they pick up their instrument.
That’s a much more valuable skill.
We want our students to leave lessons knowing what they’re working towards, understanding how to tackle challenges and gradually becoming more confident in solving musical problems for themselves.
Practice is important.
But good practice is even more important.
And ultimately, the aim isn’t for a child to become someone who spends hours practising because they’re told to.
It’s for them to become someone who picks up their instrument because they want to play – and knows how to keep getting better.
Find out more about learning at Presto
Whether your child is completely new to music or already working towards exams, our lessons are designed to develop their skills, confidence and independence at their own pace.
Book a Free Trial Lesson at Presto Music School in Warrington and see how we approach music education differently.
