When Time is Short
When I first arrived in London and began teaching, it took me quite a while to get used to the fact that here, students practice much less. No, I never believed that once you start learning music, you have to work as if you're planning to enter a conservatory. The idea of "doing sports as if preparing for the Olympics and ballet as if preparing to solo at the Bolshoi Theatre" was never close to me. Nevertheless, the attitude towards music as a general development hobby "just for fun" surprised me at first. How can you not learn a single page of a piece in a week? How can you not practice for at least an hour a day?!
That’s what I thought at the beginning, and only later did I start to understand the local specifics.
Local children often simply don’t have that hour. First of all, school here lasts until at least 3:15 PM. Secondly, there are clubs, clubs, clubs. In my childhood, there were mainly one, maybe two activities. Music school and some kind of sport, for example. Now children (including mine) have much more. And this is understandable. They can't walk alone; we try to raise well-rounded individuals. As a result, clubs.
I won’t even start on high school. School ends later, there are more lessons, and so on.
So, below, I will write about how you can practice when time is short. Some of this may seem obvious, but I hope some of it will be useful.
Obvious point one: It’s better to practice less but every day than to practice for a long time but only once a week. Learning music requires not only your brain but also basic physics. For physics, regularity and repetition are necessary for muscle memory to work.
Obvious point two: It’s better to do a little than to do nothing at all. "I only have 10 minutes; I won’t learn anything!" You will. One line. Or a scale, for example.
Obvious point three: Divide the homework. If a child has half an hour for three pieces, two scales, and an étude, then trying to cover everything, they won’t learn anything, just repeat it. Probably with the same mistakes. Therefore, on one day, focus on something technical—an étude or a scale—and one piece. Or a small part of each. I’m not considering the ideal scenario here, where a child sits and thoughtfully works on everything for hours, but a regular one, where the child practices music right after a math lesson and then rushes to swim practice.
Fourth: Break everything down.
You don’t need to learn four pages of a piece in a row. Firstly, you won’t learn it; secondly, it won’t stick. Take one line. Sometimes one measure. And learn it well. Then the next line. Let the child learn just one line in a day! But it’s done, and tomorrow it will take just one minute. It’s faster, I assure you. No one tries to memorize an entire poem at once, right? We learn it stanza by stanza. It’s the same with music. Actually, it’s the same with everything.
If possible, schedule a longer practice session for the weekend. On the weekend, you can cover everything if the child has practiced a little throughout the week.
And lastly, sometimes children say they have no time at all. That’s not true. Everyone has time, even those taking A levels! We spend 5-10 minutes just deciding what to wear or which movie to watch. There’s time, you just have to find it, and then stick to it.
On this last obvious note, I’ll wrap up.
Local children often simply don’t have that hour. First of all, school here lasts until at least 3:15 PM. Secondly, there are clubs, clubs, clubs. In my childhood, there were mainly one, maybe two activities. Music school and some kind of sport, for example. Now children (including mine) have much more. And this is understandable. They can't walk alone; we try to raise well-rounded individuals. As a result, clubs.
I won’t even start on high school. School ends later, there are more lessons, and so on.
So, below, I will write about how you can practice when time is short. Some of this may seem obvious, but I hope some of it will be useful.
Obvious point one: It’s better to practice less but every day than to practice for a long time but only once a week. Learning music requires not only your brain but also basic physics. For physics, regularity and repetition are necessary for muscle memory to work.
Obvious point two: It’s better to do a little than to do nothing at all. "I only have 10 minutes; I won’t learn anything!" You will. One line. Or a scale, for example.
Obvious point three: Divide the homework. If a child has half an hour for three pieces, two scales, and an étude, then trying to cover everything, they won’t learn anything, just repeat it. Probably with the same mistakes. Therefore, on one day, focus on something technical—an étude or a scale—and one piece. Or a small part of each. I’m not considering the ideal scenario here, where a child sits and thoughtfully works on everything for hours, but a regular one, where the child practices music right after a math lesson and then rushes to swim practice.
Fourth: Break everything down.
You don’t need to learn four pages of a piece in a row. Firstly, you won’t learn it; secondly, it won’t stick. Take one line. Sometimes one measure. And learn it well. Then the next line. Let the child learn just one line in a day! But it’s done, and tomorrow it will take just one minute. It’s faster, I assure you. No one tries to memorize an entire poem at once, right? We learn it stanza by stanza. It’s the same with music. Actually, it’s the same with everything.
If possible, schedule a longer practice session for the weekend. On the weekend, you can cover everything if the child has practiced a little throughout the week.
And lastly, sometimes children say they have no time at all. That’s not true. Everyone has time, even those taking A levels! We spend 5-10 minutes just deciding what to wear or which movie to watch. There’s time, you just have to find it, and then stick to it.
On this last obvious note, I’ll wrap up.
