I DON’T PLAY THE PIANO. HOW CAN I HELP WITH MY CHILD’S PRACTICE?
Sitting in with a child at his practice is as much about keeping the child company as anything else. Your encouragement is meaningless if you are not actually there! Many parents are able to learn along with their children for a surprisingly long time and they can share their desire to learn with their child by puzzling things out together. The fact is that most parents without a musical background find reading music at early levels pretty straightforward once they sit down and have a good look at the printed music!
The younger the child, the more parental involvement is necessary and we find that progress is hugely increased by help with piano practice from a parent. Learning a musical instrument is a complex physical and intellectual (and emotional?) activity and it cannot easily be done with one single session of teacher-pupil contact in a week. Compare that with time allocated in school to maths per week – an intellect-only activity!
Listening to your child play and helping him to cover the work set each week are, for most children, the best encouragement you can give. In time, though, the child has to make a relationship of her/his own with the piano, and acquire independence and efficient practice methods of his own. So, for younger children, practice with Mum/Dad is the way to get the work done, but a bit of unstructured (mucking about) time at the piano is important too! As children get older, it might be an idea for the parent to practice with the child on new pieces, while ongoing work is done by the child alone.