Join a music teacher discussion group and it most likely won’t take long before someone asks the question, “How do I get students to practice?” It’s a question music teachers have grappled with for decades that carries urgency, frustration, and a genuine desire to help students succeed. Music teachers feel that practice is something we need to “get” students to do. We’re responsible for prompting, nudging, or insisting that our students practice diligently. When students do practice diligently, we feel successful in our teaching role. When students don’t practice as we’d like them to, it may be difficult to shake off the disappointment and insecurity we feel.
What if “How do I get students to practice?” isn’t the question we should be asking?
When music teachers focus on getting students to practice, we place our energy on strategies, incentives, and reminders—tools designed to increase minutes spent at the instrument. While these may produce short-term results, those same short-term results may not turn into long-term student involvement. And so it’s not long before music teachers need to come up with another cycle of new strategies, incentives, and reminders to get the job done.
The problem with ongoing cycles of short-term solutions is that students may experience the opposite of what music teachers are actually aiming for. Rather than developing our students’ own musical relationship, students may come to understand practicing as something that blocks out their own musical connections. They see taking music lessons followed by practicing at home as an obligation - as something they’re required to complete. Practicing isn’t something they do because they want to or see its value. Practicing is what students do because their teacher tells them to. And as music teachers I think we can all agree, that’s not exactly what we’re hoping to achieve with music lessons.
How can I help students deepen their relationship with music?
Every student who comes to music lessons already has a relationship with music - no matter how well defined or casual that may be. When music teachers help students deepen their relationship with music, we shift our attention from trying to control what they do to inspiring our students’ own meaningful musical explorations. And that might mean music teachers need to strategically put aside our commitment to practicing so that we can make space to talk about and explore our students’ own musical connections.
What do students feel when they play their favourite piece? How do beginner string students feel when they play open strings? Or beginner brass students when they bring their instrument to life? What’s going on when students make music? Is it energy? Movement? Companion? Fun? Calm? Uplifting?
When students leave their lessons with awareness, reminders, and validation of what their own musical connections feel like, they’re far more likely to seek out those connections at home. Not because they’re required to, but because they want to. When music teachers take the time to recognize who our students are and inspire their musical relationship, students connecting with their instrument becomes less of teacher requirement and more a natural part of students’ everyday lives. And that’s something we’d like to see, isn’t it!
Take a Deep Breath
My goal in writing this article isn’t to get music teachers to abandon practicing structures or expectations. That would be ridiculous on my part. What I hope you come away with is an appreciation for all the amazing ways that students connect with music making. The next time the question “How do I get students to practice?” takes over your thought process, my suggestion is to take a deep breath. Recognize the moment as a request for reflective thinking. Take another deep breath. Then start putting together the remarkably creative and meaningful ways you can respond to the question -
How can I help students deepen their relationship with music?
What does “a meaningful relationship with music” look like for each of your students—not in general, but individually?
What small shift could you make this week to support a student’s musical relationship, not just their practice habits?
How might your teaching look different if your primary goal was not minutes practiced, but a lifetime of musical connection?
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This is your invitation to keep the conversation going....