What should I do if my child doesn’t like piano lessons?
You might be wondering if you should let your child quit, or encourage them to persevere and continue forward. Nobody wants to be pushy and make their kid hate piano lessons, but you also don’t want to give up too easily if your child is just having a minor setback.
What should I do if my child doesn’t like piano lessons?
First, you need to establish if this is a minor setback or if they have been struggling for a long time.
If you suspect that it’s only a minor setback, then find out what is really going on. Maybe piano lessons are during a time of day when your child is tired or hungry and lessons just feel like too much. Maybe they had an embarrassing moment during lessons and they don’t want to show their face again. Is there an upcoming recital that they are anxious about?
Find the root cause and then talk to them about possible solutions. You could change the lesson time. You could go with your child to lessons for a week to clear up any embarrassing moments. You could hold a practice recital with close friends and family to get them more comfortable playing in front of other people. Don’t let your child give up over a minor setback. Talk to them and their teacher to figure out how to get past that hurdle.
For more ideas on minor setbacks look into Victoria Boler who writes about some reasons your child doesn’t like piano lessons.
What should I do if my child doesn’t like piano lessons?
Now, what should you do if they just don’t like lessons, haven’t for a long time, and are convinced that they want to quit? You could let them quit right away and there would be nothing wrong with that. Sometimes you just need to know when to switch gears. If that doesn’t feel like the right thing, then maybe make a deal with them. Ask them to set a specific goal with piano lessons, and once they reach that goal they can quit. Possible goals could be to learn a certain piece on the piano, memorize their hardest song, play in the upcoming recital, or even just continue for a certain amount of time.
This will do two things:
1. It will make them reach a goal before quitting, which feels a little less like quitting.
2. It will give them a little longer of a chance to see if they change their mind. Sometimes kids just need direction to figure out that they really do like something.
What should I do if my child doesn’t like piano lessons and wants to quit Piano Prep Academy lessons?
Ouch! That hurts! It’s okay though, piano lessons aren’t for everyone. Similar to in person lessons, ask them to reach a certain goal before they quit. Another option is to slow the lessons down a bit, they might just be overwhelmed. Instead of doing a new lesson every week, try every other week. Or maybe they could do the same lessons twice in a month before moving on to a new lesson the next month. These lessons are made to be flexible so make them work for you. There is no reason to continue doing one lesson per month if it’s causing problems.
There might also be a minor problem worth looking in to. Do they dislike a certain aspect of the lesson? Maybe they don’t like theory or the exercises, or maybe Darryl is a little too much for them. You can skip these parts for a few lessons to see if that helps and then slowly introduce them back in once your child’s interest grows.
Also consider when they are doing lessons. Is another sibling watching a favorite Netflix show and your child is feeling like they are missing out? Or maybe it’s dinner time and they really wanted to help make dinner. Investigate what else might be going on and adjust the lesson time accordingly to help your child stay focused and invested in the lesson.
What should I do if my child doesn’t like piano lessons? Make a goal. Change the time. Talk to their teacher. Let them quit. Whatever you choose to do, just do what works best for your child.
Until next time…
-Ms. Juli