Practicing piano as your child would during the lessons might become dull and monotonous, which I find ironic because piano is the opposite of monotone! Jokes aside, I will continue to beat the “3 minutes per year of age” drum, so your ten-year-old should practice his lessons for thirty minutes at least four times a week.

If he has a repertoire of lengthy pieces, he can play them during the last twenty minutes of practice (because warm ups take up the first ten minutes), focusing on volume dynamics, tempo, slurred phrases, and all the trills and frills that come with pretty music. The next time that he sits at the piano to practice, the may then concentrate on his new piece.

Focusing on details is important because he will develop muscle memory, playing the pieces on “auto-pilot,” very similarly how you would type your usernames and passwords. Repeating phrases is how this happens, and that’s just what practice is, playing the same thing over and over. Being that it also involves listening skills, the fingers will be guided by which sounds should come next.

You will notice that once he commits a piece to memory, he will practice it more smoothly and gracefully. This is how he prepares for lesson day. Come time for his lesson, he and his teacher will spend less time on reviewing and more time on new pieces. His teacher will be impressed by these developments, and you’ll feel that you got more bang for your buck in terms of piano lessons.

Even one day of solely focusing on repertoire with enhance his skills. Just as you would become tired of hearing the same thing over and over, your child will, too, which is a good thing! He will learn to change the music subtly but keeping within the written notation, hence, furthering what is called “interpretation.”

“What should she practice?” “How long should he practice?”

These are common questions that parents have who are interested in their children’s piano lessons.

A good rule of thumb for how long your child should practice piano lessons is 2 minutes for every year of age everyday. I know that it’s very difficult to make sure that your children practice every day. Even the most streamlined and organized of households may skip a day or two of practice. Try to keep it consistent.

Piano practice, however, is not only about time. It should mirror what we do in the lesson.

Warm up: How you warm up is determined by what your warm ups are during your lessons. Do you play from technical books such as A Dozen a Day, Hanon, or Fingerpower? Do you play chord studies from memory? Play these exercises well. If you have learned a new exercise during your last lesson, play it three times. This should take about one-third of your practice time.

Review: Play your repertoire. Play the pieces that you know. Keep three “DONT’S” in mind while you practice piano reviews:

• Do not gloss over your pieces.
• Do not play them fast.
• Do not use this time to bumble, fumble, mumble, and stumble.

Pretend your teacher is right behind you, keeping beats. This time should also be about one-third of your practice.

New pieces: Practice your piano piece in sections (2 to 8 measures) by repeating the particular section until mastered, them put it all together with joining sections. Isolate the trouble spots: Focus on them by playing slowly. Learn to sing or hum your melody. If you can’t sing it, you can’t play it. This is your last third of practice time.

Above all, maintain a cheerful, healthy attitude.

Once your child has learned the “Chord Study” exercise in a few keys, he may want to do some experimenting, what I like to call “doodling.” That’s a good thing because it will develop his creative side while still following the form that was taught to him.

The form in music that was taught is based on the Circle of Fifths (think of it as the color wheel to an artist). It has a Sharps family, and a Flats family (warm and cool colors). In a color wheel, the colors’ order is that of a rainbow, not the alphabet.

When practicing “Chord Studies” in different keys, direct your child to play them in the order of the Circle of Fifths to help him see the relationships of the order.

Just as the color wheel uses Roy G. Biv as its mnemonic, the Circle of Fifths uses Father Christmas Gave Dad An Electric Blanket… or backward, BEAD Good Clean Fun.

It takes years to learn the Circle of Fifths backwards and inside out, but once it is learned and mastered, your child may then practice “Chord Studies” (and will have learned many other technical drills) in any order. For ease, most advanced amateur and professional pianists begin at C and travels alphabetically through the keys.