How To Help Kids Keep A Piano Practice Routine In The Summer
It’s pretty common for piano students to take a break from piano lessons in the summer months. Between camps, vacations, swimming and other activities, it’s hard to squeeze everything in. Plus, it can be helpful to take a break from the regular routine.
However, we don’t want piano students to lose all of the hard work they have put in throughout the school year. Piano will feel much harder in the fall for kids who haven’t touched the piano all summer.
Even if your kids aren’t enrolled in lessons this summer, it’s a good idea to try to maintain the skills and habits they already have throughout the summer months. It’s okay if their practice looks different than it does during the school year.
Here are some things you can try in the summer to keep a little bit of piano going.
Find New Sheet Music
It can be really motivating for kids to discover new sheet music of songs that they love. These favorites don’t always make their way into piano lessons, so the summer is a good time to explore music from movies or popular songs that kids are interested in.
You can find tons of Beginner and Easy Piano arrangements on Musicnotes.com. Let your child browse music with you and see what gets them excited.
Create A Practice Challenge or Incentive
Since the weekly schedules tend to change in the summer, it’s helpful to find a structured way to work in some practice. It doesn’t make sense to have the same practice expectations as during the school year if kids are spending their time in a completely different way. Set up your kids for success by thinking through the times they are available to practice the piano. Make a chart or create a practice incentive that will help them stay on track on the days where practice fits in.
Incorporate Practicing Piano Into Daily Chores
There’s no reason not to add piano practice to some of their daily expectations. For kids who are home a lot in the summer, a little to-do list is a great way to structure their time and piano practice is a perfect addition to that list.
Review Old Favorites
The summer might not be a good season to move forward and make a lot of progress on the piano. It might be more realistic to aim to maintain what your child has already learned. Go back through your child’s music from the past year and make a plan to review music they have already learned. Let them play their favorites over and over, but also see if they can relearn a few songs they may have forgotten.
Subscribe To A Music Learning App
There are a lot of great apps out there to help people learn and practice the piano. The summer months might be a good time to take a break from the normal piano curriculum and try something a little different.
Here are some apps to check out:
- Piano Marvel
- Piano Maestro
- Flowkey
- Skoove
- JellyNote
Be Creative At The Piano
Encourage your child to be creative at the piano. See if they can make up their own song or find interesting sounds on the piano.
If they seem uninspired, start with something familiar. Use a song that they already love to play and see if they can change it to make it their own.
Sometimes kids just need a little nudge to really start exploring and get creative at the piano.
Sight Read Easy Songs
Sight reading is a great skill to practice at the piano. The best way to practice sight reading is to practice reading as much music as possible. The goal is to play it well on the first or second try, not after having practiced it many times. So, it’s best to practice sight reading using music that is a bit below a student’s current level. Find a book of music that is a bit under your student’s current level and encourage them to sight read every song in it over the summer.
YouTube Tutorials
Kids are almost always up for learning something with a YouTube video. See if you can find a tutorial of a song they love. While YouTube can be hit or miss in the quality of videos and instruction you will find, a lot of kids relate well with learning through video. Don’t consider this type of learning a replacement for more formal lessons, but it’s definitely a fun way to play around at the piano and try new things.
If your kids are taking a break from piano lessons this summer, try to at least maintain what they already know. Even just a weekly practice session or 5-10 minutes a day will make a big difference when piano lessons start back up in the fall.
And, of course, there’s no reason to feel guilty if your child can’t practice sometimes. Let them enjoy their vacations, summer camps and time doing other things. Just help them make their way back to the piano when they return!
🎹 Take a look at Musicnotes’ full piano collection here.
▶️ If you’re interested in piano covers, check out our Piano Playlist on the Musicnotes Signature Artist YouTube channel!