Persistence is Essential to Your Child’s Success With Piano Lessons. Read This To Find Out Why

Success in music equals success in life. We’ve heard it time and time again, whether it’s a New York Times article, or a Columbia University study. It would seem that the same traits that are required to succeed in music, lend themselves quite well to becoming leading scientists, visionaries, directors, entrepreneurs, and doctors. After all, true success in life comes from hard work, over a long period of time. We all instinctively know it, and most would agree that the majority of successful people fit that description. Which is why, in the age of instant gratification and the glorified “life hack”, teaching our young people the value of persistence is ever more important. But how do you teach your son or daughter about persistence, when well over 50% of all students quit music lessons within just the first 12 months? It’s a great question, and any parent who is considering starting their children in lessons should consider the following. Kids don’t quit music lessons because of music There are a number of factors as to why drop­out rates are continuing to go up, but one thing you can be assured of, is that people are not losing interest in music. The experience of enjoying and interacting with music is virtually hard ­wired into our brains, and isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. What is different are the following factors ­ all of which have been cited as reasons for the anemic ‘stick­rate’: Many kids have almost a fully ­programmed bandwidth. Every night of the week is taken up by some activity, and parents are stretching themselves thin to make the schedules happen. At some point, every family gets to a breaking point where something has to give. And generally the least fun, and most time ­intensive activity gets the axe ­more often than not, many quit music lessons. The repertoire that the majority of piano teachers use to conduct their music lessons is so disconnected from contemporary music, that it quickly feels stale and irrelevant. It simply doesn’t connect with everyday life, and they lose interest. The type of rewards that most kids look for are easily attained, and often digitally delivered. If not prepared for it, they’ll perceive an absence of this familiar satisfaction as a failure, or at the very least, alien. The persistence comes from you,­ not them It may be inconvenient, but it’s true. Parents quit music lessons, kids don’t. Every single child who goes on to have an amazing career in music or any other discipline has wanted to quit ­music lessons probably countless times. But there was always someone there to nudge them along, and find ways to keep it satisfying and engaging enough to ‘soldier’ on through. Your son or daughter will pick up on even subtle cues that you aren’t interested in sticking it out with them, and will unapologetically exploit the week chink in the armour. If you are serious about having your son or daughter learn music, it will absolutely be an equal [...]

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