Here are some observations and tips about practicing:

• Learning to play a musical instrument is like everything else. You get out of it whatever you put into it. If you practice more, you will learn to play better and make faster progress.

• I’m often asked how much a music student should practice. This question almost always comes from the parent of a music student and almost never from a music student. Parents want to know if their kid is practicing enough to make good progress. Most music students already know that they need to practice more than they do.

• A lot of people think you have to have long grueling practice sessions in order to significantly improve your playing, but just fifteen minutes a day will make a big difference.
• The attitude of students toward practicing can generally be put into categories that match their age. Young kids love music lessons but usually don’t like to practice unless their parents participate. If a parent gets involved in the practice sessions, then their child will really enjoy it.
• Teenagers are very motivated to learn to play the music they like and practice a lot, but they often get too focused on learning the current hit songs and neglect learning the basic concepts and techniques of music. Popular songs may come and go but if you learn to play well, you will be able to play whatever song you want.
• Adults music students realize the importance of practicing but often become frustrated because they find they are too busy to practice.
• Although systematic practice is important, there is a lot to be said for just spending time with the instrument. The more you play, the better you will play.
• Keep your instrument in a handy location where you can play it whenever you have a few minutes available. Also, just seeing it may remind you to practice.
• It is better to have frequent short practice sessions than infrequent long ones.
• One of the many advantages of taking music lessons is that it will motivate you to practice more.
• It’s never a good idea to nag a child about practicing. People of all ages generally do what they want to do and what they think is important. The trick is to make them want to practice more. Instead of telling your kid to go practice, ask him or her to play for you.
• When kids enjoy music lessons but don’t practice very much I think it is still a good idea to keep them in lessons. Even with very little practice they are still learning a lot about music and will probably at some point start practicing more.