I was recently asked this question by a HomeSchoolPiano parent: "Should I force my child to play the piano?"

I figured this would be a good article since this a question that most parents struggle with at some point. Whether it be piano lessons, karate, sports, dance or other activities, our children often force us to confront our own values.

The short answer is no. I don’t think it is ever a good idea to force a child to play the piano. Ultimately, this will end in resentment toward the parent and the instrument, cutting off all possibility of future learning.

As a parent myself, I know the importance of giving my child opportunities that will serve them for years to come. I believe learning an instrument is one of those opportunities. The ability to sit at the piano and play a piece is the dream of many adults. Why? Well, I believe it comes down to our need to express ourselves. Playing the piano allows you to express yourself in a way that words cannot.

So, what should you do when your child wants to quit piano? This will depend on the individual and the family, but here are some options that might work for you and your family.

4 Ways To Keep Them Playing Piano Today...

1. Determine if they don’t like the piano, or don’t like to practice the piano. These are two separate activities. Does your child sit and “noodle around” at the piano? Do you hear them playing the instrument without being told? Or, if asked, will they play with little hesitation? Do they play the piano outside of the home? Do they show their friends piano pieces they have learned or even try teaching their friends? If so, they most likely enjoy the piano, but dislike piano practice. This is normal and happens to most students from time to time. If this is the case, allow them to take 2 weeks off of piano practice, as long as they continue to play the piano for fun.
2. I’ve had great results with “contracts” in my private studio. Basically, if the student still likes to play the piano, make an agreement with them to practice X number of days for X number of minutes per day. This includes them in the process and it will feel less like they are being told and more like they are being included. After all, in the end, it is their expression. They are developing themselves, not you, so they should be included. This is age dependent. I wouldn’t make a contract with a six-year-old. With that age group, I might offer an incentive if they do XYZ for practice.
3. Sit and practice with your child. This is especially important for younger students. Parents have complained to me in the past that their 8-yr old is not practicing, but also admit that they do not sit with them when they practice. Let’s face facts…practicing the piano is a lonely endeavor. Parental involvement, especially in the earlier years, is critical. If you are just telling your child to practice, and you are not involved, they will likely lose interest quickly.
4. Use this as an opportunity to learn yourself. Since our lessons start from the most basic level, anyone can learn to play the piano using HomeSchoolPiano. If you spend 10 minutes a day working through a lesson, not only will you learn a new self-expression skill, you’ll also help your child to see just how important music is to YOU. This is crux of this entire article. If you are just telling your child to practice, they are not seeing WHY learning the piano is important. You know it is important because it develops self-expression, confidence and fine motor skills. Learning the piano also has scientific ties to improvements in other subjects like math and science. So, if your child wants to call it quits, use this as an opportunity to call it a “new beginning” for you! You’ll thank yourself later and so will your child!

So these are just a few ways to help keep your child interested in learning the piano. It is an easy instrument to learn at first, but challenging to keep up momentum. Your child will be challenged at some point and they might want to quit. It happened to me and happens to almost all piano students young and old at some point.

However, following through to the point where you can sit and easily make music at the piano is an absolute gift. If you are struggling in your family to keep your child learning the piano, I would suggest trying one of the 4 steps above. Most of all, an honest discussion of why learning the piano is important to you will produce more results than explaining to your child all the reasons why they should continue.

We know as parents that children live in the moment and often do not think of the future. It is our job as their parents to think and plan for their future. With persistence and love, I am convinced that you will find a path that is right for your family!

Over a year ago, I hired Kerry to come on board to help students by email and phone. She was quickly promoted to handling many aspects of the website and editing video. After seeing the lessons and helping students for a few weeks, Kerry said that she would like to learn the piano. I recommended that she try HomeSchoolPiano lessons.Now, one year later, Kerry knows how to play 10 songs and she knows how to improvise at the piano. Learning 10 songs in a year is pretty common. However, knowing how to improvise after one year, using only online lessons, is remarkable.

In case you are not familiar with improvisation at the piano, this means that Kerry can sit down and "just play" something without needing music. She can read music too...but now she can also create her own music.

Before you think that this is only for advanced-level pianists, Kerry is an adult who has never played piano before in her life. She started over a year ago as an absolute beginner adult piano student!

This is important because it allows her to tap into her own creativity and piano greatness. This also means she can sit down and play the piano without needing music in front of her. If you've studied the piano before, you'll know that this is a big deal. Too often a piano student who has studied for years is asked to sit and play something only to respond "I can't. I don't have my music with me."

Learning to improvise gives a piano student to confidence to express themselves at the instrument -and- always have the ability to 'sit and play' whenever they want.

Do you know how to improvise?

Can you sit and just play something that you've created at the piano?

HomeSchoolPiano unlocks your piano greatness by tapping into your creativity through improvisation.

You do not need any special equipment to use HomeSchoolPiano. However, many students want to know what equipment will give them the best results. So let me give you some pointers.

Computer or iPad?

The lessons are video-based which means you can use your computer, tablet or even your smartphone to view the lessons. A tablet (iOS or Android) makes it easy to stream the lessons directly to where your piano or keyboard is located, however a laptop or desktop computer will work fine also. You can even watch the lessons on an Amazon Kindle.

Piano or Keyboard?

You can use either a piano or a keyboard with the lessons. In the lessons I often refer to the "keyboard" which is the general term for the black and white notes of the instrument. This DOES NOT mean that you need to use an electronic keyboard. So, either a piano (upright or grand) or an electronic keyboard is fine. If you use a keyboard, make sure:

1. It has full-sized keys. Do not use a keyboard that has miniature or "mini" keys
2. It has a stand and a bench to make playing comfortable
3. It has at least 49 keys

Does the keyboard connect to the computer?

Nothing connects to the computer. You watch the video on your computer/tablet then play what I teach you in the video on your keyboard. Quizzes along the way help you assess how well you're progressing with the information.

A mom recently asked me:

I'm a mom who has had kids who have taken a couple (2-3) years of private lessons already, is Homeschool Piano going to be a benefit to me? What if they've had a few (5-6) years of lessons? - Debra

The quick answer is YES, HomeSchoolPiano will be of great benefit to you and your children!

See, typical private piano lessons focus solely on technique and reading music and leave it up to the student to learn improvisation on their own. This works fine for students for a while, but at some point students get bored playing only classical music. Before teaching online my private piano studio was filled with students who came from other teachers because they wanted to play stuff they knew. These students (and most of the students I teach) are interested in playing something at the piano that sounds good to their ears and is...fun!

The HomeSchoolPiano 6-step cycle includes the technique and reading you'd typically find in traditional piano lessons. However, you'll also notice that students also focus their attention on rhythm, ear training, songs and improvisation.

Each of the 6 units of the three HomeSchoolPiano books cover all 6 elements of our learning cycle. This means that students learn how to develop their ear, read music and create their own music and improvisations in every unit.

• CorePiano™  is for the absolute beginner pianist
• Book 1 is for beginners, maybe brushing the dust off and coming back to piano
• Book 2 is for beginner to intermediate level students (starts incorporating more complicated concepts, songs and improvisation ideas)
• Book 3 is for intermediate students (toward the end of this book we are getting into concepts like syncopation, voice leading and more advanced scales for improvisation)

Since Debra's kids have a few years of piano under their fingers, I would encourage them to move between the books. For example, if they already know how to read music, then maybe they do the rhythm, ear training and improvisation parts from Book 1 and 2 while using book 3 for their reading.

The program is designed to allow maximum flexibility for students to move between lessons while gaining an enormous amount of piano skill. This lets students find an approach that works best for them.