How to get your child to practice their musical instrument without coercion
Browbeating and pressure won't work, so try some subterfuge or have them join an orchestra and appeal to their team spirit
An infamous chapter in Keilman family lore came when I was a disgruntled trumpet player in the junior high school band. My parents had forced me to take up an instrument and constantly badgered me to practice, but one day, I figured out a way to beat the system.
I shut my bedroom door and played a few songs into an audio recorder, then rewound the tape and played it back at high volume as I read comic books. I did this several times, proud of my cunning, but after about 20 minutes my mom burst into the room with an annoyed look on her face.
“How did you know?” I recall asking.
“You kept making the same mistakes over and over,” she said.
My trumpet-playing days thankfully ended but I must say I was happy when my daughter recently decided to start viola lessons. They’re part of her elementary-school music programme, so I want her to do well, but most of all I want her to enjoy music more than I did.
She got off to a promising start, sawing away in the living room, in the yard and in the back seat of my car. But lately she has shown the same disinclination to practice I had. I’ve had to nag her a few times, and the lessons have just begun.