If you ask piano teachers what the number one source of an student's frustration with piano lessons are, at the root of the problem will always be practice. We know that good and frequent practice is the only road out there to piano playing success, and so it's easy for us to get on our student's cases when we know that they're not giving the time or commitment to this important part of piano lessons.

However, we've also noticed that nagging our students not only doesn't help, but often hinders this cause and so we've highlighted below alternative methods that we've had more success with:

1. Keep piano practice as enjoyable as possible.
   
   Add in games and give your students' challenges to complete by the next week. If you think a particular composer had an interesting life, or a piece has a fascinating background, ask them to look this up before the next lesson. Even if they're not playing the piano, during this time they'll be thinking about piano and learning loads about the background and character of the piece they're playing. Piano teaching apps, can also help you to manage sending this information to students and keep track of what you asked them to do from the last lesson to the next.
   
   
2. Praise their efforts.
   
   Instead of beating a student down for not practicing every week, pick the week that you do notice a difference in their practicing and praise them for their achievements. Show them that you've noticed the difference that this has made. Don't let them get away with being talented either, don't praise them for picking up something quickly because they have a musical ear, but instead praise them for working on a technical section that they then have mastered through repetition. It's important that a student doesn't seem themselves in the black and white terms of untalented versus talented a -state that you can't really change- but instead as having put in the practice or not -a state that they can change.
   
   
3. Emphasize the long term effects of piano playing.
   
   There's no use in trying to show a student the musical value of something that is largely there for technique purposes (such as scales, exercises etc.) and when they're at a lower standard and playing much simpler music it can be hard for them to see the value learning and playing piano. Show them instead, the value of being able to play at a much higher standard, keep them listening to professional piano players, going to concerts and looking on YouTube for free piano sheet music. You'll find that they are a lot more highly motivated to practice when they have in mind the long term effects of playing and learning an instrument.
   
   
4. Set up expectations early.
   
   Provide them with a piano practice information sheet on day one of their lessons so that they have an idea about how long they will need to spend every week on practice and how to practice effectively. If they aren't practicing well, then they won't be seeing the results from practice, which will not help with their motivation. Providing them with a helpful sheet of best practices (pun-intended), can help to ensure that they're making the best use of this time, and that from the start they are warned that great results only come with great practice.

On this last point, if you do not have a piano practice information sheet available to give to students, don't worry we have you covered. You can download our piano practice sheet below in order to set up expectation early and also to ensure that your students are properly set-up for practice success: