How To Nurture Your Child’s Love of and Interest In Music

Sometimes parents say to us their child loves coming to class but they don’t think their child practises enough in between classes. They might also have talked with their child about practising more, and it hasn’t gone down well. To help parents avoid conflict around practise we ask you to consider the following points:

Your child will be more likely to continue with music if you nurture their love and interest in music rather than focusing on how much they practise.

Here at Ultimate School of Music all of our students make progress with their playing. You can see some fantastic playing by our students on our You Tube channel. We want you to realise these results have been achieved without us creating conflict with any student about how much practise to do.

Many of us listen to music to uplift our state of mind and our mood. Similarly this is what we want for our students as they learn to play music! This benefit of learning and playing music for positive mental wellbeing can get lost if a child is compelled to practise or learn music to satisfy someone else’s expectations. For this reason we do not accept any student at USOM unless they are the ones who want to learn guitar.

Your children and teenagers are hobbyists not professional musicians. Professional musicians and aspiring musicians do practise every day at certain times of their careers. But your child is a hobbyist so do not expect them to do what professional musicians do.

The golden rule of hobbies- is thatthe child does it because THEY (not you) enjoy it and their reasons for enjoying it are not limited to just ‘getting better’.

Yes your child is getting music education but in the context of a hobby. We will give your child some choice and control over their music journey. We will teach them how to find out what they are interested in, and help them explore a breadth and depth of different music influences. In class they will play 95% of the time so they get a lot of quality guitar training done.

Enjoyment comes from the fun of being in a school that feels like a guitar club. Our classes have a positive atmosphere, lots of craic so students feel at ease. In this way they will feel confident to explore their musical creativity and artistic self-expression.

Your child has been given a practise notebook and is asked to decide what they would like do for their own enjoyment or challenge before their next class. Over time some students reach a natural point where they play daily because they enjoy it so much, or it helps them unwind and relax. THIS is one of the best results we could ever help a student achieve.  

Here are some ideas how to Nurture Your Child’s Love and Interest in music:

• Young children like a chance to be ‘teacher’ so ask them for a lesson ( short like 5 minutes) to teach you something. By telling, demonstrating, watching and listening to your playing they are reinforcing their own learning. Importantly they are chuffed to know more than you and to get your undivided attention.
• Consider asking children to perform a song at a family event – this gives them a special status of responsibility. Do acknowledge both their preparation efforts as well as being game to take the extra challenge- it is always much harder to play with people watching.
• Encourage children who like performing to show off their music skills at school events such as talent shows.
• Explore and listen to different music together during  car journeys and family trips.
• Turntables and records are back big time so let them explore your collection!!!!!!
• Gift them tickets to attend music events
• Watch docu-movies about their favourite artists and bands
• Similar to sports, music apparel and merchandise help your child express their musical self- identity. Great gifts include art work/ posters for their room, pin badges caps + clothing and stationary/ bags from bands or music artists they like.
• At some point an upgrade in their music instrument may be very well deserved and desired.
• Encourage the formation of music bands
• As children get older some may enjoy opportunities to explore song writing and music production

At Ultimate School of Music, we have guitar classes for children from the age of 10 and up: https://ultimateschoolofmusic.ie/childrens-lessons/