Comments

I think that it is good that you are making your daughter practice alone. Or else she will rely on you practicing with her all the time. Also it is good that you practiced with her when she started/was learning, because learning to practice correctly and do it regularly is key.

My sister is learning to play the Euphonium right now (I play tuba too) and I still have to practice with her. I let her loose to practice by her self one week and it didn't turn out well. Her teacher that week commented about her practicing habits. So now I make her practice everyday while I am present. But since she has been practicing correctly there has been a major improvement.

Welcome to v.com. I look forward to hearing more from you. Hi Pauline, Thanks! I enjoyed your article about music and the brain. I am a neuroscientist by profession and sometime would like to do more reading and writing like that. Richard, Unfortunately I think I'm in a difficult spot. She is very reliant on me to practice and it gets to be wearing. On the other hand, she definitely needs me there. I still remember many of my ineffective childhood practice sessions. In my experience, not having or understanding a goal and/or purpose for your practice, and some way to measure progress, is probably the biggest demotivator there is.

A friend of mine said that it really depends on what my goals are and what I want her to learn: do I want her to learn independence or do I want her to learn music? Ideally, of course, it's both. But it is helpful to think of them as two separate learning curves.