Parents as practice partners

Practicing strategies that involve parents are highly effective for young students’ learning. Here is an example of a sequence for learning a new passage or piece of music that involves the care-giver as practice partner:

• Sing your new song together (either with made-up words or with “da da”)
• Sing while “air bowing” the song with the words and no violin
• Parent sings while the child does the fingerings on the violin without playing with the bow
• Parent plays with bow while the child does the fingerings on the violin
• Finally, the child play the piece with his or her bow on the violin while the parent shares attention in the moment