Helping Your Child Succeed In Music, Even If You’re Not Musical.

Regardless of your past musical experience, your current musical ability,

and your general ability to understand music, your role as the

parent is integral for your child’s musical education. You at least appreciate good music and want

to your children to appreciate it too. And what’s more, you recognize the importance of music’s

role in church. And so, naturally, you’ve signed your kids up for lessons... Now what? The kids

meet with their teacher once a week—such a short time, in the grand scheme of things. Perhaps

you want to see your kids flourishing more in their musical education all throughout the week.

Then again, perhaps that thought hasn’t occurred to you at all, but now you wonder, too: What

steps can you take towards that goal?

As it happens, I have a few ideas for you.

1. Spark their enthusiasm. When your kids are excited about learning something in their

music lessons, you ought to reflect that excitement. And this applies even to the littlest things

—a new kind of note, a new song they’ve learned (or written), or one tiny practice issue

that’s finally worked itself out. In an intentional way, delight in the musical work they do. If

the excitement doesn’t surface immediately, ask them about what they’re learning. When

your kids see how important their musical education is to you and how much of a blessing it

is, that naturally inspires them to work all the more joyfully. Remember: You, as the parent,

have far more immediate influence on your children than their music teacher—and that’s a

good thing. Let it be an encouragement.

2. Learn what they learn. This goes hand-in-hand with the above point. Give your child the

chance to teach you about what they’ve been taught. Sure, you might look or sound silly

while you do it, but this is a massive help for the music student. When students take on the

role of “teacher,” they grapple with their music in a whole new way: They have to process

things externally in order to communicate what they know. That kind of thought deepens

their understanding of music in a way that doesn’t always happen in their lessons. Their

process won’t be perfect at first, but repeated attempts over time (or, dare I say, practice) will

very likely produce better results. And who knows? You might even learn a thing or two

along the way!

3. Don’t let them quit. As Mr. Bohnet said last week, the temptation for the student to give up

can be powerful. And oftentimes, the emotional strain on you can be just as wearisome as it

is for the student. But no matter how treacherous the waters, how rocky and winding the

road, how impossibly tough the challenge, you must stand firm. From within the pit of

despair, the greatest successes are born. And no one—no one—looks back on their life and

thinks, “Man, I’m sure glad my parents let me quit piano.” Never, ever lose sight of the

bigger picture: Present sufferings (musical and and otherwise) cannot compare with the

glorious rewards of perseverance. (cf. Romans 8:18; Hebrews 12:1-2)

4. Cultivate your own appreciation for good music. Set time aside to listen to recordings of

great classical and choral works. We live in an age where this kind of music is more widely

accessible than ever. You might not spend all of your music listening time on just classical

music, but you ought to listen to enough that you can encourage your kids to appreciate it

too. Listening to good music can also help inspire your kids to work towards a higher level

of musical performance. “Didn’t that sound amazing? I want to make music like that!”

5. Constantly remind yourself of why you’re doing this. The work you’re doing in musically

educating your kids is kingdom work. You are giving them the opportunity to build up the

body of Christ in a way that you are not well equipped to do. As with essentially every aspect

of parenting, this whole process involves dying to yourself in a major way. It can become

discouraging when you’re not able to live out that vision for a singing church by your own

power, yes. But therefore seek all the more to find joy in the progress your children make as

they grow up into a generation of musical leaders in the church. To God alone be the glory,

Amen.

I pray that this encourages you as you strive mightily toward our common musical mission.

Joyfully,

— Grahm Burns, Professor of Piano and Voice