Some

Things Music Students Should Know

I was that kid who never settled on a single instrument (I took piano, accordion, and guitar), so I feel that I have some valuable experience to share. For the purposes of this article, I also talked to some parents with kids in lessons, as well as a teacher or two who has adult and child students. Here's some things parents should think about before dropping any hard-earned money on classes, instruments, or teachers..

1) The kid has to play music he cares about. No one wants to play "Mary Had a Little Lamb." You want to play the music that you listen to. What are your kids into? Let them choose what you play in the car sometimes.

2) Expand your kid's horizons. Create Spotify playlists together. Listen through movie soundtracks, which tend to have a good sampling of eras and genres. What does your child respond to? What does she hate? Look up the artists that influenced her favorite artists and play that for her. If she likes One Direction, what does she think of N'Sync or Motown? Spotify has a "similar artist" feature which is hit or miss. Allmusic.com is probably a more consistent source of information about influences.

3) Split practice time equally into skill-building, and free-play. They've got to learn scales, but if they don't get some time to be creative, they'll abandon music real quick. There has to be a balance of candy and vegetables.

4) Give them a chance to decide what instrument they want to play. Go to the music store, and let them get their hands on a few different things. Go a few times before you commit to a purchase. Borrow a friend's instrument. Rent before you buy. Don't splurge on a Bosendorfer or Les Paul until they show some skill and investment.

4a) Go to a real music store and talk it out with the sales guy. Wal-Mart and Best Buy are not music stores. Bring a friend who actually plays and let them fiddle with the instrument you're considering. While you don't want to waste money on expensive gear that your kid might abandon, you also don't want total crap that will go out of tune so often that your kid will get frustrated and give up.

5) Don't get upset when kids change their minds about what instrument they chose, because they're most likely going to change their minds. As I mentioned in the intro, I went through piano, saxophone, drums, guitar, and voice as a kid. My parents, teachers, and friends labeled me as a "quitter." Guess what? I still sing, and I still play everything but the sax (because unless you're recording "on hold" music for customer service call centers, there's clearly no use for it). Being able to mess around with more than one instrument turned me into a better musician, band leader, sound tech, and songwriter, and helped to keep me interested in music in general.

More installments coming keep checking in..