Can We Really Control Piano Practice? Here’s What We Can Influence

Let’s Be Real About Piano Practice

A Scrappy Notes Post for Independent Music Teachers

If you have taught for more than five minutes, you already know that practice is the constant puzzle. Every teacher is trying to answer the same question. How do I help students practice more effectively at home.

Here is the truth. We cannot control family calendars, home routines, or how much support a child receives during the week. Kids today live in a world of instant gratification, constant digital stimulation, and very little experience working independently without a screen or a coach beside them. Learning an instrument requires patience, repetition, and slow progress. That is a completely different type of discipline.

But there is good news. We can influence what happens at home by being intentional with how we teach practice inside the lesson.

● Teach students how to practice, not just what to play
● Keep the conversation alive every single week
● Build routines that fit real life, not unrealistic ideals

Scrappy Tip: Guide the minutes they do have instead of guilting them for the hours they do not.

Why I Tried a Practice Workshop

Every September my studio kicks off the year with a group week, and this time I turned it into a full Practice Workshop. My goal was simple. I wanted every student to hear the same message about what real practice looks like and leave with a tool they would actually use at home.

Workshop goals

● Define practicing, playing, and performing
● Help students identify when practice realistically fits in their week
● Teach concrete, easy-to-repeat practice strategies they can use immediately

Inside the Practice Workshop

1) True or False Warm-Up

We started with silly statements like “You’ll practice better with a cat in your lap.” Students laughed and relaxed, which opened the door to honest conversations about what their home practice setups actually look and feel like.

2) Map Your Week

Students listed school schedules, sports, jobs, family routines, and downtime. From there, they circled possible “practice windows.” Linking practice to existing habits—after homework, after a snack, right before bed—made practice feel manageable and predictable.

3) Practicing vs Playing vs Performing

We opened their pieces and talked through the differences.
- Run-throughs are playing.
- Playing in a lesson is performing.
- Practicing means isolating tricky spots, slowing down, and looping short sections until the brain can retain the changes.

This distinction alone immediately changed how many students approached their assignments.

4) Brain Pathways Demo

We watched a quick video on how the brain learns, then used a bead-and-paper-tube “leaky pathway” experiment to show why repetition matters. Students saw—and felt—why correct reps create stronger pathways.

5) A Tangible Tool

Each student made a small bead counter to track repetitions at home. They decorated them with cats, rainbows, and music symbols, and many still use them during lessons.

The Results

Since the workshop, students talk about when they practiced instead of if they practiced. They identify problem spots faster. They try multiple strategies without prompting. And they are beginning to think like mini scientists during their lessons.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution for practice, but teaching the skill of practice—just like teaching scales—always pays off.

Try a Practice Workshop in Your Studio

I put together a Practice Workshop Resource that includes:

● warm-ups
● worksheets
● rep-tracking tools
● the brain pathways experiment
● step-by-step lesson plan

Download the Free Lesson Plan Here!

Highly Recommended Reading for Teachers

If you want to go deeper on the science behind practice, I cannot recommend Molly Gebrian’s book Learn Faster, Perform Better enough. It is one of the most helpful explanations of what the brain is actually doing while learning music.

Here is my Amazon affiliate link if you would like to grab a copy: Learn Faster, Perform Better

Ending Thoughts…

The longer I teach, the more convinced I am that practice is a shared journey, not a demand we place on families. When we model curiosity and patience in our lessons, students carry that home. When we stay consistent with our expectations, families respond. And when we stay rooted in what we actually control, we show up as better teachers.

Thank you for being part of a teaching community that cares deeply about doing this well. We are building healthier practice habits for a new generation of musicians, and that matters more than we realize.

Listen to the Full Podcast Episode

If you want to hear the complete conversation behind this post, you can listen to the full episode of The Scrappy Piano Teacher right here. I walk through the story, the workshop, and the mindset shifts that helped me rethink what is actually mine to control in the practice conversation.

In this episode of The Scrappy Piano Teacher, I’m asking the big question every teacher wrestles with. Can we actually control piano practice. Spoiler alert. We cannot. But we can influence it in ways that make a real difference for students and families.

I break down why practice is so challenging for students in 2025, how screens and instant gratification shape their learning habits, and what we as teachers actually control inside the lesson. You’ll learn practical strategies like spaced practice, micro-goals, looping, and how to teach students how to practice instead of hoping they figure it out at home.