The One Mistake Almost Every Parent Makes With Their Kid’s Instrument

You signed your kid up for lessons. You bought all the gear, grabbed the books,  You’re ready to go — and they’re not practicing. What the h??

The biggest obstacle to practice is access. It’s not motivation. It’s not talent. It’s friction.

If the keyboard’s on the floor or buried in a closet, if the violin’s out of tune and missing a shoulder rest,
if the amp’s dead because no one charged it... Your kid’s not going to practice. Would you?

I had way more talent on the clarinet than I did on piano — but because the clarinet lived in a case, had to be assembled, swabbed, packed up — it just didn’t happen. The piano was always ready and two minutes here and there added up to my 10000 and counting hours.

Practice needs to be as easy to start as picking up a pencil. No setup. No searching. No hassle. Charles Mingus famously kept his bass in front of his apartment door so that every time he left or came home, he had to physically touch or move it.
Here’s how to fix it:

• Leave the instrument out. On a stand. On a hook. Not the floor. Not in the case.
• Eliminate batteries. I'm seeing more and more battery-powered keyboards. Nope, nope, nope.
• Keep it in tune. Learn to tune string instruments yourself. A two-second window of boredom + a ready-to-go guitar = a spark.
• Make it inviting. Set the scene. A cozy lamp. A clean corner. Organize books and materials in a way your kid likes. Create a space they want to return to.

Think like a marketer - You’ve got three seconds to catch their attention. Lower the barrier. Raise the curiosity. This isn’t about forcing practice — it’s about getting them to want to come back. To mess around. To explore. It’s about momentum. Interest. Traction. Make it easier for them to to play than to walk away.

And when they’re ready to go deeper? That’s where we come in :)