Music for pleasure

Life has been more pleasant since I let go of the reins of supervision and involved hubby in Beth's keyboard practice.

Now he takes her to Sat morning class while I go for my dance class.

When she practises, he calls out encouraging comments from the couch.

He doesn't tell her how to play, unless it's something explicit the teacher has recorded in the notebook.

I've taken a leaf from hubby and scaled back drastically in my tendency to nag and criticize and to never be satisfied with anything less than perfection.

The result: practices are less tearful for Beth and less stressful for me.

I love seeing her take more initiative in how she practises, like when she explains why she is playing a certain way and what she hopes to achieve.

With her AMEB piano, I still take a more active approach, playing duets alongside her and setting high goals. It's very frustrating having to 'lower' myself to her level and watch her struggle with her sightreading and neglect her scales, or when she can't 'get' a particular rhythm.

Now and then I ask myself if I'm making her do AMEB for her or for me.

Am I putting her through the hard yards simply because I had to do them when I was her age and it's the done thing?

But it's been worth working at a more balanced approach to parental involvement.

And I have my dance teacher to thank. Because she changed the session time from 12.30 pm to 11.30 am, I have an 'excuse' to let hubby be the one to take Beth to Yamaha.