How do I motivate my child to practise the piano?

The daily tug-of-war - nagging, threats, yelling, emotional blackmail, coloured by the occasional flash of musical brilliance, but marked mostly by defiance, procrastination and painfully bad playing - is exhausting.

If not for her, then certainly for me.

I sometimes wonder if she would not be better off having a year off AMEB.

But then my logical mind protests:
"She'll be one year behind her peers!"
"She'll lose momentum and not want to learn piano anymore!"
"How will she be on track to get a music scholarship by Year 6 if she eventually decides she loves music?"

Tonight, Miss B was in a malleable mood.

So I asked her to rate her own effort as she played Minuet in G.

Each time, she gave herself a higher score than before. 6, then 7.5, then 9.75.

"How much more before you give yourself a ten?"

"Just this much more." She made her thumb and index finger into a circle.

Just for fun, I said "Why don't you try playing with your toes?"

You should have seen the gleam in her eyes, and the way her mouth tilted upwards.

She loves quirky challenges, you see.

And immediately she started playing Minuet with her right foot.