After the busy holiday season comes to a close, and music performances are complete, it is the perfect time for your musician to make music resolutions or goals for the new year. If your child is struggling with beginning the goal-making process, you can start with helping them take a moment to go over their performance at the winter music concert. If you or a relative videotaped their performance, have your child take a few minutes to watch it with a kind but somewhat critical eye.
First, have them take notice of what they did really well. Maybe they made a few mistakes but kept going and just did their best. Maybe their expression was spot on! Have them take note of all of the good things they did, so they can feel really proud of what they accomplished.
Then comes the harder part: now have them take note of things that they could have improved on even more. Remind them to be careful of being too critical. This isn’t a time to pick apart their performance with a super judgmental eye. All they are looking for are little improvements they can work on for the future. These may be things like: better posture, more pronounced dynamics, more expression, etc. No matter how advanced of a musician they are, there are always ways that they can improve even more. :)
Finally, have them start making a list of goals for lessons and performances that they can strive towards in the new year. Ask them to be as specific and as realistic as possible. For example, instead of just writing “practice more,” have them write down a set number of days that they would like to try and practice each week. Have them think about a time of day that is the most realistic for them to get a good practice in and aim for that time each day. If they don’t already have a notebook for music lessons, it would be super helpful to purchase one that they can bring to their music lesson each week to write down the goals that their teacher gives them. This is a fantastic way to track progress and see how they are improving each week and each month. They might find even more motivation to practice, by adding a song title that they would like to be able to perform at the next concert on their music resolution list. Have them share all of this information with their APA music teacher and they can help them plan out how to accomplish these goals.
Once their list is complete, remind them to look at it on a regular basis to help motivate them to stay on track. It can be helpful to put their music resolution list in their school planner or music notebook so it is easily accessible.
With a list of realistic goals, and their APA music teacher to help guide them toward achieving them, your child will be on their way to becoming an even more successful musician in 2025! :)
