Oh, this, this, THIS is where the magic of instrumental music study begins... it's how music learning teaches you to persist, to problem-solve, to set goals, to break problems down into manageable chunks, to nurture your inner critic/editor in positive ways, etc. etc. It's such a great role for a parent to play, helping facilitate this learning. It's not rocket science, and you'll find that many of the same learning / problem-solving techniques that you've learned in the rest of your life will apply to this.
Here are some general principles I give my violin students:
1.
Make the problem smaller. (i.e. identify exactly where there is an issue that could be improved ... second bar of the piece, left hand, where the second finger has to jump two strings, for example: if that's where the problem is, don't play the whole piece, just repeat bar 2)
2.
Slow the problem down. (don't just take a flying leap at it over and over: play slowly!)
3.
Prevent rather than fix mistakes. ("Your brain is so smart, it will learn your mistakes very well indeed." If, for example, there's a wrong note, play the few notes before it, then come to a complete stop and prepare the corrected note, then go ahead after you're sure you're not going to accidentally play the wrong note.)
4.
Ease is the goal, not correctness. Real practicing begins only when you can do everything correctly, and can start repeating what you can do until you can do it easily. You're "making ruts in your brain, so you can't accidentally fall off the path." (And this is where it starts to get fun, because we all enjoy doing things that we can do well.)
5. Further to number four:
always end with something happy. Sometimes that might mean ending the practicing before you've got through your assignment list, because something awesome was just accomplished and your child is jubilant. Sometimes it means doing something silly to finish... play lying on the floor, get mom to do the left hand, play the piece on all the wrong strings, singing along using weird lyrics. Sometimes it means just playing your favourite 'easy' piece.
Then there are bunch of gimmicks for doing this kind of practicing. Here are a few:
- Play the snippet three times, and get him to decide and tell you which was the best one. (This gets kids really paying attention to the details of what they're doing, engaging their internal critic.)
- Work backwards from the end of the piece to the beginning. Meaning, say, play the last phrase, then play the second-last phrase, then the third-last. (This prevents the "playing on auto-pilot" thing, where you just start at the beginning and play mindlessly to the end, and it also counteracts the tendency most of us have to work more thoroughly, and play more often, through the beginning of the piece.)
- If correcting a problem, ask your child to set a goal for how many times it should be practiced today. If he says "five," go for it. Then a day or two later, when that has got easy, ask for "five perfect repetitions" (he defines what is good enough to count). And then the following day, or whenever he thinks he is ready, ask for "five perfect repetitions in a row" (meaning the counter goes back to zero if there's a flub.) Gamifying the work is really helpful, and there are many other ways.
- Make the work tangible. Track repetitions by building a tower of lego blocks. Colour in a chart to show all the days of practicing he's done. Make a video archive of him playing his latest piece once a month, then go back and watch the old ones to appreciate how the progress accrues steadily over time.
Hope this gives you some ideas!
Miranda