Hey,
I'm just entering the world of "forums" :0 and here is my first question: summer vacation is starting NOW (!!!) and almost all music lessons for my children are soon to be gone. Does anyone have an idea how to keep their playing over the summer? (they play different instruments)
Thanks,

Dave

Hi Dave!

Well, I'm not a teacher, nor a parent. Yet I have some ideas, that You may find useful, or not. Anyway, nothing bad can happen if I share them with You.

You have not said how old Your kids are, and what are the instrument, how long they have been playing it, etc. But independently from this, I think there are two good ideas:
1) Playing together with other people
2) Playing popular music (movie soundtracks, pop songs, etc...)

For example, if their older cousin, who visits them for one week in the summer can also play some instrument, and together they can play some very simple version of some Pirates of the Caribbean song or the Hedwigs theme, it is probably more interesting, then practicing the etudes and scales alone.

Thanks for the suggestions.
In the meanwhile, I got (and found) various ideas of how to motivate them over the summer. The kids are young - 9, 7 ... - and play piano (9) and recorder (7). Things I heard that I liked:
1. playing together - yes, that is a good idea. Will try!
2. Set specific times to play/practice, so to create a little structure in an unstructure period of time.
3. apparently, there are some computer-games and tools that are educational and supposed to motivate the kids to practice/appreciate music. One that I already saw - www.joytunes.com - is a game inwhich you play your real instrument infront of a regular mic and by that you control the game. I downloaded it for my kid and so far it was a really big hit - so I recommend (it is supposed to teach and make the kid practice while playing his instrument).
4. Pay a little extra - and have their teacher set 3-4 lessons over the summer (and of course, they'll need to practice before). I dono't know about that, though.

Again, thanks for the reply.

Hi there!

I'm glad if some ideas could help. Scheduling and some practices with the teacher are definitely a good idea, and I think music can be a perfect way of spending the time when it is raining for example.

This Joytunes is a brilliant idea, I hope Your kid is gona like it.

Recently I've bought several Harry Potter piano sheets by a mistake (I thought they were full orchestra scores). I can't really use them, so if You are interested, please send me a private message.

One last and maybe not very good idea: Sometimes I like to "steal" the recordeer of my sister or the guitar of my father, and find some simple songs that I can play on them as well. Maybe it would be fun for a while for them to change instruments and play around a little.

Best of luck!

David, this game is pretty addictive, I'm playing it since I read Your post by whistling... :-D

Yah, it is addictive (and does the work for my kid. I recommend!)