# Children Practice Desperately and Parents Grit Their Teeth to Keep Going: The Two Kinds of Effort Most Easily Wasted in Learning Piano

> Translation note: The family account is presented as reported by the original author. Product descriptions reflect the original article's China-market context at the time of publication, rather than a promise of current Global features.

In the Wonder Piano team's account, a boy who had been learning piano for two years practiced for an hour every day. During that hour, he played the same piece from beginning to end seven or eight times. Every time, he made a mistake at the same spot in the third line. After a mistake, he played the piece again—and made the same mistake again. His mother sat beside him, going from saying "Try it again" to saying nothing at all. In the end, she simply gritted her teeth and refused to leave. Both mother and son were trying hard. Two months later, the third line was still going wrong.

We have seen many families like this. Both children and parents work hard; their effort is simply directed at the wrong things. There are two kinds of effort most easily wasted in learning piano: one on the child's side, and one on the parent's.

## Children Practicing Piano on a Treadmill

Playing a piece from beginning to end, over and over, is the kind of practice that most resembles "practicing": hands are moving, notes are sounding, time is passing, and it all looks diligent. Yet the same mistake happens in the same place on every run-through, because the momentum of the whole piece carries the child past it. By the time they reach that spot, their hands are already racing and cannot stop. They make the mistake and keep playing. The next run-through goes the same way.

An hour of this is like an hour of running on a treadmill: you break a sweat, but you do not move forward. What matters in piano practice is not the number of repetitions, but whether each attempt differs a little from the one before it: play a little more slowly this time, use only the right hand this time, or practice just those two measures this time. Work on one mistake per attempt, and after ten attempts, there is something to show for them.

## Parents Grit Their Teeth and Keep Going Until the Day Their Child No Longer Wants to Practice

A parent's effort is even less visible. When the child does not want to practice, the parent sits down to keep them company. Unable to tell whether the playing is right or wrong, the parent can only say, "Pay attention." When hearing that too often irritates the child, the parent swallows their words and simply stays put instead. After an hour every day, the parent is even more exhausted by the effort of keeping going than the child.

Parents who keep pushing through hold on to one thought: if we persist, things will get better. But persistence needs something to support it. Children need to see that they have accomplished something each day; otherwise, persistence becomes nothing more than an ordeal. The sequence we see more often is this: first the parent can no longer keep going, and then the child stops too.

![A child repeatedly plays the same line at the piano while a parent grits their teeth and stays beside them](https://static.lianmuse.com/image/blog/95f9a818ef8d51afd01d7ac4c54bd5fc.jpg)

## What Effective Effort Looks Like

It is not about the length of the session. Each practice attempt has a goal: these two measures, right hand only, until they can be played without mistakes. Correct wrong notes immediately rather than letting the momentum of the whole piece carry the child past them. When practice ends, know what was accomplished today and where to pick up tomorrow.

Parents can direct their effort differently too. Instead of sitting there for an hour, sit for five minutes, help the child set a small goal for today, and then step away. Wonder Piano's Adventure mode is designed around this small step: each level has its own goal, and it moves forward automatically once the required repetitions are completed. After choosing the level, parents can step away without having to count repetitions for their child.

![A child happily shares their progress with their father after completing a short section of practice](https://static.lianmuse.com/image/blog/21593567eb86ad58021a7750b00ab2c1.jpg)

According to the same account, the boy later changed his hour of practice to twenty minutes, spending those twenty minutes on the third line alone. On the third day, he got through it successfully. His mother said that, for the first time in two months, she had not sat there gritting her teeth—not because he had played it correctly, but because she finally knew where to direct her own effort.

Where is your family's effort in piano practice going?

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Wonder Piano provides AI practice support for piano practice at home. Here, we write about practice methods and the difficulties families encounter when putting those methods into use.

[Original article (in Chinese)](http://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=Mzk2NDI0NTYzOQ==&mid=2247488433&idx=1&sn=ae858887b82f70b5d55462fb5ab4c824&chksm=c4773259f300bb4fb70bde64ab185462a65e6cb00b264d43323388d968498a2c6a5428fa56ee#rd)