Interestingly I've just been reading about practice and the following info comes from a chapter by Jane Davidson Developing The Ability To Perform in Musical Performance A Guide to Understanding ed John Rink. I've condensed and paraphrased (sometimes with direct quotes) the relevant section in quotes below:

"The theory of motivation which effectively explains why some young people find it more rewarding than others to engage in musical activities is "expectancy-value theory", which argues that people learn tasks if they value the activity or anticipate being successful. Value depends on 3 external motiviation sources: extrinsic (carried out because of some reward potential eg passing exam), social (a wish to please or fit in with others) and achievement (for enhancement of ego, to do better than others) and 1 internal motivation intrisnsic (interest and personal enjoyment in the subject itself).

The last of these (intrinsic) generally follows and develops from the others, but is more important for long-term commitment to music. This can be developed by the following strategies: 1) exposure to many different types of music to open possibilities of emotional response to music, 2) involvement in decision making about style and difficulty of music to learn and whether to play in public or not, 3) surprise, perplexity, contradiction and debate about music. This last all summarised as making the musical task meaningful at a level of complexity which is challenging and manageable.

Of the external motivators social seems to be the most important, with the influence of friends, family and teachers being important. The can use material reinforcement (rewards of various types) to encourage, but their presence and involvement with the learner is most critical for progress in learning. (Study quoted showing children giving up were least likely to have parental support. Highest-achieving group had parents attending lessons, making notes there and sitting with them during practice or listening to the practice itself). Siblings and role-models can also be important."


On the amount of practice itself, another chapter of the book quotes a study of music students (presumably aged 18-20) and the amount of practice they had done and comparing that with tutors' evaluation of likely outcome as musicians: "best violinists" had done 7000+ hours, "good" had done 5000+ hours and "music teachers" had done 3000+ hours. So if you want to get good that's the way to go (But remember that 3000+ hours means roughly 1 hour every day for 10 years, so if you want to get good quick, do more hours a day. The top 2 classes were doing about 24 hours a week, the third group about 9 hours a week, I think).



So Lynne, continual encouragement by you (as mentioned by others above - and not punishments for non-compliance) does seem the best way to go. Also, a personal opinion here, if you can get them playing with others regularly (and I don't think it matters what type of music) I think that provides a good incentive to practice. You need to encourage them until they the stage where that intrinsic motivation kicks in, after that self-enjoyment will carry them along. (And don't forget to mention the prospect of groupies ;-))

Mick