Worse yet, don't base it on one or two lessons! I have talked on this subject a fair bit already, but I think it's worth stating again: don't rate your musical progress based on a month's worth of practice and lessons!

I still have parents asking me how their kids are doing. Don't get me wrong; I think this is a legitimate concern. However, this question almost always carries some other hidden undertones or implications. The question is really, "are we getting our money's worth?", or "we're not seeing any immediate progress, is this of any use?", or something along those lines.

The attitude is subtle, but ultimately defeatist. I would not recommend asking this question in front of your child, if at all possible. With that in mind, allow me to address this concern in a couple of ways:

Ultimately, practice is about building a consistent habit. I realize that not everyone gets into the habit of practice straight away. In a sense, it is important to build an "unreasonable passion" or "burning desire" for music. Really what this comes down to is goal setting. While it is a teacher's job to facilitate an environment for goal setting, it is the pupil who has to carry out the practice regime and tasks necessary for that goal's fulfillment.

Let's be honest here: have you ever set a goal for yourself (like a New Year's resolution, for example), and you hesitated to get started? Or maybe you gunned it right out of the gate, but ran out of gas a month or two later. The truth is few people have ever attained anything great without consistent and habitual action.

Let me put it this way: When you started your workout regime, did you expect to see instantaneous results? Did you expect your abs to be cut, your chest to be chiseled, and your legs ripped in a matter of days? Maybe you did, and that's why you gave up. Bottom line is this: it's easy to do, but it's easy not to do (to learn more about this, check out the book, the Slight Edge by Jeff Olson).

Building a habit can take 21 to 30 days (it is not instantaneous!). Try an experiment: help your child practice his or her instrument for 20 minutes every day for 30 days. The first 30 days are not negotiable. After that, you can decide together whether or not you want to continue with that strict of a schedule.

In my experience, you can't judge the results of a few days' work. You can't judge the results of a few weeks work. It can be hard to judge the results of a month's worth. My recommendation is to give it 10 years, but that can be an overwhelming thought, so here's my suggestion: give it a year. In a year's time, the effort put forth will catch up with your child. You don't get to see that in a matter of weeks. It's hard to see after a single month. However, if you were to reflect after a year's work - where he or she was when they first started and where they're at at the end - you will be amazed at the results.

I don't claim to be an expert when it comes to muscle memory. However, I do know that it's individual. Everyone takes a different amount of time to absorb a certain musical passage (of course, practice is a factor too). It doesn't make anyone better or worse. It just means that everyone learns at their own rate.