Why it’s a bad idea to take a break from guitar lessons

Every guitar teacher has students who are not as serious about the guitar as he or she used to be. From a teacher’s perspective, guitar students are no different from any other kind of student. When you take guitar lessons in Philadelphia, you are making a commitment to yourself and your teacher to work hard to learn how to play. So it isn’t a good idea to take a break during your initial learning process.

Students take a break from lessons for many different reasons. There might be school pressures, summer breaks, holidays, vacations, etc. If students experience guitar lessons more like a burden than something fun and useful, they will take a break from them on every possible occasion, with every possible excuse.

If a student is not very self-motivated and has no strong goals or determination, they may take a break for the instrument altogether. In their mind, they have reached a certain level and can improve from that point on, whenever they decide to start taking lessons again. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. When a student takes a break, their ability to play starts declining immediately.

After a week of absence, his or her playing becomes sloppy even while playing things they could play easily before. After a longer period of time, a student’s ability drops so much, that they have to re-take many of the same lessons again. For example, if a student is at a level 10 and takes a break. After two months of absence, they might drop down to a level 3. To get back up to level 10, they would have to re-take the steps they had to take to get there in the first place. This is very frustrating but also time consuming and expensive.

So what do you do when there’s no other way than to take a break from lessons? If a student absolutely must miss lessons such as being out of town for a long period of time or they are sick, the student must make a practicing place with their guitar teacher for the sole purpose of staying in shape. This will work if the student is self-motivated and has developed a good practice routine.

Another option would be for the student to sit down with their teacher and find the balance between the number of lessons and their other activities that are preventing them from devoting more time to lessons. In this case, the focus will not be on improvement but maintaining the skills they have learned. If a student is taking lessons 3 hours a week and drops down to 1 hour a week, this is a good method.

If your child is considering taking a break from guitar lessons in Philadelphia, sit down with their teacher and find the best possible solution. In general, every option mentioned is better than taking a break completely.

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