If it’s your child who wants to take a break from lessons…
Why do students take breaks from guitar lessons?
First of all, students take a break from getting lessons for many different reasons. There might be exams in school, summer break, holidays etc.
If students experience guitar lessons more as burden than something fun and useful, they will take a break from them on every possible occasion, with every possible excuse.
If your child isn’t finding guitar fun anymore, that is a different conversation all the together. Maybe the guitar teacher needs to switch up what he is doing? Maybe your child needs to change to a different guitar class.
How to that is a topic for another article, in this one I will concentrate more on why even if there are other things going on… pulling your child out of guitar lessons may not be the best idea…
What happens when your child stops taking lessons for a certain period of time?
If your child isn’t mad about guitar… often they will just stop forever. That’s okay, if that’s whats right for them. On the other hand, they might find a lot more out of learning guitar if they stick with it a little longer. It really depends on what stage they are at.
If your child is super motivated but just got exams and other things going on. Taking a “break” from guitar lessons may seem like the right idea. But actually children often expect they will be back at the same level when they come back… which isn’t true. And that can be very demotivating for them.
Taking a break may have them find playing the guitar a struggle.
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 has to re-take many of the same lessons again.
So if a student is at level 10 and takes a break, after two months of absence they might drop back to level 3. To get back on a level 10, they would have to re-take all the steps they had to make to get to level 10 in the first place. This is, of course, very frustrating and a dangerous motivation killer, but also time consuming and last but not least, expensive…
Just maintaining a level, even if your child isn’t practising guitar at home but coming to weekly lessons will help keep everything rolling over. And keep up their level of motivation and interest in the instrument.
So, what to do, when there's no other way, but to take a break from lessons?
There are a few ways to prevent a student from losing the abilities they have worked so hard to get.
Get a Plan together
Our student performing at an Open Mic, persevering through his challenges and fear of playing in front of an audience
· First one is the least favourable, and it's a good idea only if a student can't come the lessons at all (leaving the town for a longer period of time, longer sick leave, etc.).
In this case, a student has to make a practicing plan with their guitar teacher, merely for the purpose of staying in shape. This will work only if the student is self-motivated and has developed a good practice routine, otherwise it will fail.
2. Finding the balance
· Second option is far more favorable.
The student has to sit down with the teacher and find the optimal balance between the number of lessons weekly and their other activities. In this case, even if they can’t make the practising at home, just maintaining the skills of a student on the same level, until your child can go back full time is useful.
So if a student has been taking 3 hours weekly during the year, he might take 1 hour during the summer break.
This way, after the summer break they will be able to continue from the same level he was on before it. This will save him a lot of time and money in the fall, but even more important, it will prevent him from getting frustrated and quitting.
3. Keep calm and carry on
· The third option is of course the best and most obvious. To continue taking the lessons the same way as during the year and carry on practising at home. (Of course, this doesn't mean they can't go on vacation or anything like that.)
Students often don't see what us guitar teachers do.
We can compare the students who took a break with those who didn't very easily, and see what a huge gap appears between the two. Sometimes it's quite scary to be honest.
So if your child is thinking about taking a break, sit down with your guitar teacher and find the best possible solution. In general, every solution is better than to take a break completely for a couple of months.
If your child not enjoying lessons with their current guitar teacher and looking at making a change? Try our trial guitar lesson to see how we might be able to help your child.
See how Aaraadhn got on at our Big Gig performing Titanium by David Guetta
Just a little back story, Aaraadhn started by not being able to play the guitar at all! This was after 18 months of lessons or performing to a crowd of over 200 people.