Well, it’s that time of year again, the school year is almost done, and your spring semester lessons are almost finished.  Not too far in the distant future are family vacations, road trips, summer camps, BBQ’s, visits to the pool and much more.  But how do you fit in your typical practice with a summer schedule that is sure to fluctuate.  I’ve decided to share a list that I go over with all of my students around this time of the year to help them continue to make progress during the summer.

1. Don’t stop practicing during the summer months – Seems obvious, but if the conscious effort isn’t made to continue to practice during the 2-3 months of summer, you’ll find it very hard to pick the instrument up again when the fall hits and you start lessons up again.
2. Allow yourself to take time off – This is very important (even during the rest of the year) to allow yourself time to be away from the instrument.  Sometimes you just need a day for your body and mind to digest what you’ve worked on the day before.  Every week I take a day off just to let myself relax and take in what I worked on during the week’s practice.
3. Take summer lessons – Summer lessons keeps the routine of practice/have a lesson, thus you continue to make progress throughout the summer.  Even every-other-week lessons or monthly lessons are better than taking a whole summer off.  With regular upcoming lessons (even if they are monthly) you are working to prepare for the next lessons.  This allows for larger breaks in your practice routine (for family get aways, etc…) but to continue on your progress with your instructor during lessons.  I call those, check-up lessons, to help remind you about certain concepts or ideas that were being worked on before the summer started, or to see how things have developed.
4. Attend Festivals – Whether you are an adult or a parent of a child, attending festivals are great motivational tools.  You can see great concerts, sit in or even play in a master class, watch lectures, interact with other players (or parents of young children who play). 

Those are some ideas that every student (young and old) can wrap their head around.  Here are a few for parents who are trying to keep their kids interested in practicing during the summer months.

1. Plan time off – Sit down with your child, decide on when they’ll have days not to practice.  Do this in the beginning of the summer, plan out the whole 2 months.  Be sure to include family vacations, summer camps, and anything that might already be planned.  Also include days off that don’t include any planned activities.  With that schedule now set, its clean what days your child needs to be practicing, and it is agreed upon.
2. Summer Performance – As a teacher I book recitals every semester for my students to play on, I find that it is a great goal to work towards.  So why not plan a small recital for your child to play towards the end of summer.  It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, it can be for a small group of friends and their parents, or family members.  This gives your child an opportunity to show off what they’ve been working on during the summer months.
3. Practice buddies – If your child is friends with another child who also takes private music lessons, they can become practice buddies.  If they play the same instrument, it’s even better!  They can feed off of each other’s energy and excitement for music.
4. Practice outside – Sometimes a change of scenery is all someone needs for an extra boast of enthusiasm!

For adults, there are some great, more intense ways to help keep the summer months productive…

1. Goal oriented practice – Pick a summer goal to accomplish.  It can be learning a new piece, refining an old one, a performance that you’ve schedule, etc.  Now work towards that goal, set up small goals that will help you obtain the larger goal.  This can be carried over into your regular practice.
2. Chamber Music – There is nothing better than getting together with a few friends and playing music together.  This is kind of like that “Practice Buddies” idea just for adults.  Get together with a few guitar friends, or even friends who don’t play the guitar.  Have some fun reading through music together, it doesn’t have to be a serious project, although sometimes it turns into one.  Rock and Folk musicians do this all the time.  It’s called a “Jam Session.”
3. When in doubt, 15 minutes will do – If the day has been a busy one, driving kids off to camp, going to work, picking them up, going to a friend’s house for the night, and you realize before you go to bed, “Oh I didn’t even get a chance to pick up the guitar…”  Sit down real quick and work on one thing you’ve been struggling with.  Only spend 15 minutes (even use an egg timer if you need too!) on the spot.  This still allows you to make some progress, and some progress is better than none, or even going backwards.
4. Keep a practice log – This log may be something you start off during the summer, but it can be very useful throughout the year.  Any student that I’ve had who has stuck with it has seen major results happen in their playing.  This can be used in conjunction with goal oriented practice to keep you on track.  Also, you can see what things haven’t helped you to get to your goal.  If they haven’t helped in a week, try something new.  Keep track of your successes, but more importantly keep track of what hasn’t worked.  That way you don’t repeat the same mistake again.

These are just a few things that I go over with my students, both child and adult.  Happy practicing!

It’s nearing the end of the spring semester, and I’ve started to talk to students and parents about summer lessons.  When I was taking lessons in middle and high school, and even in college I always continued during the summer.  Taking the summer months off wasn’t something I even considered.  I even attended summer festivals and workshops to further hone my skills on the guitar.  However, I guess I was the exception to the rule, as many students decide to discontinue lessons over the summer.  Some feel that it would be a waste to take lessons because they are rarely around.  Others simply want a break from everything.

Use It or Loose It

Typically progress happens two ways, we either improve or get worse.  During the Summer skills either become honed or rusty.  Without lessons during the summer, students loose the continuity of their progress.  Technique and skills fade as practice time decreases.  Typically if there isn’t something to get ready for, many students stop practicing or decrease their practice time.

Continuing lessons, even an every other week or once a month schedule during the summer, can positively effect a students progress during the summer months.  They have something to work towards.  Multiple weeks or even months away from lessons with no sign of lessons until the fall can put a stop to all of the progress that was made during the school year.

Lessons During The Summer

Typically students that do take lessons over the summer don’t do lessons every week.  One week the family may be on vacation, another their teacher may be out of town (I regularly perform at different guitar festivals and workshops throughout the country and world).  With this irregularity, some students opt to just stop lessons over the summer.  I discourage this, and instead try to tell them why continuing in the summer is beneficial.

1. Even a lesson once a month can continue development during the summer.  If the student is a hard worker, and practices regularly, doing a “once a month” check up during the summer isn’t awful, and is better then nothing.  Typically these lessons are longer lessons so that I can not only thoroughly go through the material they bring to the lesson, but that I can also walk them through what they should work on for the next lesson.
2. Taking 2-3 months off means that it will take us (student and teacher) at least that long to redevelop the skills that were worked on towards the end of the year.  New skills aren’t as reinforced as old ones (obviously) and are the first to go.  Typically it takes a student 2-3 months to be at the same level they were at in the final months of lessons before the end of June.  This is a huge ego blow to students, but if you don’t use a skill for a few months it will degrade!
3. Consistency is the name of the game.  If it is practicing, performing or even when it comes to taking lessons, being consistent will ensure that you make the most progress forward, and not backwards, sideways, or circular.

Have A Project

Sometimes it is unavoidable for students to not take lessons during the summer.  Maybe schedules don’t line up, maybe they go away for the whole summer.  Because of that, I tend to give summer projects to students.  Typically it is a larger piece of music that may challenge them in some ways, but at the same time giving them a bit of a break from the past year as well.

Last Friday, NCGS celebrated it's first full length student solo recital.  Liam Calhoun did an amazing job performing selections from Books 2-4 of the Suzuki Method.  As I watched him, I noticed how calm and collected he performed. I remember my first solo recital, my Senior Recital at Juilliard as part of their Pre-College program.  I also remember being incredibly nervous!  Liam in command, and performed with wonderful musicality and technical control.  For me, it was a textbook first recital and then some.  You only have one 1st recital -- if you can make that recital a positive experience it will make the continuing journey a pleasant one.

While Liam was preparing for his recital, we spoke at great length on how to prepare for his first full length performance.  It was quite clear from his performance that he followed the advice I gave him to the letter, thus making for an outstanding recital.  While we cannot control every variable of the recital, the better we prepare -- the better we play.

Often times when I speak with students in their lessons, I’ll hear stories about how they’ve been very busy and weren't able to spend a lot of time to practice.  Part of how I teach is working with students to understand how to practice.  How to efficiently and effectively use their time so they can actually accomplish something.  With all of that said, until the student feel comfortable with that way of practicing, often times they feel the need to cram for a lesson.

Cramming For A Lesson Doesn’t Work

Unlike studying for a test about information that you may never use ever again, learning how to play an instrument for the short term (IE from lesson to lesson) doesn’t work.  Learning how to play an instrument is a skill.  What you learn is used as you advance and become more experienced.  If you learn things only with short term memory, never ingraining the skills into how you play the instrument, progress will never happen.  This means that you cannot do a weeks worth of practicing in a 2 hour cram session the night before your lesson.  Typically this leads to a crash and burn situation.  More importantly, students become frustrated due to the lack of improvement they make, and they don’t understand why.