In general, the guitar classes are half an hour a week. Excluding public and school holidays. The average number of lessons that a student can take per year is somewhere between 36 and 42 at the best. in reality, this number can be a lot less. it is around 30 guitar lessons per year. The school holidays like the midterm, Christmas, and Easter holidays are from a week-long to 3 weeks sometimes. The summer holidays are almost 2 months. There are several problems with this setup.
Interrupted Learning Continuity
The problem with having too many holidays is that it interrupts the continuity of the learning process. Guitar students can easily lose their momentum and motivation, which makes it difficult to get back into the swing of things when lessons resume. This can be a real challenge for guitar students who are trying to learn a new skill or technique. With beginners, it is definitely a problem to miss one or two lessons in a row. I am sure the same goes for the regular school subjects but the frequency of the lessons there is much higher. Some subjects in the school are taught 2,3 or 4 times a week. In a school situation, it will take a couple of days to a week for a student to get back to where they were before that.
It will take another two weeks for a kid in a private guitar class setting to recover after a week without lessons. Of course, these are only estimates but the reality is around there.
Student Despise the Guitar
Guitar students often find themselves losing motivation and momentum when they take too many breaks from their guitar classes. This can lead to them despising the guitar altogether, as it becomes more difficult to learn new skills when the learning process is constantly interrupted. On some occasions, we may witness even physical intolerance to the guitar, because the student may associate its presence with real physical discomfort. Many guitar beginners will find it hard even to keep their bodies straight and hold the guitar during the lesson.
Problems with acquiring new guitar habits and knowledge
It is not just the continuity of learning that gets disrupted when there are too many breaks. Guitar students can also face problems acquiring new guitar habits and knowledge when they have to constantly restart their learning process. This is especially true for young children, who are still in the process of accustoming themselves to the guitar
Level of Commitment
The level of commitment drops down when students have to constantly restart their learning process due to too many holidays. This makes it difficult for them to acquire new habits and knowledge and also disrupts the continuity of their learning. Guitar students can easily lose motivation and momentum when they have to take too many breaks from their lessons. They experience slow progress, lack of motivation, and boredom.
What can be done?
The best way to avoid these problems is to try and have a consistent number of guitar classes per year, regardless of the holidays.
Get more guitar classes per week
One of the ways to improve your number of guitar lessons per year is to have more guitar lessons per week. Rather than having just one, you can have two or three lessons a week. In this way, interruptions will not affect your progress as much. After let’s say two weeks of break it may take you a few days to recover because you will be meeting your teacher more times per week. However, if the break is too long you may still experience some of the above problems. For sure they will be less and not that much as if you had only thirty lessons per year.
Look for a guitar teacher who offers more than 30 guitar classes per year.
Even if the student is ready to have more guitar lessons per year, it may be the teacher that is not able to provide more than 30 teaching weeks per year. We, at Valentin’s Guitar academy, offer up to 46 guitar lessons per year.
Join a guitar program that offers preparation for the board examination.
Joining a program that offers preparation for board examinations ABRSM or TCL can be a great way for the student to get the most out of their guitar learning experience. Signing up for a guitar exam is a great opportunity for the student to get recognition for their hard work, At the same time, it raises their motivation and commitment. In this scenario, it is most likely the student to demand more lessons. Even during the holidays.
Use the online guitar classes option
It is not a problem to keep your lessons during the holidays by having online lessons. Here you may say: Yes but I will be away and I will not have my guitar with me. That is right, we can’t carry our guitar always and everywhere with us. There are times when you travel and times when you don’t. if you are on holiday but you are at home, have your normal guitar lesson online. If you are traveling, or if you are on vacation don’t worry, the lesson can be online theory lessons. That will help you tremendously. You will have a chance to get better prepared for your coming guitar lessons. Also, you will not lose the continuity of your learning.
These are some solutions that can help the student keep up with their guitar learning. Despite having to take breaks due to holidays. Guitar students should try and find a way to have more than 30 guitar classes per year. This can be done by joining a program that offers preparation for board examinations. Having more than one lesson per week, or taking online guitar lessons. Having more than 30 guitar classes per year is an excellent way to maintain progress and avoid any disruptions in continuity.
If you’re looking for guitar lessons in Dubai, get in touch with us today! We offer a range of options to suit your needs and can help you make progress quickly. Contact us now to find out more.