Music Lessons, Little Rock
Missed your music lesson? Here's what to do (and not to do)...
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Everyone has missed a music lesson before.
Whether it is something planned like a vacation, or unplanned as a student once told me, "Events conspired against me last week", missing a lesson will not derail your efforts.
Here is what music teachers all over the land (especially here at Little Rock Jams) recommend you should do, and not do, when you have to miss a lesson.
Missed Lesson - To Do List
- Keep Practicing - Treat the week like any other week. Keep your same practice routine. But, make sure you have the assigned material 100% under your fingers before the next lesson. If your teacher assigns the correct workload, 2 weeks between lessons should be plenty of time to nail the material.
- Contact your teacher if necessary - if you're having trouble with the material, or are unsure if you are practicing correctly, send your teacher an email or give them a call. Every teacher would prefer you practice the material correctly rather than having to relearn it at the next lesson. Let your teacher know the problems you're having and they'll get you back on track.
- Try to learn something new on your own - Have your lesson material ready, as advised above. However, with the extra time between lessons, find something else to work on. Make it something fun like the riff to your favorite song, a solo or a chord progression using new chord voicings, etc. Choose anything that will keep your hands on your instrument and playing when the lesson material starts putting you to sleep (which it should after two weeks of practice).
Missed Lesson - Do Not List
- Do not think "I have a weeks vacation! I can take a break from practicing" - First, remember why you want to play and realize that practicing will get you to where you want to go! Don't look at practicing as something you need to take a vacation or break from. This thinking usually leads to absolutely no practice, or very little, over the two weeks between lessons. And if you don't practice, you'll actually regress from where you were at your last lesson.
- Do not beat yourself up about missing - There are some students that have a mental time line of when they should reach their musical goals: "If I take a weekly lesson and practice for 2 hours every day, I'll be able to nail that Paul Gilbert solo in 6 weeks". Then, when they hit a speed bump, like a missed lesson, it throws everything off. They think they're behind schedule and there will be no way of getting back on track. If you miss a lesson, big deal. If you keep practicing and make your next lesson, you won't lose a step.
- Do not waste your time - you can get plenty of practice in during the week leading up to your next lesson. However, don't waste it on everything but your lesson material. Get your lesson material together, then find some cool things to work on. Don't waste your time on material you know and that is not relevant to your current lessons. Make sure you work on lesson material first and the fun material next.
So, to wrap everything up ...
Don't miss your music lesson. But if you do, keep practicing and be ready to impress your teacher at the next lesson with how well you know the assigned material!
Posted by Jason at 21 Mar 2011 
Categories: Practice Ideas
Tags: bass lessons drum lessons guitar lessons music lessons piano and voice lessons
Categories: Practice Ideas
Tags: bass lessons drum lessons guitar lessons music lessons piano and voice lessons
Thanks for the tips! I ought to keep all these in mind when I miss lessons - especially the KEEP PRACTICING part.
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Thanks for the tips, jason.
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hello. totally agree with this post, i started learning the piano a few weeks ago and decide to give my fingers a rest for a few days and boy did I pay the price!. when i went back to the piano I felt like I had to learn things all over again - so keeping the air of rhythm together in small doses is better than stopping for a longer period and then starting again. Excellent post.
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it cool you really can get a real guitar lesson eqivalent online and not have to pay for a teacher. You just have to apply yourself and try hard
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Getting a guitar lesson online will never ever be equivalent with a real lesson. It's not all about determination and hard work, sometimes you have to have someone with you who could trust you and who could give you confidence. Someone who could help you when you miss a lesson, for any reason that is.
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I completely agree with you. A music teacher knows how to encourage a student.Today itself I was discouraged as I was failing to do a guitar chord and he told me that everyone do have these problems when they start and corrected my finger's positioning.
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A truer post was never written...but as a music educator I can tell you that the students that actually adhere to this policy often aren't the ones that need to follow it! So it goes...
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Great advice! Hard work and determinations always pays off in the end!
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lol at your "I have a weeks vacation! I can take a break from practicing" i always do that with my work! i really need to stop it... great pointers on what not to do
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Thank you for this post! I was searching for the right topic for my upcoming thesis until I came across this post. You gave me a great idea, I just had to let you know.
Thank you
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COOL!
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Thanks for such important tips. This is very useful for students.
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Motivation, Hard Work, Determination are the key to success.
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I think for me, generating the will power to work on the lesson and not work on the things that are fun for me is the toughest part about missing a lesson.
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Students are getting lazy when it comes about vacation...but motivation is the main thing that makes us practice music continuously.
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Great article, motivation is key to learning something new.
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You definitely want to stay motivated even if you miss a lesson. The only way this becomes a bad thing is if you let it. Keep practicing and enjoying your instrument.
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Excellent article very informative and useful,good tips,Keep it up.
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I have to listen to a certain song a few times before I realize how much I like it. Once I find out I like it then I just can't stop listening to it! I find myself moving the song at the top of the list sometimes just so it can play sooner.
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I agree with the fact that motivation is the most important but also the talent is. It depend on everybody is is on the right way to get to the top.Good tips anymay.
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A lot of it comes down to how much you want to improve - if you are paying for music lessons and then don't practice you are just costing yourself more money in the longterm. I also think that while online info is no substitute for a 'real' music lesson it can be a useful add on, if only to broaden your knowledge in an area, or open you up to different ways of doing things .
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Also, looking at additional resources online can prompt you to ask additional questions of your teacher, thus also extending your knowledge.
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Thanks for the article ! The problem with me is that if I stop practicing for a while it's so hard for me to start all over again. I think I need an impulse every time..
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Well, with me, I think the better way after u missed your lesson is to ask your class mate and then teacher and then practice by yourself.
And after all, don't skip any class
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Nice post. I think a lot of music students think that when a lesson is missed, they can take a break from practicing. As a piano teacher, this is an issue because it defers progress by my piano students. Hence, once I am notified of the cancellation, I like to assign a little bit more assignments to make up for the missed lesson (i.e., 2 more pages in theory, start practicing the next song in the method book, etc.). You had nice suggestions as well, thanks!
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