Summer Time for Guitar Students..... Proceed With Caution..

For many guitar students, like any other music students, summer is a time where many discontinue lessons, (or take the summer off) basically for a few reasons, but mainly because the parent(s) do not want to be tied to any schedule for the summer, and the student wants the summer schedule to be as free as possible.
For a student with very modest goals, (ie to learn some campfire songs, which he or she will probably want the summer off anyways to play them, okay silly humour there) it is no big deal taking the summer off. Their goals are very small, and really they should start achieving them after a small amount of months of lessons on the guitar anyways, if they are putting in an honest effort.
For a student with more "serious" ambitions and goals, taking the summer off often proves to be deadly for a few reasons:

a) Having a weekly lesson helps keep the student accountable to their practise routine.

I evaluate a student from the beginning of the lessons by knowing what their goals are, and countless times I have seen students with more serious ambitions take the summer off, and drastically fall behind with their progress in September, it is easy to see that they have not picked up the guitar very often over the summer.

b) There is a direct parallel between practising on the guitar and working out. You have to be in a routine for it truly to work. You can not go to the gym for 6 months then take 2 months off from working out, it just does not work that way, and the guitar is no different. Imagine your favourite guitar players that you admire, who inspired you to pick up the guitar in the first place.
Imagine what the state of music would be if James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, Joe Perry, Carlos Santana, Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Van Halen, etc... just stopped playing the guitar in the summer during their formative years of learning. Enough said.

The truth of the matter is that for a serious guitar player, the summer is actually a time to make your best gains and get more practising in. Even if they have a job over the summer, not going to school greatly frees up a student's schedule, I've made some of my best gains over the summer when I was younger. Use your time wisely. :)

Take care and we'll see you next time!

Bryan