It has been awhile since my last post! My how time flies, 2011 is here soon to be 2012!

Students coming and going is a part of the guitar teaching industry, we as guitar instructors do accept this.

I have definitely noticed a trend in my over 10 years of teaching guitar, I do wonder where the world is headed with what I call the "technology" generation shift.

What do I mean by this? Well, in our everyday lives, we are busier and busier as there are more gadgets to pay for (my parents sure never paid for a second vehicle, cell phone, or internet) that perhaps sometimes parents let technology help raise their children. You know, it's easier sometimes to let the child play with a new video game or watch a movie, just to get a few quiet minutes to ourselves. And with advances is social networking, kids get very caught up on events on their computers or cell phones........

Now having come from the Atari generation, we did play video games, but we did not let it consume our day to day activities. I remember when I was young playing Space Invaders, then after awhile going outside to play street hockey or baseball. I don't know if this is so much the case for many kids of today.

How does this relate to teaching guitar? Well, let us take the Guitar Hero craze for example. This was great for the guitar teaching industry as many kids and teens developed an interest in learning the actual instrument after playing the video game. I have noticed when many do take actual guitar lessons, once they realize it takes some practice and effort to make progress, some rationalize that it is easier to play the video game and drop out of lessons.

Don't get me wrong, there are still many wonderful teenage students out there, but I can definitely see where the times have changed, even since the mid 2000's.

Right now I am thinking about a few students who have given up their valuable lesson spots over the past few years, with both of us knowing they haven't really made much of an effort. I would hate to give up on something knowing I didn't really try my best. I hope as they get older they realize that what you put into something you truly do get out of it, not just on the guitar, but life in general. Video games and TV don't give back very much when you consider how much time some people put into them.