There are things that every student, young and old, can do to prepare for your guitar lesson in order to gain the most you can from the money you spend to be trained. In this article we give you a sort of checklist of things you can do to be the most prepared for your guitar lessons apart from your daily practice routines. Do these things before every guitar lesson and you will quickly become one of your guitar teacher’s favorite students!
Eat a Snack Before Your Guitar Lesson
In order to gain the most out of your guitar lesson you want your brain to be as alert and awake as possible in order to gain all the knowledge possible from your lesson. What you don’t want is that sugar, low energy, dip right before your lesson where you feel foggy-brained and tired. So avoid this by getting yourself a snack beforehand or even a cup of coffee if you’re a coffee drinker!
Make Sure Your Nails Are Cut
Not having your nails manicured according to what kind of guitar technic you are learning can take away from the quality of your lesson time. It will prevent you from the best execution of your playing. You want to be playing your best at all times so having your nails cut and filed according to your teacher’s standards is part of getting the best out of your guitar lessons as possible. Your teacher will also be grateful to not have to repeat this information to you during your lesson.
Tune Your Guitar
Save your precious and well-paid for lesson time for learning new things. Don’t waste it with taking a pause to tune your guitar if you can do that beforehand. Get right to the meat of your lesson quicker and get the most you can out of your guitar teacher and the knowledge they have to give you for that day!
Review Your Music
It’s not always a good idea to practice on your lesson day. Your brain processes things when you go to sleep so it’s not the most beneficial to try to put in practice time to try to prepare for your guitar lesson.
Instead, reviewing your music before your lesson is more like a warm-up for your fingers. Like stretching before a run or a workout routine.
Trust the brain input you already put in through the week. That muscle memory that you developed over the last week or since your last lesson. Just get your fingers loosened up for that muscle memory to come more fluidly for your lesson!
Have a Checklist For Preparing For Your Guitar Lessons
Very often our students “forget” items that they should have brought to their lesson. Be intentional with taking a moment before getting ready to leave for your lesson to think of all the things you might possibly need for your lesson.
If you want to really be on top of things and excel at this, create an actual checklist for yourself. Keep it either in your guitar case or in your phone. Somewhere you won’t easily lose it.
Go down your list to make sure you have everything before you head out the door. Your list might include: guitar pick(s), guitar tuner or your phone charged if your charger is an app, your lesson materials, guitar strap, etc. Your list might be simple but being intentional about consciously going through your list is key to being prepared for your lesson and getting the most out of your lesson time as possible.
Be Prepared to Give Yourself the Best Experience You Can
Take this article and save it as your checklist! Or make a simpler version for yourself and keep it either on your phone or in your music binder, folder, or notebook (whichever you take to your lessons, if you have one).
Be as successful as you can with yourself! It really comes down to more of a dedication to your Self than to your music lessons. Give yourself the best out of life’s opportunities so that you can develop into the best version of yourself that you can!
