Kids and music lessons: why do many promising players quit early?
I&#x27;ve been teaching beginning guitar lessons for about seven years. Guitar is a little different in that, outside of classical guitar, there&#x27;s very little traditional pedagogy, but from experience I think these things are generally true about most instruments.<p>1. When you start learning you sound terrible... for a long time. It&#x27;s very difficult to stay motivated when you can hear your problems.<p>2. It&#x27;s very difficult to judge your own progress. I&#x27;ve started recording short videos during lessons which I can show to students weeks or months later when they&#x27;re expressing frustration with their progress.<p>3. You have to <i>enjoy</i> practicing, since you have to pick up the instrument most days to maintain the dexterity, callouses, etc. It&#x27;s very easy for a pushy parent to beat the joy out of practicing.<p>4. You have to understand the difference between playing that song you can play great, and practicing something you suck at so you improve. It&#x27;s very easy to stagnate if you only play.<p>Really it boils down to, you&#x27;re going to suck for a while, then you&#x27;re going to think you suck even when you don&#x27;t, and you have to keep enjoying the process even when you think you suck.<p>&#x2F;edit formatting