Why summer lessons?

-Meredith Manley

​The school year is coming to an end (yippee!) and summer is always an exciting time with camps, vacation, and some much needed downtime. Most school year activities come to a close for summer and start up again in August, and many families naturally assume that piano and voice lessons are the same. However, lessons are a year round commitment, although much more relaxed in the summer (trust me, teachers like their vacation time too!). At Music SO Simple, we require students to take AT LEAST 6 lessons over the summer to keep their spot for fall, and there are several reasons why.

First of all, students need to continue to at least maintain the level that they are at in May, if not progress. Imagine studying a language for 8 months, and then taking 3 months off; when you start back up again, you’ll have to take a few steps back to just remember what you worked on before the break. Lessons are the same way; if there is a long break, then chances are that we will need a few weeks to review songs from the previous school year before moving forward. In my experience, students who take more than 6 lessons over the summer achieve so much in such a short time. Without school, homework, and other activities, they have a lot of time to practice and learn much faster. Then they are ahead of the game for the next school year!

Summer lessons also allow for more freedom in repertoire choices. During the year, some of our students have to learn certain styles or genres for festivals and recitals. I always encourage my students to give me a list of requests or a new genre of music to try. This allows for simply learning a piece for enjoyment without the pressure of having it learned for a performance. Summer is also a good time for different music games, ear training, and maybe even composition- things that we usually don’t make a priority during the school year, but are just as important.

The last reason is that we are in demand (which is really exciting!) We’ve had a waitlist of students for a few months, so students that are willing to continue lessons in the summer are serious about their studies, and those are the type of students we want in our studio. We’ve learned from the past that simply a verbal agreement to continue in the fall without taking over the summer is sometimes a false promise that we turn down other eager students for. Taking a few lessons over the summer break just lets us know that you are really committed. Overall, summer lessons are more relaxed, more creative, and WAY fun! So, bring on the summer fun!