Lets discuss the value of doing one thing, one important thing as a follow-up after anytime you finish-up doing a guitar lesson. And, it doesn't matter if it's a lesson that you took online through a membership web-site like mine. It could even be a lesson that you had just done by Skype, or a lesson that you attended locally in your home-town, (done face to face with your own private guitar instructor).



Doing the follow-up that I'm going to discuss here will do wonders for your overall skill building and for enhancing your learning curve. It'll help you better understand information and it'll help you better integrate topics that you are studying.

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Doing an, "After Lesson" follow-up:
When we study music in any way - in any capacity - we're going to get a lot more out of that lesson if we can spend some additional time after the class, doing what I like to call a "Wind-Down" from the topics covered. It's pretty much a review of what was studied in the lesson.

Often times, when we're learning new material in almost any style of music training, we're in a state of mind where we will (with that new material) rather quickly feel overwhelmed. There are generally a number of terms being thrown at us in a music class. There's chords, a series of finger motions we're likely unsure of, and there's rhythms to develop.

Learning music requires a sense of understanding about all new music theory topics that are being developed. Of all of the ideas you study, (while at guitar class with your instructor), it's almost guaranteed that there will be certain things that you will not fully comprehend. And, in many cases, that's why the winding down period you do immediately afterward - can be so valuable.




Putting this Idea into Context:
Time to put some context together here. Let's say that you just attended a guitar lesson, and you were studying the concept of Parallel Tonality. Often called, "Modal Interchange." At the lesson, your teacher explained what this process involves using several examples.

They explained how you can take a chord from the harmony of one tonality (like for example a chord from a Minor key), and place it into a progression that functions in the Major key. Maybe the teacher gave you an example of how a chord like; "Bb Major" could be added into a chord progression that was already established as being "D Major."

Perhaps your teacher also showed you how that chord could be used to do something unique, like modulate the progression up a half-step to the key of "Eb major." Now, during that lesson, do you honestly think that you would have fully comprehended all of that information in just one class?

Or, do you think that, after the lesson, you would have rather quickly started to forget things by the time that you finished the lesson, packed up and drove back home?



The "Wind-Down" [RE-LEARNING]:
This is where the "Wind Down" of information, that re-learning of the recently covered information (done immediately after your lesson), can become so incredibly valuable to you.

In the case of the topics I just mentioned, (from that example of studying Modal Interchange in a lesson), how would things be different if you, immediately after that lesson, went home and began breaking down (reviewing) everything your teacher was discussing.

If you would spend even 20 min. writing out the key of "D Major" and the key of "D Minor," and you calmly worked out how to take notice of where the "Bb Major" chord exists. And, if you played examples of adding that "Bb Major" chord into chord movements that are within "D Major," if you did that, what do you think would happen?

What would happen is you'd reach a new level of understanding during the wind-down because the information was so fresh in your mind. It would be a much better, deeper, much more effective use of your time, (not to mention a better investment of the money you just paid for that lesson).

If you spent even a short period - even 20 min. on doing a review like this, just to sit down right after the guitar lesson, and review all of the material, the learning experience would be greatly enhanced.



How to Execute the "Re-Learn" Process:
Here's a breakdown of specifically what I'm getting at of what you should do after your lesson to deepen the learning experience, and to essentially re-learn once more what was covered during your class.

Step (1).
Do NOT do anything else immediately after your lesson. Don't go to the movies with your friends, don't sit on the couch and watch TV, don't go for a pizza with the gang. Instead, go to your quiet practice room and just sit down for at least 20 min. and review everything that you just studied from your lesson.

Step (2).
Put pencil to paper. Grab a piece of staff-paper and write out harmonies you just studied. If you worked on chords, draw them on chord diagram paper. If you studied scales or arpeggios, write them out on fingerboard worksheet paper. Spend at least 5-7 min. on this part. There's something extremely beneficial about writing out material and staring at it, asking yourself what you do understand, and what you don't understand.

Step (3).
This method of re-learning after the lesson involves physically doing some more of what you covered at your lesson all over again. Whether that was a music reading study your teacher mentioned a few really good fingerings for. Or, if it was a lick, a solo section or a chord progression example... whatever it was, do it again, review it.

Keep in mind, this review doesn't have to be a heavy in-depth practice. In fact, I'd recommend that it wasn't. This period is just a review. Just a chance to bring up the information in your mind quickly one more time for a recall of the lesson details.

Once you've done this quick review method, you'll start to notice some really amazing benefits start coming along into your playing, through the rest of your week.



CONCLUSION:
As you can imagine, if you start doing this method of hitting your lesson material once again after the class for only 20 min. it's going to make a big difference for you. The intricate details of your lesson will all still be VERY fresh in your mind. Especially when it comes to the study of and the application of music theory. If you do this you'll start noticing some amazing ability begin happening when it comes to recall of important details that happened in your lesson.

Please understand that when you just leave a lesson, and you go off to do something else, your mind gets over-written with other information and other life details. But, when you hit the material again, right afterward, it's pretty incredible what kind of practice week that you're going to experience 2, 3, or 4 - 5 days after your session with your teacher.

So, I challenge you to try this, and then come back to this video in a week or two and leave your comments as to what you experienced when using this idea of executing an immediate review of the covered material, right after your guitar lesson!



VISIT THE WEB-SITE:
Well, hey, thanks for joining me, If you'd like to Find Out What You Should Learn Next on Guitar - take a look at the courses over on my website at CreativeGuitarStudio.com.

My step-by-step; Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced courses will cover what you need to know, along with how to be able to move forward and become the best player that you can be. I've worked on these courses since 1992 and I feel that all together they're the best guitar program that you'll ever find.

The courses will help you learn to identify what's required to get you up to the next level of guitar playing, in a very organized way, that makes sense.

So, I look forward to helping you further at CreativeGuitarStudio.com ...Until next time - take care and we'll catch up again on the next lesson. Bye for now!