Much research has been done on the effect of summer breaks and academic performance.
Research shows that when students are not filling their summers with educational and enriching activities (Here is an interesting study) they may lose months of progress compared to their peers who keep learning in an enriching environment (like education camps, reading books from the library, and other activities like this).
Some articles I’ve read suggest it taking at least four to six weeks to catch up again each fall, other suggested up to 2.8 months.
The same thing can happen if students “take a break” from lessons over the summer. We had a great discussion about this in the Suzuki Triangle Community. Teachers agreed that it takes 1-3 months, on average, to get a student back to where they were at the end of the school year if they don’t take summer lessons.
The first ten years or so that I taught I didn’t require summer lessons and I started to notice some trends beyond the amount of time it takes to playing skills back to their former level:
Frustration:
When something used to be easy is now a struggle (especially a struggle that students already had to go through once before) students feel frustrated.
I started to hear things like “I can’t” and “It’s too hard.” from students who certainly could just a few months before.
This really affects a students motivation to keep playing. I started to see a pattern of students not returning in the fall (because the idea of restarting after a long break was daunting). Sometimes those who did return had such a frustrating time that they didn’t stick with their instrument for long.
Motivation:
Playing an instrument is hard work. It’s motivating when we see progress and see our ability begin to grow and develop.
It is NOT Motivating if we lose those skills and have to relearn them.
While I don’t require students to take lessons each week in the summer I do require a level of attendance that I feel will help students maintain their playing skills over the summer months. I want them to be ready to spring ahead into new things when we get back into a fall routine.
Summer can Actually be a great time to make progress: