Can you lose skill from not practicing a instrument over a summer?

Question

Can you lose skill from not practicing a instrument over a summer?

Answer 1

Yes...and ... No!   Mostly, it depends upon how far along in you are in your studies.    Sometimes, a short "time-out" will permit you to digest what you were taught prior to your summer vacation.   It is possible that when you pickup your instrument next time, the things you had difficultly with prior to your vacation, could just come to you stronger than you thought they would.    "Practice" is just doing something over and over again and again, until it comes to you easier.    Learning to play an instrument, takes time, and effort.    The more you practice, the better you will become.    While, it may seem like torture to have to do things over and over, it will all pay off.    One day, without much thought on your part, you will pick up your instrument and cut loose with a piece, that will surprise everyone including yourself.    Don't give up... you'll get there!

Answer 2

its not really skill youll loose, its more like forgetting chords or how to play a song, thats what youll loose.

Answer 3

practice makes perfect......although you may lose skill playing your instrument it should come second nature and should be remembered like riding a bicycle

Answer 4

Definately. It sounds like you don't play your instrument for enjoyment but for school. So you don't have to play it religiously or anything but just pick it up every couple days for 10 or 20 minutes to keep your skills sharp and to practice reading music.

Answer 5

yes: like anything it takes practice to maintain skill.

you may not be awful, but if you take your instrument out and play from time to time you'll be better if you hadn't played at all.

Answer 6

You may not actually lose the skills, but you definitely get rusty.  Don't take a step backward in your playing.  Play at least a little most days to keep up what you've learned so far.

Answer 7

Well,  it depends on how good you are to begin with...   If you are very, very accomplished...  it won't do you much good not to practice as you will not make any progress and you will be a little rusty.. but you will be fine.   If you  are not that good...  you will go back to school very much worse.   You do have to keep in mind that there are kids who are practicing and will catch up or move past you in the summer if you don't practice.   If you have a good reason for not practicing...  OK.  But if you just don't feel like it...  then don't be surprised at how much you can lose.... and you sure won't get the time back you could have made real progress.

Answer 8

Absolutely. It's not even a question.

Imagine you're a marathon runner. If you take three months off and then try to start running again, you'll find yourself in bad shape.

Fingers, lips, and tongues get out of condition for instrumentalists just like legs for a runner.

Answer 9

Yes... but practicing technique or song/sutdies 1-2 times a week should be good!!!