Believe it or not, sleep plays a vital role in your ability to learn and master difficult subjects like learning to play the guitar.

Practice Guitar Before Going to Bed for Maximum Results

As Dr. Barbara Oakley, Oakland University professor of engineering and author of A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science (Even If You Flunked Algebra), states, “during sleep, the brain tidies up ideas and concepts you’re thinking about and learning. It erases the less important parts of memories and simultaneously strengthens areas you need or want to remember. During sleep, the brain rehearses the more difficult parts of whatever you’re trying to learn.”

Should You Practice Guitar in the Morning or Before Bed?

A recent study by the Harvard Medical School found that students who studied just before going to bed at 9 p.m. did significantly better than their counterparts who studied the same material at 9 a.m. in the morning. So before you tuck in at night, grab your guitar, open up Guitar for Kids: Rock Dojo The Complete Belt System, and rock out for a five or ten minutes!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Brian Parham is the founder of the Rock Dojo in Portland, Oregon, where he teaches hundreds of kids between the ages of 6 and 12 years-old to play, perform, and compose their own original music on the guitar in after-school group guitar lessons. He’s also the author of three guitar method books including Guitar for Kids: Rock Dojo The Complete Belt System.