When I was a young kid I attended an amazing all-day workshop on learning, how to study, how the brain works etc.
In the workshop, we were shown how to juggle, along with other things that help you keep your brain ticking over.
When I was doing my final year school exams, I put this into practice. By this time I was playing guitar, and I played more guitar than ever during that period. My best friend at the time played guitar too, and when we’d study together we’d jam during the breaks. But even on my own, I’d pick up the guitar in between every burst of revision.
It made the whole process far more enjoyable, my guitar playing improved enormously, and I did very well in those exams (for what it’s worth, more than achieving the grades I needed to go and study at Oxford University).
The moral of the story?
It’s all too common to be overwhelmed when faced with exams looming on the horizon, and neglect your guitar playing. But getting organised (having a revision schedule) and planning breaks where you play guitar can make the whole process more effective, and much more fun than it might otherwise be.
Rather than it being “guitar VERSUS exams”, it should be “guitar AND exams” 🙂