If you have practiced, have faith that your instructor can see your work!
Hitting a wrong note or three
Take a moment and be reasonable. What do you think being a student is like? Why do we take lessons? Where do your expectations come from? Think about the players you idolize. Every last one of them NEEDED lessons for over a decade. They needed those lessons because even after countless hours of practice and excellent information given by the finest instructors, they needed more guidance. Notes are but a single component of the overall picture of your artistry.
There is an obvious difference in the way it looks and sounds when someone who understands a concept misses it versus someone who does not. Also, sometimes a mistake is actually a sign that you’re doing something right. Perhaps you weren’t missing that note before but you had lousy technique, for instance. Lousy technique is lousy because it sets you up for failure and/or injury. So the miss due to a nascent skill is progress in the long term, if annoying in the shorter term.
One last thing to consider: you may notice that confident, experienced players are not as bothered by notes that aren’t cleanly hit or are missed altogether. Just like an Olympic gymnast is at peace with the occasional step out of bounds (in service of a powerful tumbling pass) or wobble on the beam (in service of not falling off the apparatus), so too are those of us who do this as a job. Because it just happens. To everyone. Onward is the only direction.
Asking for elaboration, for something to be explained some other way
A good instructor wants you to understand why, what, and how you’re doing what you’re doing on the instrument. Completely. It’s natural to need a bit of explanation after the initial presentation of a concept! Even better, asking questions shows your instructor that you are listening, engaged, and wrestling with the idea. It took me YEARS to understand how harmony worked in an academic setting. I had one of the finest, kindest teachers and I still took a D in his class twice before I finally moved to the jazz side of the department. The ideas are largely the same, but the lexicon classical tonal harmony uses was not one that made sense to me. Jazz harmony served as a skeleton key back to comprehending the classical stuff. My jazz harmony teacher was not superior to my classical one; I just needed things explained to me in a different way.
Having an off week or two
I always say, we teach people, not an instrument. Like any relationship, the reality is that sometimes we don’t feel as much joy for or connection to our playing. But like all long term healthy relationships, it’s navigating the tenuous moments that builds resilience and depth. Don’t
An entire lesson focusing on a single concept
A perceived lack of progress on your end