what does your daily practice schedule look like?

[mswaller]

Curious to know how others break up their practice time.  For example,  up until a few years ago my daily practicing consisted of: 1 hour scales/exercises; 1 hour etudes; 1 hour pieces.  For the last couple years I've basically just been working on music.  I've been playing piano 20yrs, and have been told that much of the learning at this point can come from the music itself.  The problem is that I'm feeling like I am losing technique by only working on pieces. 

For those of you that have been playing awhile:  how do you break up your daily practice?  Do you have any suggestions that I might try?  Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[amelialw]

I usually practise for 4-5 hrs, this is how my schedule looks like

45 mins-1hr: Bach Partita No.2 in c minor(Sinfonia) or Mendelssohn Rondo Cappriccioso

1 hr : Haydn Sonata in E flat major No.49 or/and Beethoven Sonata in A major Op.2 No.2 or 2 hrs:both

30-45 mins: Technique including scales,3rds,6ths,fomular pattern,chromatic scales,solid chords,broken and alternate chords, appegios,broken octaves and broken chromatic octaves

30 mins: Rachmaninoff prelude in G sharp minor Op.32 No.12 or 1 hr: Chopin Etude Op.10 No5 "Black Key"

1 hour: Chopin Etude in F major Op.10 No.8 or 95 mins: Schumann Concerto in a minor Op.54


my advice is that you leave at least 30 mins for technique everyday or at least every 2 days

[thalbergmad]

I cannot for the life of me see the benefit of practising for 5 hours a day.

Whilst i am not a pro, when i was playing well i never did more than 2, maybe 3 if i had to learn something for a lesson.

Thal

[zheer]

what does your daily practice schedule look like?


  Not much , mostly sight reading.

[amelialw]

actually 4 hrs is short, time passes really fast. 5 hrs is'nt that long either. You just have to want to practise and enjoy sitting down at the piano. With pieces like sonatas and concertos and 10 page pieces time can be passed easily.

[jinfiesto]

I practice about 5 hours a day... I start with about an hour of scales and other stuff. Then I practice some chopin etudes. And then I move on to my music... Although... It's not usually 5 hours all at once.. I usually break it up.

[pet]

I practice about 2 hours a day.  I practice in blocks of 20 minutes.  Before I even practice, I write down what I want to accomplish for the day.  This saves a lot of time, and I believe those who practice more than 3 hours do not do this, resulting in the exremely long practice sessions.

20 minutes:  Scales of any of my pieces.  So for example, if I am practicing a piece in C major, I would do four octaves of CM, Cm (all 3 scales) in contrary motion, Octaves, and arpeggios (contrary motion).  If I get stuck on any of the scales, then I might break it down for the week.

20 minutes:  1 movement of a sonata (usually the one that needs to be worked on the most)

20 minutes:  1 or two pages of an etude that needs to be worked on.

20 minutes:  Brahms Intermezzo

20 minutes:  1 or two pages of another etude.

20 minutes:  Another Brahms Intermezzo

20 minutes:  Whatever needs extra practice from above.

After this, I take note on what I practiced for the day and what I learned really well.  Then I make a list for the next day.

On the weekends I practice everything that I have practiced during the week, so obviously that would take more than 2 hours.

[invictious]

I practice 1 hour to 1.5 hours at most..
Lazy pianist anyone? I am also taking DipABRSM..

Usually 30 minutes of one piece, then the rest is all mucking around with random pieces..

If i am practicing seriously though, then 30 minutes of each piece in my DipABRSM repertoire

[depp]

I practise about 1-2 hour a day, that's all the time I got nowadays.

It is not enough time to play anything else but my homework. I always have an etude and a classical piece to study. Right now Chopin Waltz Op 69 no 1.

[franz_]

I usually practise for 4-5 hrs, this is how my schedule looks like

45 mins-1hr: Bach Partita No.2 in c minor(Sinfonia) or Mendelssohn Rondo Cappriccioso

1 hr : Haydn Sonata in E flat major No.49 or/and Beethoven Sonata in A major Op.2 No.2 or 2 hrs:both

30-45 mins: Technique including scales,3rds,6ths,fomular pattern,chromatic scales,solid chords,broken and alternate chords, appegios,broken octaves and broken chromatic octaves

30 mins: Rachmaninoff prelude in G sharp minor Op.32 No.12 or 1 hr: Chopin Etude Op.10 No5 "Black Key" and Chopin Etude op.25 No.9 "Butterfly"

1 hour: Chopin Etude in F major Op.10 No.8 or 95 mins: Schumann Concerto in a minor Op.54


my advice is that you leave at least 30 mins for technique everyday or at least every 2 days

That's a nice schedule. But do you really do this very strictly every day ??

[amelialw]

yes I do this strictly everyday. If i'm too tired the next day/too stressed out, i'll make it up the next day

[lazlo]

Yeah, I practice between 3-4 hours a day usually, but never all at once. That would be physically and emotionally impossible. But over the course of a day, provided you had the time and inclination you could actually practice 8 hours a day and get a lot out of it. It's all about spacing. An hour in the morning. An hour in the afternoon. An hour before a meal. An hour before bed. Sometimes I'll sit down for a session and just not feel it and practice for 20minutes or something, and then sit down later and practice for an hour and a half. Although I've found the usefulness of extended sessions limiting after an hour and a half. More like an hour and a quarter really without a break is ideal for me. 

[jabbz]

1.37mins - Scales
then neighbor complains, and practice stops.

[quantum]

My practice schedule looks something like a painting by Jakson Pollock. 

If I were to break it down 50% would be for repertoire 50% for improvisation.  Instead of doing dry technique, nowadays I prefer to improvise using the technical patterns I wish to improve. 

[etudes]

1.37mins - Scales
then neighbor complains, and practice stops.

1.37 mins you can play chopin op.10 no.2  plus some scales

[ted]

I haven't done anything for years, aside from perhaps a few minutes every so often on my practice clavier, which could properly be called practice. I suppose I would play around 95% improvisation and 5% pieces. Like quantum, I find specific movements are best developed within improvisation and invariably directed toward keyboard vocabulary and musically creative ends. I doubt I would play the same notes in the same way two days running, and I usually give playing a rest for at least two days a week.

[schubertiad]

I have now got about 8 hrs a day free, so plan to do about 5-6 hours a day. Like lots of other people here, I break it up into lots of 20ish minute sessions, each of which is used to practise one tiny bit. Then gradually, when each of those bits is more comfortable, I spend the next day's 20 minutes joining two bits together, until each section grows to link together and i have learnt the whole piece. That's the theory, at least. The practice is a little more like blindly thrashing around, but i'm working on it...

[thorn]

1.37mins - Scales
then neighbor complains, and practice stops.

haha, tell me about it- but i have auditions coming up so they can go swivel

currently i do about an hour and a half in the morning, another hour and half in the afternoon and two hours in the evening

i pick two or three of my audition pieces at the start of each session and just re-memorise individual sections that i have problems with when playing without the score

i dont actually do any scales at the moment x_x *ashamed*

[amelialw]

haha...I have both auditions and competitions comming up. really stressed out right now.