how many lessons each week? / how much practise without damaging

[monkeyyy]

Hey!

I'm 1st years bachelor (performance).. and sometimes I think about taking a second piano teacher.. We only have lessons one hour a week.... 32 times a year.. so not really every week.. what's normal, and more important what's the best?

Further.. I don't know how many hours of practising a day is useful, and doesn't overuse your muscles (I've already got RSI)... quite a lot of people practise only 3 hours a day (in college).. others 8 or  in other countries like Russia even more..  Is that just a waste of time? I practise usually about 5 hours a day.. if possible 6 / 7.. and in the weekends not more dan 4.. because of my parents..

I want to get the best out of myself.. but I'm not so sure how?

Thanks for the advice,
Marianne

[amelialw]

I agree with you, you should get a second piano teacher but you may want to check with your present teacher if it's ok. Yes, 1 hr of lessons is really little, i'm not in music school now and just working on my piano performance dip but my lessons are usually 1 hr 45 mins to 2hrs and sometimes I have 2 lessons/per week.

I practise 4-5 hrs a day now, trying to keep my min to 5. If you really want to progress just make sure that you do lots of slow practise and think alot.

[pianochick93]

I am not as dedicated to piano and performing as some other pianists on this forum, so I have 3/4 of an hour once a week, and practice for an hour maybe every second night. I am building up my stamina so I can practice for longer, but at the moment my hands just get too tired.

I have managed to become pretty good in about a year though. I also practice at school in music lessons, 1 1/2 hours 3 times a week.

[cforlana]

I think 3 hr per day, max. 4 hrs a day is the limit to ON keyboard practicing. You can practice more but AWAY from piano (study the score, think). There are lots of ways to practice away from piano, you have to take care of your hands and not overwork them.

I've completed my undergraduate, so I know what I'm talking about. Trust me, lots of players who overwork their hands end up later with injuries. Be smart

I would check with you teacher about getting a second teacher, maybe you can work something out with your current teacher.

[nyonyo]

The number of lesson is depend on how fast you can master a piece. If you barely able to finish one page within one week regardless how long you practice a day, it will not be useful to take a lesson more than once a week. If you are a talented pianist, you should be able to do many things by yourself. Since you are already in college. My assumption is that you had enough paino background.

[thalberg]

Hey!

I'm 1st years bachelor (performance).. and sometimes I think about taking a second piano teacher.. We only have lessons one hour a week.... 32 times a year.. so not really every week.. what's normal, and more important what's the best?

Further.. I don't know how many hours of practising a day is useful, and doesn't overuse your muscles (I've already got RSI)... quite a lot of people practise only 3 hours a day (in college).. others 8 or  in other countries like Russia even more..  Is that just a waste of time? I practise usually about 5 hours a day.. if possible 6 / 7.. and in the weekends not more dan 4.. because of my parents..

I want to get the best out of myself.. but I'm not so sure how?

Thanks for the advice,
Marianne

Chopin said 3 hours a day was the max.  I personally feel 4 is the magic number.  Anything above that and you just don't get a lot out of it.  You have to keep fresh.

If you already have RSI, you should see an active release practitioner.

Go to www.activerelease.com to find one in your area.  The appointments are short, and it feels good like a massage (on your forearms) and it is the most wonderful thing I have found for fighting music related injuries.  Don't ignore this.  You will love it.

[lostinidlewonder]

As an aspiring professional musician you do yourself more disservice IMO when you have too many teachers at once. You must learn to work by yourself, don't get spoon fed too much along the way. 

Generally you do a lot more work yourself and use your teacher to assess if you have gone in the correct direction. If you fell your teacher at the moment isn't giving you enough work or guiding you enough, get another teacher, don't get a second one, it is just a waste of money and it confuses how you work on your music. Even if you do not have lessons every week that is fine too, you have to learn to work for yourself if you want to become a professional musician.

With regards to time of practice I hate measuring this with hours. You must always measure your progress with content of what you have learnt. With all my students studying music at universities I ensure that they learn how to calculate the exact time line to learn their music. That is, not measure it with hours, but rather parts of the piece that they must complete every time they sit at the piano to study and where you will be in the piece at the end of the day, week and month (depending on the content of their music). These parts of pieces might take 10 minutes each to master.

This would be helpful if you suffer pain when playing the piano. It is best to simply stop for an entire year if you have damage to your body from piano playing. It is either do that or suffer for the rest of your life. If you can't stop then you must make changes to the way you play the piano and imagine a perfect sound while playing instead of physically doing so.

Don't measure your musical study with hours, rather with content learnt.

[monkeyyy]

now I haven't really got time to reply, but thanks for all the replies! You'll hear from me soon. I'll think about it.

[dan101]

For me, there's really no limit to the amount that I practice. I practice mainly based on what is required for upcoming concert events. However, I do take frequent breaks so that I don't start making careless mistakes (there's nothing worse than practicing mistakes).

If you're practicing strenuously, make sure you don't begin feeling sharp, uncomfortable pains. If you do, stop. Seeing the warning signs of uncomfortable pain is extremely important.

[amelialw]

I too believe that 4 is the magic number  somehow when I push myself beyond 5 hrs, too much energy gets drained and I feel worn out the next day. I guess it just depends on whether you do effective practise or not.

[ryanyee]

I am not as dedicated to piano and performing as some other pianists on this forum, so I have 3/4 of an hour once a week, and practice for an hour maybe every second night. I am building up my stamina so I can practice for longer, but at the moment my hands just get too tired.

I have managed to become pretty good in about a year though. I also practice at school in music lessons, 1 1/2 hours 3 times a week.

well, at least you're still better than me aren't you? i practice until i lose my patience, which is about after 30 minutes if i don't get anything right and every single time i practice, i never see any improvement at all. any ideas why?

[slobone]

I would think it's obvious that if you already have RSI, you're doing something wrong. The answer might not be a question of how many hours you practice, though, but of how you spend that time. I believe Leon Fleischer, who finally regained the use of his right hand after many years, has advised students not to do finger exercises, but only to work on their pieces. I think he had other tips as well. However I couldn't find any reference to that on the web.

In any event you should make taking better care of your hands your top priority, even if it means dropping out of music school for a while. This is not something to mess around with.

As for having more than one teacher at a time, I can't see how that would help anything. They're sure to have different ideas, want you to work on different pieces, etc. And wouldn't they inevitably find out about each other? I think it's kind of a bizarre idea...

[richard black]

I don't know how many hours of practising a day is useful, and doesn't overuse your muscles (I've already got RSI)...

You don't get RSI from overuse of muscles - how many road-menders have you ever heard of with RSI? It's more like under-use. RSI really only is an issue for people who move their hands and fingers a lot but don't put much force on them - musicians and typists. Do something else with your hands that really flexes the muscles in them.

[monkeyyy]

With my RSI it's already quite good btw (I have it for over a year now.. I didn't study the piano for about two months last year and than gradually built it up again), I  have some therapy and I'm trying very hard at the moment to sit straight, to move only the fingers that have to move (I played e.g. with the pink "in the air" all the time) and to feel weight in my elbows. And I use an alarm clock, to take a 1-minute break every 10 minutes. Its helps, my playing has improved too!  I think it's not necessary to quit again, though I'm maybe practising too much indeed.. thinking to lightly about it..only because I feel bad otherwise.
But I was wondering how long completely "RSI-free" people can practise (if they practise with the right techniques). that's my goal I think .
further I  think it's correct that I've to think less about the amount of hours and more about what I want to achieve, I 'm working on it. :-) Thanks!

And you changed my thoughts about a second teacher.. I think I won't look for one. Instead I'll try to make some appointments with other students, students who are playing the same stuff, to play for, and criticize, each other. And I think I'll ask my teacher if she's oke with the idea of having some group 'lessons' with her students, without her (because she hasn't got the time).

Have a nice Christmas!

[pianochick93]

well, at least you're still better than me aren't you? i practice until i lose my patience, which is about after 30 minutes if i don't get anything right and every single time i practice, i never see any improvement at all. any ideas why?

Something like that sometimes happens with me. I just call it an off-day and give up practicing. If I keep going I will just keep getting things wrong, and lose confidence in myself. These off-days usually happen when I am angry or not thinking straight. On the other hand, sometimes I play when I am angry or not thinking straight and it helps me to calm down.

[ryanyee]

a first hand experience story from aa 14 yr old. i would say that my hands are already damage. you see i can't play rapid passages as nimble as i use to 2 yrs ago and i find that my hands, or rather arms grow tired easily. i was told that using ur arm strength is correct by my 2nd piano teacher but i personally think that it is wrong because before that piece of advice was given to me, i didn't tire out that easily but i also don't remember using my arm strength until last november. could my total using of my arm strength to play the piano be the cause of my ruined fingers?

[gregoryp]

At first I had a single teacher and had lessons from 2-3 times per week, an hour at a time, and tried to practice daily for at least an hour. Sometimes difficult with a full time job and family. Then tried two teachers at the same time, but that got to be too much, so I let one go, and now have just one lesson a week for an hour and a bit each week. Works pretty well. Practice is the tough part, with a busy schedule, trying to squeeze it in is a challenge... 

[slobone]

As for taking more than one lesson a week, I think the criterion should be: am I making enough progress in between lessons to justify it? If it only takes you 2 or 3 days to master everything your teacher told you to do, and you're spinning your wheels for the rest of the week, then yes, by all means arrange to get more lessons.

But I don't think that happens to most of us unless we're exceptionally gifted or hard-working. When I was working full time and taking lessons on the side, I was lucky if I got through my assignment for the week...