Piano Forum
Piano Board => Performance => Topic started by: Beet9 on February 09, 2004, 05:01:31 PM
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I was wondering how much practice is too much. I practice about 6-9 hours a day, usually about 7 hours. Do you think this is too much? I don't want to damage my hand, but I it takes me this long to get through my technique and pieces. How much do you practice? Do you have any suggestions?
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well my first suggestion would be to cut the crap - forget technical exercises - and learn music that will replace them - eg forget scales and arpeggios - learn alkan's op 76 no 3, forget 3rds - learn chopin and godowsky's 3rds etudes, etc etc
your technique will end up just as good, and youll be more happy cos ur playing superb music too.
this is what im in the process of doing right now.
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There is absolutely No need to practice 7 hours a day unless many things need to be learnt in a very short space of time. I have never practiced more than 4 hours a day - it is not necessary. I usually spend about 3 hours a day practicing (playing for pelasure not included). And there is no need to get through your "technique" - spend the time sight reading. If you have a particular digital difficulty, learn a relevant piece. If you are spending this amount of time working on anything physically straining, you will hurt yourself. As far as muscle development is concerned, always "little and often", never try and "swat" it, or you will kill your hand.
Instead of practicing all the time, go and listen to an opera or read through a symphony, and you will find it will improve your piano playing much more.
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7 hrs a day is a lot. You should watch out indeed. When one practice this much for a long time (meaning years) you risk developing dystonia. And i assure you, that's the last thing you want. You don't directly damage your hand, it is like RSI (repetitive strain injury) but RSI is caused by the periphere (dont know if thats good english) nervous system but dystonia is caused by the brain. This only happens to pianists, who play and practice too much.
Pianists as Glenn Gould, Michelangeli and Fleischer for example, also suffered of this syndrome (so i'm told by another member of this forum who also suffers dystonia for the past 11 years..)
The member i just referred to told me that in the years he studied he practised like 10 hrs a day...
Be careful, i've seen how they treat (or rather, this syndrome is being suppressed) it and you don't wanna know :-/
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Technical excercise are nearly worthless. Why not go through a few Chopin, Liszt, Scriabin, and Racmaninov etudes? This way you can condense your "technique time" and your actual learning time. Working on purely mechanical excercises will never improve you musicianship, and you should constantly be improving you technique through the pieces you are learning.
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how much time? that depends on what you are (pianistically) right now, what you want to become, what you need to do in order to get there, where your limits are, etc, etc. for instance, volodos says he never practiced more than 2 hours a day; pletnev used to practice 10 to 14 hours a day(when he was a student in the conservatory); gilels was well known for being the first student to get to the practicing hall in the morning and the last to leave; martha argerich is said to have been unable to touch the piano before the second cup of coffee and the fifth cigarette :)
if your technique is correct, you risk nothing by practicing as much as you want, most important is the quality of the practice - you need to be focused, to be able to think straight and hear right, so i guess the head is the first to crack on to much practice (that would be my case). so, best ask your teachers, who know you best, and know better than anyone here what you should do.
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That amount of practice sounds kind of excessive. On some days I might practice up to 5 or 6, but those days are relatively uncommon. I just can't usually concentrate much longer than 2-3 hours most days, and if I practice beyond that, I get lazy and develop bad habits. I know it may sound odd, but sometimes a day's break from piano playing will actually help me.
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I know it may sound odd, but sometimes a day's break from piano playing will actually help me.
Quite!
Ed
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The important is to study with the right manner and with different techniques (even Bach could be used), so balanced study for the prosecution terget! :)
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So somebody else has noticed this as well? I wonder what the best way to take advantage of that is, maybe have 1 day a week with no practice, I don't know. It really is funny. Some day for example I'll spend 2 hours at a piece, making some progress, but with a couple trouble spots. Then, I don't touch the piano for a day, and all of a sudden the trouble disappears. Is that what you've noticed?
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It really is funny. Some day for example I'll spend 2 hours at a piece, making some progress, but with a couple trouble spots. Then, I don't touch the piano for a day, and all of a sudden the trouble disappears. Is that what you've noticed?
Exactly!
Ed
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So somebody else has noticed this as well? I wonder what the best way to take advantage of that is, maybe have 1 day a week with no practice, I don't know. It really is funny. Some day for example I'll spend 2 hours at a piece, making some progress, but with a couple trouble spots. Then, I don't touch the piano for a day, and all of a sudden the trouble disappears. Is that what you've noticed?
I've noticed it too! Only the trouble spots don't entirely disapear, but i notice i can play it much better, it only needs a finishing touch then. It is quite funny indeed :)
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Yeah, I've noticed this too. It's also amazing how long finger memory lasts.
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Yes,
Maybe this is a good amount of time to let your brain maximize the growth it goes through to get your muscles to remember what to do. Maybe from now on I should practice piece A and B on day one, 3 and 4 on day 2 and then back to 1 and 2 next day!!!
Worth a try...
-Tony-
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Beet9 wrote
"I practice about 6-9 hours a day, usually about 7 hours."
My question is: how much of those 6-9 hours that you say you are practicing, you are concentrated at your max? How much of that time you can say it was really worth practicing? And don't forget practicing doesn't mean to stay at the piano... or even play the piano! Somebody said in a related topic that a pianist is never trully honest about the amount of time he practices.
I saw in your profile that you are 16... where do you find time at 16 to practice 7 hours a day??? Don't you have homework, school?
The Bitus
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Bitus - It is very possible to practice 7 hours on a school day. I practice 2 hrs before school and 4-6 hours after school. Do ur homework in the frickin car!!
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I think it is better to do an hour at a time. You definitely need to take lots and lots of breaks if you want to effectively practice for long periods of time. To concentrate entirely on one piece for an hour at one time is good I think. take a break after and go outside...don't necessarily do homework bu relax your mind. Then come back do another hour maybe on something different. But if your not concentrating and very much into what you are practicing it is useless!
Try reading to find the interview with Horowitz "Technic, the Outgrowth of Musical Thought."
Rob47
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I've noticed it too! Only the trouble spots don't entirely disapear, but i notice i can play it much better, it only needs a finishing touch then. It is quite funny indeed :)
Chuan C. Chang in his book "Fundamentals of Piano Practice" calls it PPI (post-practice improvement). And yes we can take advantage of it by learning more than one piece at a time. Let's say we are learning pieces A, B and C. On the first day we practise A and B, the second B and C, third C and A, etc. Makes sense?
dennis lee
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Chuan C. Chang in his book "Fundamentals of Piano Practice" calls it PPI (post-practice improvement). And yes we can take advantage of it by learning more than one piece at a time. Let's say we are learning pieces A, B and C. On the first day we practise A and B, the second B and C, third C and A, etc. Makes sense?
dennis lee
Oops! I hadn't notice. RondoAllaTony said something similar. Saw it only after I hit 'Return'.
dennis lee
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Try reading to find the interview with Horowitz "Technic, the Outgrowth of Musical Thought."
Rob47
Where can you find that interview?
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2 very interesting interviews with horowitz can be found here :
https://w1.854.telia.com/~u85420275/articles.htm
enjoy! ;)
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Thanks! :)
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your welcome
theres some interesting info about horowitz ive found out on the net- apparently he occasionaly enjoyed pornography, and one of his favourite movies was 'the terminator'. very interesting! ;D
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Ouuu ,so gunmachines? ;D 8)
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So somebody else has noticed this as well? I wonder what the best way to take advantage of that is, maybe have 1 day a week with no practice, I don't know. It really is funny. Some day for example I'll spend 2 hours at a piece, making some progress, but with a couple trouble spots. Then, I don't touch the piano for a day, and all of a sudden the trouble disappears. Is that what you've noticed?
That happens with me also - I think the practicing is done in your sleep
Euan
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comme_le_vent... that's really cool web-site. Do you know if there are any sites similar to that about other pianists or composers?
The Bitus
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Practising 6-9 hours a day on top of going to school is nothing but amazing and admirable, but i would guess not the best option. Like other people have said that not practising for a day makes things better sometimes, i would suggest that there are heaps of other things that can improve ones piano playing too (though i totally agree about not practising for a day). LISTEN to music. And not just piano music, or music directly relevant to the pieces you are studying. It's inspiring and wonderful. Try to discover pieces you don't know. Talk to people who are also passionate about music and piano. Read books. Live a little. I know it all sounds cliched and pretentious but I'm convinced it's true. How can you play passionately and convincingly if it is the only thing you know. Music is about people and the power of the human spirit, so don't forget to be a person too!
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Very good point, poulenc ;)
The Bitus
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no i dont know any other sites quite as detailed as that, but you can always use google......
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Practising 6-9 hours a day on top of going to school is nothing but amazing and admirable
No it's not. Who spends that much time on actual practice and not just playing crap they already know? I doubt VERY much it's 6-9 hours of hardcore, intense thinking. I remember a while ago reading in a news paper that university students who went off to study music performance were told that "They should not be playing anymore" because they had overdone the number of "practice" hours. What's that? But my technique's perfect? Sure it is! Maybe for the first hour and a half, then you start slouching and getting sloppy with your technique, and you play like that for hours without knowing it. Oh well, you're different though, I know you're technique's perfect for the full 6-9 hours.
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Bitus - It is very possible to practice 7 hours on a school day. I practice 2 hrs before school and 4-6 hours after school. Do ur homework in the frickin car!!
Hmmm...4-6 hours after school...then 2 hours before school. Do you think your brain has had enough rest to actually comprehend what you're doing?
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I don't know about you guys, but I have a *day job* - a.k.a. a career, and I practice in the evening. My brain is shot after 2 hours. Even if I have a whole day to practice, the only ihntense time I can spend is 3 or so, with a couple of hours of light refresh memory work on existing repertoire. More than that and I get sloppy.
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Even if I have a whole day to practice, the only ihntense time I can spend is 3 or so, with a couple of hours of light refresh memory work on existing repertoire. More than that and I get sloppy.
hmmmm..."I can spend 3...More than that...sloppy". Interesting.
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I used to wake up around 9 and practice 2 hours, rest 2 hours, etc for almost 9 hours a day... but i only lasted for two weeks or so... It helped a lot, but i was sick for 3 days in bed after that :D
My back is hurting be very bad because of too much practice... i couldn't control my body's position more than 2-3 hours, and after that i ceased to pay attention to it...
The Bitus
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Could you at least control your bodily functions?
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hmmmm..."I can spend 3...More than that...sloppy". Interesting.
Etienne - you crack me up. What do you mean? Does my reply sound retarded or something?
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No it's not. Who spends that much time on actual practice and not just playing crap they already know? I doubt VERY much it's 6-9 hours of hardcore, intense thinking. I remember a while ago reading in a news paper that university students who went off to study music performance were told that "They should not be playing anymore" because they had overdone the number of "practice" hours. What's that? But my technique's perfect? Sure it is! Maybe for the first hour and a half, then you start slouching and getting sloppy with your technique, and you play like that for hours without knowing it. Oh well, you're different though, I know you're technique's perfect for the full 6-9 hours.
No need to get rude now. You could have just politely said that it probably is not beneficial to practice that much. All this unneeded sarcasm makes it sound like you're jealous that you can't go that long Etienne. Not that I don't agree with you partly, but it could have been said it in a kinder way.
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Of course it is important to take cre of your health but, once somebody asked Emil Gilels how is it possible to play so good and he answered > well, if one practice 12 hours a day it is impossible to play bad.
I agree with this because if you are 0professional and you are preparing for the competitions, concerts or auditions it is impossible to practice less.
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Of course it is important to take cre of your health but, once somebody asked Emil Gilels how is it possible to play so good and he answered > well, if one practice 12 hours a day it is impossible to play bad.
I agree with this because if you are 0professional and you are preparing for the competitions, concerts or auditions it is impossible to practice less.
Er... Surely you would like to qualify the word practice here.
I certainly can imagine all sorts of ways where one could practise 12 hours a day and end up playing very badly indeed.
This also reminds me of a story I would like to share with you:
An old Zen master used to work in the temple gardens every morning. And every morning he would see a young novice rush through the garden in the direction of the meditation hall. On day the old master stopped the novice and asked him: “Where are you going in such a hurry?” I am going to the meditation hall in order to sit in meditation for the next twelve hours”. The old master seemed bewildered. “Why are you meditating so much?” “So that I get enlightened” the young monk replied. “Ah!” said the old master.
The next day, as the young monk once again rushed through the garden he noticed the old Zen master sitting in the grass by a large pile of bricks. He had a piece of sand paper in one of his hands, a brick in the other, and was vigorously sanding the brick. The young monk could not contain his curiosity, and stopped to ask the old man: “What are you doing, reverend master?” I am polishing bricks. And I intend to do it for twelve hours every day.” “Yes, I can see that” said the young monk, “but why?”
The master gave the novice a sly look and said in a whisper: “So that I can make a mirror!”
(Traditional Zen story)
And here is another one:
A young man sought instruction in swordsmanship from a renowned swordsman. The master was a recluse who lived alone in a hut in the mountains. The youngster was granted an interview after much persistence and several letters of introduction from important figures in the land. When he was face to face with the master he blurted out: “Master, if I dedicate six hours everyday to the practice of the martial arts, how long will it be before I master them?”
The master thought for a moment and replied: “Ten years.”
The student looked dismayed. “Ten years! What if I practise twelve hours every day?”
The master smiled. “Ah! If you practise twelve hours everyday, it will take you thirty years to master the arts!”
(Traditional Japanese Martial Arts lore)
Best wishes, ;)
Bernhard.
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I practice 4 hours a day and I think that that's perfect if you play concentrated. I'm 14, so I'm in age in witch I have to improve my techinque very much.
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Either u live way away from school or u have like no homework! I'm also 16 and I get like 2 and a half hours! Theres no way I could do that in the car!
I usually practise 4 hours a day, 1 hour before school, 2 hours in the afternoon, one hour between 4 and 5, then I run from 5 till 5.30, then do another hour till 6.30. I also do one more hour after dinner. It really helps practising in bits and not working on the same thing for too long. Sometimes it also works to practise a certain number of hours a WEEK, say 30, and divide them up according to how much else you have to do on a particular day.
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Theres no way I could do that in the car!
Yes, you could. It is called mental practice. ;)
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Either u live way away from school or u have like no homework! I'm also 16 and I get like 2 and a half hours! Theres no way I could do that in the car!
I usually practise 4 hours a day, 1 hour before school, 2 hours in the afternoon, one hour between 4 and 5, then I run from 5 till 5.30, then do another hour till 6.30. I also do one more hour after dinner. It really helps practising in bits and not working on the same thing for too long. Sometimes it also works to practise a certain number of hours a WEEK, say 30, and divide them up according to how much else you have to do on a particular day.
I used to do 4 hours a day, but I found that you learn faster if you do three to five blocks of 15mins :
Once in the morning
A few between homeworks and study
Once before bed
4 hours is too tiring and you develop countless bad habits that you have to unlearn.
if you do it in 15min blocks, you are more focused and can spot your bad habits easier
hope this helps
euan
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First of all it doesn't matter if you practice 15 minutes at a time or 4 hours at a time. It is the fact that you have practiced a good amount of time. For a pianist trying to become a professional, it is good to practice at least 4 hours a day. I am a jazz pianist and technical exercises help very much. They prepare your hand for extremes that might be met while playing certain pieces of music. Although it is not good to entirely focus all your practice time towards scales and other technical exercises, it is not also good to ignore them.
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Maybe it's a personal thing, but I find 15 mins hardly enough time to warm up. I usually need about an hour at least.
However, I can only afford about 30 - 40 mins each week-day if and when I do get to practise, and so sometimes I come away from the piano feeling empty and dissatisfied with my practice (I have a full time job as a Systems/Database Administrator and I also have to compete with 2 kids for piano time).
On weekends I can usually get 2 or 3 one to two hour sessions each day (Sat. and Sun.) and I can walk away with my hands and arms feeling warm and well toned and conditioned.
dennis lee
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If you want to be a professional piano-player, you have to dedicate your life to it... You cant' imagine an athlete saying he practices 30-40 minutes a day.
I tend to agree with the idea that perfection is achieved (or tried to...) by a lot of hard and wise work.
Lazy people are looking for people to tell them: it's ok to practice 45 minutes a day.
If piano is your ultimate purpose, you have to make a lot of sacrifices. For example, eight (!!!) of my best friends are going to florida for spring-break, but i had to decide not to go with them, because i would've lost 10 days of practice... and that's very tough decision. But i had to do it, because i could put up to 2-3 sessions of practice every day during spring break.
Don't look for excuses, magic formulas, etc. Do your own share and you will be able to see results, and that is the greatest reward.
The Bitus.
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If you want to be a professional piano-player, you have to dedicate your life to it... You cant' imagine an athlete saying he practices 30-40 minutes a day.
...
The Bitus.
You are right, Bitus. And I am glad for young(er) people to be so dedicated to achieving the best in music. I always make it a point to shake the hands of the performers at the local Academy where I send my children for their music classes and encourage them.
But don't be too hard on some of us on PF. From my reading the posts here I gather there are some older folks whose goal is just to enjoy making music on the piano. I for one would be happy to play some of the easier Chopin etudes/impromptus without mistakes and spend the next 3 years working on the musicality of the piece ;)
Not everybody aspires to play like Meiting :o. I am already in my mid-forties and so my children get priority on the piano. They have a future before them. I look back to see my future.
I am currently working on Chopin's Op. 25 #1, the posthumous Nocturne (think The Pianist) and Debussy's Clair de Lune. Wish me luck.
dennis lee
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You are right, Bitus. And I am glad for young(er) people to be so dedicated to achieving the best in music. I always make it a point to shake the hands of the performers at the local Academy where I send my children for their music classes and encourage them.
But don't be too hard on some of us on PF. From my reading the posts here I gather there are some older folks whose goal is just to enjoy making music on the piano. I for one would be happy to play some of the easier Chopin etudes/impromptus without mistakes and spend the next 3 years working on the musicality of the piece ;)
Not everybody aspires to play like Meiting :o. I am already in my mid-forties and so my children get priority on the piano. They have a future before them. I look back to see my future.
I am currently working on Chopin's Op. 25 #1, the posthumous Nocturne (think The Pianist) and Debussy's Clair de Lune. Wish me luck.
dennis lee
Thank god for cellodude! I would LOVE to focus on music! But then I would lose my JOB then I would lose my HOUSE and CAR and as fulfilled as I might be musically, I would be playing for folks in the rescue mission downtown. So I live vicariously through you LUCKY devils on the board who have parents that support your passion for music. I really hope you end up with great careers in music.
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Thank god for cellodude! I would LOVE to focus on music! But then I would lose my JOB then I would lose my HOUSE and CAR ...
BONK! (hammer meets nail's head). You've got it right there DT. That's why we only get to practise 45 minutes a day max.
But this is getting off-topic. I'm going to start another thread on the 'Anything but piano' section on how we can make money without spending 8 - 10 hours daily tied to a 'job' to sustain our piano addiction.
dennis lee
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6-9 hours a day!??! scales and arpeggios are essential to the non-fit pianists...you don't need them if you're hands and arms are "piano-fit" if you know what i mean. you have enough work-out for your hands in the pieces you practice. i have a challenging repetoire- tons of scrianbin, chopin, rach, bach p&f (yuck), all that stuff...sometimes i don't practice for a few days at a time, and some days i sit down and practice the entire day, w/out moving from the piano. practice when you feel the urge to- you'll get the most out of it if you're seriously into it. the rest of the time away from the piano, i spend thinking about my music. what do i want to do w/ it? how do i approach it, technically and artistically? when i am able to write out the music in my head and hear it, i know i'll be able to play it. think, understand, then play, and you won't need to spend of a lot of time to perfect a piece...this has always worked for me.
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How much practice a day? Here is the final answer:
1. Have a specific (totally specific) aim. [by the way this is the most difficult step].
2. Practise as much as it takes to achieve that aim. And practise that does not result in improment is not practice, it is simply another piano related activity.
3. If after 24 hours practising (the whole day and the whole night non-stop) you have not achieved your aim you are either practising incorrectly (or not practising at all, that is you are doing piano activity, but you are not practising) or your aim is too ambitious.
4. Anyone should be able to achieve aims in very little time (say five minutes) if they know what they are doing and if they choose their aims properly.
5. Organise aims so that they add up, and spread them over time. In due time you will have mastered a whole piece if you are consistent in your practice (which can be just an hour a day). In other words: plan your work and work your plan.
6. Practice does not necessarily mean time spent at the piano. In fact you can drastically reduce piano time (if you want to) by practising intelligently and efficiently. Think of the process of building a house. Knowledgeable builders will spend most of the time planning it (thinking about the house, drawing plans, making models), and then building the foundations (which will have to be carefully calculated beforehand), then putting up the building properly and finally decorating its insides.
7. For the persons that are unfamiliar with building, all they see is the putting up of the building. And all that they talk about is the decoration. When they ask about how long is going to take to build a house? They are flabbergasted to learn that the planning and the foundation are far more important than the building and the decoration. And will take far longer.
8. Likewise in piano practice, study and mental practice should use a far larger section of the time than the actual drilling at the piano. Ignore this at your own peril. Just like a house with proper foundations will eventually fall, hours on end at the piano without planning will at best not yield the expected results, and at worst get you injured.
9. So how much practice a day? How long is a piece of string? ;)
Best wishes,
Bernhard.
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There is no fixed rule in how long or how many sessions one should practise every day. I rarely practise more than 2 hours per session, 1 session per day. Recently I have been re-working on four Etudes by Liszt (namely 3 Etudes de Concert and Transcendental Etude No.6 - all slipped from both my memory and my fingers for almost 10 years!) and working brand-new on a couple of his other Etudes. It took me more than 3 months to get the 4 back into my fingers and memory.
But it is essential that one must set a target for a practice session, for example, to memorise a section of a piece, or to perfect a difficult passage, or to run through a recital or examination programme . . ., and is often refreshing to take occasional days of complete digression into playing other stuff without touching the actual pieces under practice, or simply take a day off the piano, perhaps once every fortnight.;)
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:-/ How much practice depends on the material you need to practice. Chopin, in my opinion is the most difficult to practice. Any more than 3 hours a day, and you will begin to lose infrmation you had before practicing.
When learning new work, I will sit down for no more than an hour at a time, walk away, have a cup of tea, listen to music recordings NOT because I am too lazy to figure out melodies or rhythm, but perhaps because I need to be inspired.
When practicing the physically demanding composers - Rachmaninoff, Liszt, scriabin, etc,, I might take a day off every week or so to let my hands relax. Upon return to the piano, work is much more productive and enjoyable.
I situations where I need to learn a piece by a given date, I count the number of bars in the piece and calculate the average number of bars I need to learn per day. By doing this, I force myself to work in a methodical manner. Obviously, the schedule changes depending on the difficulty of a certain bar (eg. A liszt CADENZA 8)).
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Interesting discussion about learning....
Here's an aside that may have some relevance to what we're talking about. Besides music, I have a passion for horses (started riding when I was 48). Training a horse is a matter of patience, time and, did I mention patience? To repetitively drill a task with a horse day after day will be counterproductive. It is frequently most useful to work on something for about 20 minutes, move on to another task, and then rest for the day.
Here's the interesing part:
Skip a day of training. Come back two days later and see what you can do. It will often be better than it was when you left off. Seems that the horse has to "let things sink in a bit."
Since coming back to the piano, I've found that this is also true of me. If I break my sessions up - 10 minutes here, half an hour there, nothing the next day - I seem to make better progress.
It's probably that my brain is making all kinds of new connections and synapses and they need time to work themselves into a pattern.
Just a thought.
Happy music,
George
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Interesting discussion about learning....
Here's an aside that may have some relevance to what we're talking about. Besides music, I have a passion for horses (started riding when I was 48). Training a horse is a matter of patience, time and, did I mention patience? To repetitively drill a task with a horse day after day will be counterproductive. It is frequently most useful to work on something for about 20 minutes, move on to another task, and then rest for the day.
Here's the interesing part:
Skip a day of training. Come back two days later and see what you can do. It will often be better than it was when you left off. Seems that the horse has to "let things sink in a bit."
Since coming back to the piano, I've found that this is also true of me. If I break my sessions up - 10 minutes here, half an hour there, nothing the next day - I seem to make better progress.
It's probably that my brain is making all kinds of new connections and synapses and they need time to work themselves into a pattern.
Just a thought.
Happy music,
George
I agree.
To paraphrase Hitchcock:
"I did not say that piano students are horses. I said that they should be treated like horses."
;D
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How much practice a day? Here is the final answer:
1. Have a specific (totally specific) aim. [by the way this is the most difficult step].
2. Practise as much as it takes to achieve that aim. And practise that does not result in improment is not practice, it is simply another piano related activity.
FIVE HOURS LATER.........................
8. Likewise in piano practice, study and mental practice should use a far larger section of the time than the actual drilling at the piano. Ignore this at your own peril. Just like a house with proper foundations will eventually fall, hours on end at the piano without planning will at best not yield the expected results, and at worst get you injured.
9. So how much practice a day? How long is a piece of string? ;)
Best wishes,
Bernhard.
You know, I don't understand all the fuss over this. We're all different and so do different amounts.
Just cut the crap and DO AS MUCH AS YOU NEED TO!!!!!!! Theres my quote...
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I do very little that could properly be called practice these days. I took Bernhard's first step years ago and my physical aims have always remained firm, although not particularly usual, and never separated from musical ends.
1. I want to have sufficient instantly available technique at my disposal to execute any idea which occurs to me without having to concentrate on the physical side. As my ideas are often quite complicated this demand is actually a lot more severe than it first appears.
2. I want to be able to maintain and build a small repertoire of pieces I really like and play them reasonably well. Again, because the pieces I like are often very difficult, this objective is also harder than it sounds.
Doing things the wrong way for years taught me that grinding away all day is pretty useless for me (might be good for concert pianists - I'm not qualified to comment on them). Therefore the only physical practice I do now is a maximum of twenty minutes at the practice clavier, usually after my music at the piano and before I go to bed, to maintain my finger technique.
To be honest, I don't know whether it is meaningful to talk about "practising" improvisation. You just do it, and it just gets better, at least subjectively (others may think differently !). All aspects of my musical being are tangled, and the concept of splitting it all into two distinct areas, "real" and "practice" is an encumbrance I can well do without.
So aside from the few minutes at the clavier I don't think I do any "practice" at all.
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I practice 3, max.4 hours a day.
And it's perfectly enough for me.
It's not that I don't get to do anything with 3 hrs a day-it's the opposite. I go on competitions, have recitals, etc etc. It's not important how LONG you practice, it's HOW you practitce.
3 hours works just fine for me. Personally, I think everyone exaggerates a little when they say they NEED to practice 9 hrs a day. But hey. That's my opinion.
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I practice....2 hours a day during the summer and such. maybe an 45 minutes to an hour a day on school days. not very impressive, but if you are completely, completely focused on learning the music, instead of playing for pleasure, im sure it works.
playing that much would be effective only if you are concentrated the entire time.
My idea of practicing for long periods of time is that there's a point where practicing does no good after a certain amount of time, and it becomes brainless practicing. Breaks are needed because it lets the technique kinda soak in your brain and in your fingers. I'd suggest you play 2 hours, then take a 30 minute break, or something of that sort.
Or maybe it works for you.l
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In an interview with Krystian Zimerman, he mentioned he had a piano seat that would time how long he sat and how long he played. At the end of one day, he noticed he had sat for 10 hours.
And played for 1.
'Thinking is more important than playing'.
Sounds about right from a highly refined performer.
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Hi, I'm new here.
I have a Master's in performance & I work as a freelance professional accompanist, but I also have a full time day job that does not involve playing. I have been wrestling with these issues for a couple of years: how to use my few available hours to keep my technique up, learn new pieces, rehearse & perform, and still have a few hours left to eat, sleep, and be sociable.
I used to average 7 hours a day when I was an undergrad in music school. I know becauae I counted them obsessively. Sometimes I spent 2 of them on scales & Hanon, either with a metronome going or listening to the radio news on headphones. Take my word for it, that was not helpful.
Then I had a really wonderful teacher one semester who gave me some great advice. I went to my first lesson, and he asked me to play a scale. I ripped off 4 octaves of C major really fast, hoping he'd be impressed. Then he said, "What were you trying to do?" I said, "Uh, I just played a scale." Duh. But he meant that I should decide first what tone, dynamics, voicing, rhythm, etc. I want & hear it in my mind, then play it and also hear what came out, and always know whether or not I did what I meant to do.
I tried it and found that I could accomplish way more in a shorter time. But it is a lot harder because you mind has to be completely engaged (no more listening to the radio... :) Exercises are like a hammer, or any tool. If you hit the nail right on, the right number of times, it is just right to hang the picture. If you hit it too much, it goes into the wall and the result is useless. If you miss the nail and smash your thumb, you were better off without the hammer. :) It's what you use it for, and how, that counts.
I have started getting good results for memorizing by using lots of mental imagery techniques and studying scores away from the piano. There are some good books on this. It works very well, but takes a very high amount of concentration that I can't muster very often. Still, I memorized a short piece this way in an hour, then go months without touching it and still remember every note.
I have vastly improved my sightreading by reading piano trios once a week with some friends of mine. It's great fun as a social activity, yet doesn't take away from my practicing. I'm able to read at a level much closer to my technical level than before I did chamber music. Cuts out some of those hours when you are just struggling to learn notes enough to get through a new piece.
The other things that help are exercise, sleep, good diet, yoga (or anything else that reduces tension & makes you aware of your body), and learning not to take your artistic quest quite so seriously. Yes, of course it's serious, but you should find joy and fun in it, too. Always play the music, even if you sometimes miss a note. You won't be shot or put in prison for hitting a wrong note, even if you do it onstage. I once heard Menahem Pressler and the Beaux Arts Trio perform a Mozart Trio, and when Pressler got to the last chord, he completely missed it and crunched a very obvious wrong note. They still got a standing ovation, and nobody suggested that Mr. Pressler should have spent more hours practicing.
--L., amybeachfan
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This is an old thread right? I thought I posted in it but I didn't find my reply so I guess not! :)
I don't really count. I practice off and on. I have my digital conveniently in my room beside my computer (which has the tv card so it's all purpose in here). Whatever holds my attention at the moment is what I'm doing. Sometimes it's a period of piano, sometimes it's computer, sometimes tv, and often enough I'm not even at home! ;D At school I practiced if I had down time between classes or at the end of the day. If I'm just playing through a piece for fun, I at least try and remember a few parts that I want to improve to work on later. Other than that I try to get things well or memorize or whatever I decided to do. It's not about quantity but quality! :) Or a quantity of quality preferably.
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it is a little too much. i usually go for 5 hours a day. but then again, theres no such thing as too much practice
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7-9 hours
seperate it in to 2 2 3 or 2 2 2 3 and use bernhard method to cut them in sections in 20-30 mins each
i feel completely surprise with the result in first week i try
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How much practice a day? Here is the final answer:
1. Have a specific (totally specific) aim. [by the way this is the most difficult step].
2. Practise as much as it takes to achieve that aim. And practise that does not result in improment is not practice, it is simply another piano related activity.
exacly what i do
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well my first suggestion would be to cut the crap - forget technical exercises - and learn music that will replace them - eg forget scales and arpeggios - learn alkan's op 76 no 3, forget 3rds - learn chopin and godowsky's 3rds etudes, etc etc
your technique will end up just as good, and youll be more happy cos ur playing superb music too.
this is what im in the process of doing right now.
you are a motherfunking legend
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you are a motherfunking legend
Very true. :)
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2 very interesting interviews with horowitz can be found here :
https://w1.854.telia.com/~u85420275/articles.htm
enjoy! ;)
Thanks Comme and that was interesting. Equally interesting was his statement that he uses presure to depress the keys, and close fingers, even in fast runs. I have video of him playing and ran it in slow motion, so I know this is not true. Fingers struck the notes as clear as day. Oh well, maybe he liked the principle and wasn't aware of it.
Nick
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but it also must be remembered that, what worked for horowitz may not work for you, he had a very idiosyncratic technique.
but yes, it is true that in order to produce idiosyncratic/unique musical effect, you need a unique technical method of doing so.
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Chuan C. Chang in his book "Fundamentals of Piano Practice" calls it PPI (post-practice improvement). And yes we can take advantage of it by learning more than one piece at a time. Let's say we are learning pieces A, B and C. On the first day we practise A and B, the second B and C, third C and A, etc. Makes sense?
dennis lee
That does not surprise me at all. Of course I have felt it with the piano, but also with Physics, Mathematics and everything else that needs reasoning. I'm not saying that this kind of evolution will happen for and only things that have mathematical reasoning in them. I hardly can see how piano practice would qualify for that, I'm merely saying that's where I've felt it myself.
My reasoning for it is that the brain needs some downtime to acquire and incorporate the knowledge it has learnt. You may study for hours trying to learn and understand a mathematical text, but you actually need downtime to work it over trying to put the pieces in place. This kind of understanding very seldom is immediate, little advances click now and then after a lot of study.
Poincaré, a famous mathematicion of the turn of the 19th to 20th century, once was working on a problem like mad without finding a solution for it. One day, he took a day off to go on a geological trip I guess around Paris and there, without thinking on it, the solution suddenly popped in his head. The brain took its rest to 'think' on the problem at a subconscious level and since it had already done a whole lot of work (this is actually fundamental) it was able to complete the missing links. Perhaps free from the rational mind, the brain is more creative and can test hypotheses unfettered by the restrictions, prejudices and preferences of a conscious mind.
Once, also, when I went regularly to a gym, my trained told me not to train every day. As he put it, "the muscle needs time to grow. The practice will only tell it it needs to grow, but if you are always practicing, you deny it the time it needs to rebuild itself". More, you may be doing actual damage.
I see both these mechanisms as very similar, and piano playing may well be a mix of the two.
Alex
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I have a simple question: do you know any successful professional pianist that practises fewer than 4 hours a day? ::)
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Most of them.
(If you believe what they say in interviews, that is ;))
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especially if they are teaching. but right before recitals - i think they probably practice a lot more. must be a lot of stress - though. time is of the essence and yet u need ur sleep,too. i think u have to have an extreme amount of energy and ability to handle stressful situations well.
one thing i noticed about my teacher is that no second was wasted. if he wasn't teaching, he was practicing. efficiency. when u have the time, u use it. as people mature, they seem to have less time. i think for some teachers/performers they have to make time before recitals by cancelling lessons a week before and practicing. the very few times of a cancelled lesson - i never minded at all. seeing a pianist like that in action is good learning - and going to a teacher's recital is just as much learning as a lesson.
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"..and going to a teacher's recital is just as much learning as a lesson." pianonut
yeah, but lots of conservatory teachers play like crap ( read: CRAP ). most won important prizes in their youth, and some still think they are a master even with little practise and slackened disciplin.
....and they talk about tenure, do that with a face like a relieved turkey, some seen with an aura of proud and guilt mixed in.
am sure your teacher dont fall into this category as u sed he eksellent, i believe u.
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i don't know much about conservatory teachers, but i don't doubt that many teach such long hours that when they come up on recitals -it's a burden. there's always a sort of trade-off with teaching. but, the younger ones can handle it. my teacher is relatively young - (have to ask his age but am guessing barely 30). probably the high level of discipline is something he always had, too - which isn't that common. usually people do just enough to get by and also get some sleep and nutrition. when u think about it - it's not the healthiest lifestyle - but there's something about music itself that can recharge a person (especiallyif a recital goes extremely well).
every recital that i've seen my teacher play at/with/for he's always been in top form. i think he's a perfectionist and yet plays very naturally.
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i practise about 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours a day. But im only 15, this is plenty isnt it. I have school too. ???
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i practise about 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours a day. But im only 15, this is plenty isnt it. I have school too. ???
I'm 14 and on schooldays I atleast practice 2.5 hours, now, in the holidays, it's atleast 3.5 hours. Not today though, my hands hurt like hell.
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i think that is too much. If your 14 thats basiclyy all you night after school, if i did that, i get bak at 4, finished by half 6?? No.
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I try to spend the day practicing...sometimes this may be six hours somedays, eight other days. In any case, I don't log hours, I simply go to work for the day - just as stock traders go to the board of trade or doctors go the office/hospital. I try to enjoy it - I do not repeat passages mechanically for hours on end; I may learn three new pages, get up off of the bench for a minute and walk around, then review something old, maybe read through something new, and then maybe polish something that I'm going to perform.
For me, this is the advantage of tackling a lot of pieces at once. It keeps one practicing all day. Say, for example, I get worn out on my Beethoven sonata for the time being - I might dissect a little more Berg, or review a Chopin etude. It really is a different mindset to say that you are going to spend the day practicing, rather than setting an amount of hours.
I would like to suggest to everyone, or at least to those who have not yet read it, a book entitled "The Art of Practicing," by Madeline Bruser. It really is a quick read and helped me to find new meaning in and methods of practice. I suppose if it were to be summarized in one word, that word would be "joy." You cannot do productively for eight hours (or four, or even one), something that you do not thoroughly enjoy, and so this book helps you to, among other things, learn to enjoy practicing.
Also, for those of you who have never tried yoga, I find that it is the perfect complement to a good practice session.
Best,
ML
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I'm 14 and on schooldays I atleast practice 2.5 hours, now, in the holidays, it's atleast 3.5 hours. Not today though, my hands hurt like hell.
i think that is too much. If your 14 thats basiclyy all you night after school, if i did that, i get bak at 4, finished by half 6?? No.
I am 16. When I was in school, I practiced 3-4 hours a day- 2 in the morning and 1-2 in the afternoon. That left me with plenty of time to do other things.
As for the original question:
Now, I practice 6 hours a day on weekdays, 4 hours a day on weekends. It leaves me with plenty of time to do other things, I don't feel exhausted, and I feel that the time is used effectively (broken into sets of 2 hours and then further broken into half-hours or on occasion hours)
Phil
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I would never have time in the morning, and my mym wouldnt agree with me on it that long, i have gcse's and things
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I was wondering how much practice is too much. I practice about 6-9 hours a day, usually about 7 hours. Do you think this is too much? I don't want to damage my hand, but I it takes me this long to get through my technique and pieces. How much do you practice? Do you have any suggestions?
It's not too much as long as it doesn't feel like 6-7 hours to you or your hands.
One: Practicing should be fun
Two: Long practicing is unnacceptable. If it feels like a long time, stop.
My parents tell me I have twenty mins. and it feels as if I haven't even begun before they tell me time is up.
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my hands hurt like hell.
And yet, they shouldn´t. :-\
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I don't log practice time, but then I am not a professional pianist. I just practice when I can. I tried Bernhard's methods and found them very profitable. I stumbled onto this method by accident, and found out it worked! It reaffirmed it in my thinking when I read his posts on the subject. Amazing things happen when you rest, and when you CAN'T practice. Thanks Bernhard!
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You are welcome. :)
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I practise when I really want to play the piano. Sometimes, I'm not really motivated to play the piano. On a day like that, I don't even look at the piano.
When I'm really motivated to play the piano, I can play up to 4-5 hours a day. On a day like that, I practise scales/arpeggios/octaves about 30 minutes, I play some memorized pieces for about 1 hour and the rest of the time I spend on really having fun playing the piano... Mostly improvising stuff and maybe compose a bit, I really enjoy that the most.
What I'm wondering about: if you spend up to 6-9 hours every day of practising behind the piano, do you still enjoy playing the piano then? If you spend so many time behind the piano, it's more something that you really "must" do, instead of having fun and enjoy yourself... Atleast, that's what I think.
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What I'm wondering about: if you spend up to 6-9 hours every day of practising behind the piano, do you still enjoy playing the piano then? If you spend so many time behind the piano, it's more something that you really "must" do, instead of having fun and enjoy yourself...
Yes, it is still possible to enjoy this.
1) Mechanical repetition makes enjoyment for this amount of time impossible.
2) Change it up - recognize your own point of saturation. Don't beat a dead horse into the ground.
3) Take a ten minute break every hour.
4) Let yourself breathe - 6-9 hours do not have to be 6-9 hours of fingers on the keys. This can entail turning ideas over in your head.
5) Listen and savor each sonority when you practice slowly. Listen for things that are impossible to hear "a tempo."
I hope this helps you to better enjoy your practice time.
Best,
ML
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Most of them.
(If you believe what they say in interviews, that is ;))
Really? What did they say exactly ? :)
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Really? What did they say exactly ? :)
Just a small sample:
Claudio Arrau:
Do you still get satisfaction from practising?
I think it’s beautiful to practise; I love to practise. On the average I do now two to three hours a day. But sometimes I am a bit lazy. Krause used to have me stay away form the piano for at least a month in the summer, so as not to get stale, and I still do it quite often. Then when I go back to the piano it’s really an event.
(David Dubal – The World of the Concert Pianist – Victor Gollancz – p. 31)
Pepito Arriola:
During most of my life my practice has never exceeded two hours a day. In this country, while on tour, I never practise more than one and one-half hours. This is not necessary, because of the concerts themselves, which keep up my technical work. I never worry about my fingers. If I can think the pieces right, my fingers will always play the notes.
(James Francis Cooke – Great Pianists on Piano Playing – Dover – p. 45–46)
Bela Davidovich:
Tell me something about how you practise.
I usually play around three hours a day, […]after each hour I make sure to take a little break even a little ten-minute one, in order not to lose my level of concentration. But for that hour between the breaks I am very concentrated. During the break I drink tea, talk on the telephone, I just completely disconnect and do something besides music. But when I work I think about nothing but music. Nothing can disturb me, nothing can distract me. I am listening to myself.
(David Dubal – The World of the Concert Pianist – Victor Gollancz – p. 126 - 127)
Glenn Gould:
These days and throughout my professional life, indeed, I’ve practised only on an if-, as- and when-needed basis, and only for the purpose of consolidating a conception of a score - never for the sake of contact with the instrument per se. I’ll give you an example. The most recent recording I’ve made as of the date of this interview is the Brahms Op. 10 - the four ballades. I recorded them three weeks ago in New York. It happens that I’d never played them before - not even sight-read them - and, apart from the Edward ballade, the first one in the sect, the one a good many of my conservatory colleagues used to essay, I’d never even heard them played until I decided to record them (what that says about my playing of piano repertoire I’ll leave for you to decide).
Now, as it happens, I made that decision about two months before the recording was done and for approximately the next six weeks I studied the score from time to time, and developed a very clear conception of how I wanted to approach the ballades. I found the last one, for example, particularly difficult, particularly hard to get a handle on. It’s very beautiful on its way - hymnal almost, and what endears it to me is that it is one of those relatively few works where Brahms lets his imagination - a sort of stream-of-consciousness process really - prevail over his sense of design, of architecture. But for that very reason it’s difficult to bring off. I did feel at last that I had found an acceptable tempo. But as for playing them, I spent only the last two weeks at keyboard and, unlike the experiences of my youth, which I’m now hazy about, I can tell you almost exactly how much time I spent because, in recent years, I’ve taken to clocking myself at the piano - no sense in overdoing things and all that. Anyway, as is customary for me before a recording session, it averaged about one hour a day. There were a couple of occasions when I doubled that because I perhaps had to be absent for an editing session, or whatever, on the following day, but that one hour gave me he opportunity to play through the ballades twice on each occasion (they’re almost exactly half an hour in length) and think about the conceptual changes I wanted to make.
(David Dubal – The World of the Concert Pianist – Victor Gollancz – p. 180 - 183)
Best wishes,
Bernhard.
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And yet, they shouldn´t. :-\
I don't know what it is really, the finger next to the thumb of my left hand hurts when I push the upper half of my finger back to my hand (quite difficult to explain). It doesn't hurt when I play the piano though, but I thought it was smart to take rest for a day or two.
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Glenn Gould:
But as for playing them, I spent only the last two weeks at keyboard and, unlike the experiences of my youth, which I’m now hazy about, I can tell you almost exactly how much time I spent because, in recent years, I’ve taken to clocking myself at the piano - no sense in overdoing things and all that. Anyway, as is customary for me before a recording session, it averaged about one hour a day.
I suspect that once you have acquired a technique like Glenn Gould's, its easier to maintain it by just practising one hour a day. In his youth, a period that he is hazy about, Glenn probably practiced a lot more than that in order to acquire that technique in the first place. It's often a lot easier to keep the girl than to woo her, to keep the wealth than to earn it. :)
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I suspect that once you have acquired a technique like Glenn Gould's, its easier to maintain it by just practising one hour a day. In his youth, a period that he is hazy about, Glenn probably practiced a lot more than that in order to acquire that technique in the first place. It's often a lot easier to keep the girl than to woo her, to keep the wealth than to earn it. :)
Koji once said that all these pianists lie when talking about how much practice they actually do. ;)
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Koji once said that all these pianists lie when talking about how much practice they actually do. ;)
Did you mean those pianists actually practised much more? :)
Anyway, I agree that the most famous pianists spent most of their practice time in their youth. When they get well-known and super busy, they just need to work limitedly in order to maintain their techniques.
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Did you mean those pianists actually practised much more? :)
Anyway, I agree that the most famous pianists spent most of their practice time in their youth. When they get well-known and super busy, they just need to work limitedly in order to maintain their techniques.
If I understand correctly, there are two kinds of fibs pianists will tell:
1. They will tell you they practise 14 hours a day when they don´t.
2. And they will tell you they never practise when they actually do (an example that just occurred to me is of Richter, on the DVD "Richter the enigma" where he claims that he only practices 3 - 4 hours tops and some days not at all, just to be contradicted by his wife who shouts from the kitchen that he practises 12 hours every day)
Then again, it depends what one means by practice. Glenn Gould may never have practised at the piano, but he sure did a lot of mental practice (may be 14 hours a day ;)).
Again a pianist who says s/he never practises (e.g. Argerich) may be referring to things like Hanon and scales, and s/he is not counting work on repertory, or simply time at the piano.
Finally, social expectations change. Once upon a time to say that one practised 12 hours a day was a motive of pride. More recently it is regarded as inefficient practice (and a definite sign of nerdiness/psychological inbalance) so a lot of pianists are ashamed of owning to long practice hours.
Best wishes,
Bernhard.
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Hi, everyone.
I'm a new member of this website and I want to introduce myself.
My name is Buhdaporn (Put is my nick name).
I'm in grade 9 now and I'm 15 years old.
I like playing piano very much, I spent a lot of time on it about 4-8 hrs during school break every day. And I have played piano for 4 years from grade 4-6 and grade 8-9.
I like Liszt and Chopin very much.
I want you to see my video, its on youtube
1. Tetris -
2. Black key - &feature=related
Last is Chopin Fantasia Impromptu op.66 -
&feature=related
Thank you :);D ;D ;D :)
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I have been getting excellent results by:
(1) Playing any difficult part of a piece in all keys--also, you can do this with any exercise from Hanon, The Virtuosos Pianist, or from Czerny's The Art of Finger Dexterity, or The School of Virtuosity.
(2) I play any of the above in what are called slow-fast, in impulses. For example, I play and count a small section of music slowly--maybe very slowly--for four times. Then I playand count it fast in strict time once. Then I playand count it fast in strict time twice. Then thrice. Then four times. Then Eight Times. Then maybe Sixteen or Twenty times, unless I poop out before that.
(3) I play with added Sixths, Fourths, or Thirds. I especially like added Sixths. They never get monotonous. I do scales, Hanon Exercise Number One, chromatic scales, and anything else, as time permits, with added Sixths, Fourths, or Thirds. Note: It takes some creativity at times, when playing with added intervals, to work out a fingering that is in compliance with the proper practices of fingering and will still work. In fingering the Hanon Number One in Thirds, in C-Major, for example, with the Right Hand, I am currently fingering it thus: 1,3.....3,5.....Crossover to 1,3 on F and A, then.....2,4.....3,5.....Now Descending.....2,4.....1,3 Crossover to 2,4 on E ang G, then 1,3 on D and F, and then it's time to start your ascent again... and so on. I also like to do Chromatic Scales in added Thirds and Sixths.
Also I am currently practicing the Liszt Consolation Number Three with added Sixths in the Left Hand on the arpeggii obligati. This has brought a lot of new strength and dexterity to my Left Hand. Trying to makethe arpeggios as legato as if they had been played in without the added Sixths is a bear. But I think it's worth it to get to that higher level of proficiency.
I also like to have a 20 times a day rule for the more difficult sections of the more difficult pieces. That is, I try to make sure that I get in a minimum of 20 repetitions per day for those particular sections. My normal practice is to play one or two repetitions in each octave of the piano, in the case of some of the material I'm working on. As I get engrossed in the music I may go on for hours and hours, if time permits. But, on days when I have other committments, I try to at least get in my 20 reps in my top 5 most difficult areas.
If one is also trying to hold down a job, or is also engaged in an unrelated career, the above strategies can result in faster progress, in my experience. I'm finding as a result that I'm really getting back into shape on that Hungarian Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra!
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4 hours minimum. 5 on average. 6 maximum
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I practice about 5-6 hours a day. 1h at college, 2 hours when I get home, 2/3 later in the evening
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There are all sorts of reasons here, most of them valid, on how long to practice. It really just depends on the makeup of the individual and what they are trying to achieve. Personally, I would not be able to handle 8 hours a day, it would make me ill. My attention span is more like 2 hours max at a time, less if it is intense practice. Once you reach a certain level you can probably maintain it with an hour a day or less unless you are talking about the top soloists. To continue to grow at any noticable rate, I think 2-3 hours a day is a nice attainable goal. You can spend a little more or less depending how you feel each day.
I love music and my goal is to play the music I like. Having an enjoyable experience at playing is the key. I think this translates into players I like to hear as well, you can feel the joy they have in playing thier music. I think listening to music intently is as valuable as practicing. I consider reading, studying and even browsing the forums to be part of the music learning experience.
If your goal is to become a concert solo classical pianist, then you may have to approach things differently. The way things are set up now it seems you must win competitions and pass auditions in order to have any real shot at "making it". You are competing against people that have the constitution to practice 8 hours a day for ten years without it taking a toll on the sanity, not to mention their physical health. But there are many more examples of burnouts than of the one in a thousand that reach any level of commercial/artistic succes.
It scares me to read of students that pass up spring break and other major social events in thier lives just to drudge through a few more practice sessions. I just think there has to be some sense of balance if one is to be an artist, not just a piano player.
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i practice sometimes 5 hours and sometimes 2 or 3,the point is that you should practice as long as it takes to rehearse the entire repertoire
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Instead of practicing all the time, go and listen to an opera or read through a symphony, and you will find it will improve your piano playing much more.
agreed. or listen tochamber music or go to museum. and oh dont forget, have some life too ;D
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There is another topic in the Student's board on "How do you pracitice?" So that can be another insightful reading as well. ;)
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S. Richter admitted in his published notebook that he had practiced 12-14 hours a day (if my memory is correct). Horowitz said 2 hours or so a day. It depends on your sight-reading ability and memory capacity. Charles Rosen commented that most pieces should be in your grasp in your teen years. Maybe then is the time to put in a daily 4-8 hours. Thereafter, merely keeping warm is all you need. Rubinstein spent most of his time gormandizing and womanizing; that's all he wrote about in his memoirs, so my guess is he didn't practice much.
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S. Richter admitted in his published notebook that he had practiced 12-14 hours a day (if my memory is correct). Horowitz said 2 hours or so a day. It depends on your sight-reading ability and memory capacity. Charles Rosen commented that most pieces should be in your grasp in your teen years. Maybe then is the time to put in a daily 4-8 hours. Thereafter, merely keeping warm is all you need. Rubinstein spent most of his time gormandizing and womanizing; that's all he wrote about in his memoirs, so my guess is he didn't practice much.
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6-9 hours! That seems really excessive to me. At most I think I've only ever practiced for about 3 1/2-4 hours.
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hi
I heard from tichter who said he never played more than 3 hours a day .
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hi
I heard from tichter who said he never played more than 3 hours a day .
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S. Richter admitted in his published notebook that he had practiced 12-14 hours a day (if my memory is correct).
Wow D8
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It really depends, though I’m trying to get up to 4-6 hours per day. That’s my goal, anyway. I did slightly over 3 hours yesterday.
I should note that I count just about anything musical as practice, and not all necessarily sitting at the piano or even having anything to do with the piano. I count rehearsing for choir as practice, too, and practice with my piano ensemble group, etc.
I don’t really think there is any such thing as too much time, if you practice properly. I practice in sessions of 20 minutes on a single focus, and then start something else. Every hour, I take a 10 minute break. I’ll usually go out and sit in the lounge and try to socialize.
I split all my pieces up into sections that I want to work on for these 20 minute sessions. They might be sections requiring technical work, phrasing, better interpretation, musicality, etc. The concerto I’m working on is split into about 45 sections (this is the first movement alone).
So usually I’ll have a practice schedule prepared for the week, of which piece I will work on for each 20-minute session. Then I just have to choose which section of the piece I want to work on (I haven’t included the sections in the schedule yet).
I don’t work on a section more than once a day, though. I’ll work on the piece still, but just on other sections. I find this helps to keep things fresh and prevents from getting too repetitive.
I did that last week for this section with very fast alternating octaves in both hands, and I was so much better at it this week, so I think I will continue this method.
The trick is to prioritize sections, I think, because obviously I can’t get all 45 done in a single day. I’ll have to work on, say, 8 for a week or so, then swap out a few of them for other sections.
Anyway, that’s what I’m doing now. I change my method every so often to see what works, but this has been the most promising so far.
I do have to comment to those who say that one should only practice when one feels like it. If you only do this for enjoyment, then that’s fine, but if you’re a music major, you’d have a rather angry piano teacher if you did that. With so many classes and also the need to study, you have to fit it in whenever and however you can, regardless of how you feel. I’ve found that once I’m actually at the piano, however much I didn’t want to practice before, I start to get into it and enjoy it. I basically stay out from about 8:30 in the morning until 10:00 at night (minimum), and practice every chance I get.
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Can you really concentrate for that length of time?
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Can you really concentrate for that length of time?
Are you replying to me?
For what amount of time? 4-6 hours? I take a break every hour, so I don't think it's that much of a problem. Also it's not consecutively, because, I have classes scattered throughout the day.
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I heard from a pianist a couple of days ago after a performance that all the best never practiced more than two hours a day. I find this hard to believe, if someone is to classify Horowitz, Cziffra, Rubinstein, etc. as the best.
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How much practice a day obviously depends on the individual and the purpose. For me, I could theoretically practice for about 10 minutes to 3-4 hours a day and still "progress," I *could* practice in spurts in between other activities, and I do all of that, too. But, what *really* does it for me is having something like a 10-12 hour block of time, starting in the wee hours of the morning when the world is absolutely quiet. I like this kind of time because it allows me to sink very deeply into the endeavor in a way that I personally can't do when I feel like I am just squeezing the time at the instrument into my busy day. And, if I go too long without some solid, consecutive days (weeks, months, years ?) of that kind of practice, my entire universe becomes ... horrible, and I start to deeply ache.
I just don't care anymore what other people do and think about that, except for my mentor. I realize I do need variety in my life as well, and perhaps it's good for me to have some days when I don't just have those huge blocks of time and the freedom to dedicate that kind of energy to the piano, but it's something that I can't live without all the same. And, I realize I will need to continue making this kind of time for the instrument a priority in my life, probably for the rest of my life.
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I heard from a pianist a couple of days ago after a performance that all the best never practiced more than two hours a day. I find this hard to believe, if someone is to classify Horowitz, Cziffra, Rubinstein, etc. as the best.
That wouldn't surprise me.
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Just remember one thing about "practicing":
Quality over quantity.
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I usually practice about 3-4 hours per day.
And I don't do scales or arpeggios because I have no time for that,especially when preparing for concerts