Staying Motivated

[franken]

What's the best way to stay motivated to practice for long hours?  I find I'm having trouble keeping with it every now and then.

[pita bread]

Caffeine

Don't practice long hours straight up if you're not used to it, do 45 minutes, then take a break, then do another 45 minutes, and so on.

[franken]

ok, so that'll work for getting long hours in, but then the other thing I meant by like staying motivated is, actually kicking your butt into action to sit down at the piano and practice rather than call friends, play games, sleep and other such things when I know there is work to be done.

[pita bread]

That has to come from within, unless you have parents pushing you to do so.

[hodi]

think of which WONDERFUL and BEAUTIFUL music u can play if u practice a lot
listen to a lot of music u like and it will keep you in motivation and even increase it.

[m]

What's the best way to stay motivated to practice for long hours?  I find I'm having trouble keeping with it every now and then.

Think about your goal, and how rewarding to achieve it.

[franken]

yeah I guess that could help.  Do you ever feel like maybe a bit overloaded though and that no matter how much you practice you're not going to accomplish things to your teachers expectations?  I find that it's happening to me a lot, like almost every other lesson we'll be starting a new piece and I still haven't been able to finish the ones we're already working on so when I sit down to practice it feels like I have to climb a mountain to get everything done.  I must be working on like 8 or 9 different pieces right now and each lesson we only get through about 2, 3 if we're lucky.

[happyface94]

I have myself a trouble in staying focused for a long time while I practice. I find myself stopping at exactly 1 hour. But I try to give me some goals before the practice and reach them. If I reach them, I'm happy. Usually I don't, but end up practicing more than 1 hour, this is actually how I pass each year those music exams. Because I practice around 50 minutes each day until the last week where I pump up around 3-6 hours a day. (I dont recommend that, I myself have a good capacity at memorizing pieces and improve their speed)

[stevie]

nothing inspires me more than watching my videos of cziffra playing and thinking 'I WANT TO DO THAT!'

i know i probably never will, but it inspires me to try

[rapmasterb]

If you're distracted and not to eager to practise even though you know you should I recommend the following (which works for me):

Forget about everything and just sit down at the piano immediately. Agree with yourself that you will practise for five minutes and then go off and do something else once the five minutes is up - commit to this. Once the five minutes has passed you will be in the zone and not want to do anything else. I find this is very effective as five minutes is more than enough time to break yourself in. You jsut have to have the willpower sit down initially.

Why not give it a go? You feel great after a really hard practise session.