Skepticism about other's practising!

[eddie92099]

I have read on this site that some people around my age (17) are practising for in excess of 8 hours a day at times - without naming names, I find this very hard to believe with so many other distractions such as school/college/sports etc. Although I want to be a concert pianist and am very interested in many aspects of the piano, I have never practised more than 3 hours in a day - and I know of many professional pianists who could say the same thing! Is my skepticism justified, and has anyone else found some people's supposed practise times slightly absurd?
Ed

[xenon]

It is possible, but very rare.  I am with you in the skepticism.  Piano is very physically demanding (if you fractured your spine and it never healed that well, like me).  But that kind of devotion is also realistic.  Perhaps, they didnt mean playing for a solid 8 hours.  Perhaps, they took a break in between, listened to music, ate a snack, etc.  Yesterday, for example, I practiced "6 hours", but that included listening to music, a few breaks, munching on goodies...

[dreamaurora]

Well, i do agree playing for 6 to 8 hours with personal commitments such as study and work can be rather unbeliveable. I practice a juicy 6 to 7 hours a day, however I am preparing for conservatory audition, and I do not have a full time job ( I just quitted it to free up my time ) , basically the whole day i do nothing but practicing piano, so you can consider me a full time pianist.

In contrast, before I quitted my job and decide to practice full time, I could barely manage to sneak in 3 hours a day at best, most of times I would just be happy with 1 or 2 hours . I find that after entire day of study and work, you will be physically and mentally too drained to practice. Instead of using the precious little time that I had after work, I had to drag myself to practice piano, which ended up in a period of nervous breakdown for me.

Playing piano is physically and mentally very tiring. It takes really strong mental determination to practice very long hours. I practice in blocks of one and half hour, with rest of half to one hour in between, and I find that even supposedly much freer time i have, it is not easy to attain practice hours above 3 hours. In fact by the time you cross the 2 hour mark, your mind will be so tired that you just want to sleep ( I always sleep during breaks to refresh myself ). Being always fresh is important in practicing long hours, that's why I think only full time pianists can practice that long, because they have plenty of time to rest between sessions. Personally, I don't believe that you can practice long hours with many other commitments, I just don't see how anyone can take that amount of stress ; I know because last time I couldn't take the stress.

And one more thing, more practice hours do not always mean necessarily good. I am practicing long hours because I spend a lot of time on techniques and preparing my audition and performing repertoire. When my techniques are more secure, I will reduce my practice time to around 4 to 5 hours, there's no point practicing long if theres no reason to justify it.

[zoolander]

Practising 8 hours a day doesnt sound that crazy. It  depends how devoted you are to the music.

I am 16 years old, and now in the summer-vacation I've been practising up to 6-8 hours a day. Of course I take alot of breaks, maybe every hour or 2 hours.

But this is just on the summer. The rest of the year, I can't practise more than perhaps 2-3 hours a day, because of school, homework, piano-room closing time etc.

I once tried to practise 8 hours without a break, and the last hours werent much effective at all, so I definitly think you need breaks to be able to concentrate.

[eddie92099]

I'm glad people agree with me! I realise of course that in the holidays (for us students) more free time = more practice, but during school time or if people have a full time job I think finding three hours of time is a maximum. Naturally there are professional pianists in this forum who practise a lot more that this, but that is to earn a living - hence I put this topic in the student's section,
Ed

[la_carrenio2003]

I'm a profesional now, but I did practice 8 hours a day since I was 16, but of course it was because I finished the high school then and I only played the piano. I practiced 4 hours in the morning, and 2 blocks of 2 hours in the afternoon, and in the evening I went out with my boyfriend. After that, in the Conservatory was hard because of the theory, but then our classes began at 9:30 a.m. We woke up at 5 o'clock in the morning, went to the Conservatory for practicing from 6 to 9:30,had classes the whole day and in the evening we played from 7:30 or 8 to 11 p.m. and it was not just me,almost everybody did that way. But of course if you have other activities the most you can play with a big effort is 4 hours-that's the minimun for keeping in form-.But now that I'm working I want to buy an electronic keyboard for practicing early in the morning and late at night without disturbing the neighbors. I just NEED to play very much.

[ThEmUsIcMaNBJ]

You just have to decide how important it is.  For me right now I do 6-8 hours because it's summer and if I have some extra time I might just go longer.  But for me it's not sitting there wanting to stop...  I love playing it's kinda like an addiction.  When school starts sure it's harder to find the time to practice but you can do it.  I usually get home by about 3 from school I'm a senior in highschool...  So only finding 3 hours would mean from 3-6...  I usually don't go to bed at 6!  I don't do a lot of homework hehe...  Just because you know... I don't  
So from 3-9 would be about 6 hours right?  Then if I have a project or something of that sort I'll do it then...  Then I'll go to bed and do it again the next day.  Of course my days don't always go like that, sometimes there are other things I need to do.  But I usually am able to get in a good 4 hours at least.  And then on weekends I enjoy doing a little catch up and at times I would actually get anywhere from 8-12 hours in.  So when I say I do 4-8 hours during school it's possible...  You just got to be a little obssesive!  

But the thing is...  If I had the entire day to practice I would...  I love playing the piano I very rarely feel like I want to stop.  Usually it's more like "NO I HAVE TO STOP!".  

This summer kinda disapointed me I really wanted to do more...  But you know I get in 8 hours or so and decide...   I should prolly go see my girlfriend or something, haha...  You know guilt can get to you  

[eddie92099]

Moiseiwitsch would practise for 4 hours a day, every day. If the 'phone rang when he was practising he would start a stopwatch and time the call. La Carrenio - I completely disagree that you need 4 hours a day to keep in form - Horowitz did nowhere near this much and he wasn't too bad was he? Different things for different people I guess. If I needed four hours a day to "just keep in form" I don't think I'd be advertising this information! (p.s. is your name a reference to Teresa? I would have loved to hear her play after reading some things about her!)
Ed

[la_carrenio2003]

You're right, Ed, when you state "different things for different people", I just quoted what I heard in Methodology class in the Conservatoire, is an average calculum of course. Methodologists have to try standardizing facts,which is of course unreal. Yes, my nickname is because of Teresa Carreño -I couldn't write the right letter in this english program-, I'm born in her country -Venezuela- and I'm very proud of her, she was the greatest pianist woman after Clara Schumann. There are a few recordings of her but it's hard to get them -in that time there were only those rolls-, but I know everything about her. I even played recitals in her museum here in Caracas: there are her concert clothes and her piano, it's amazing to see those things that close.I specially love to see at her traveling wardrobe trunk: it's so used , I love to wonder about her numerous trips around the world...

[eddie92099]

I have never heard her but have read so much about her - apparently she was Claudio Arrau's favourite pianist and he saw her playing live. Didn't she also play the end of the Grieg concerto in octaves?
Ed

[la_carrenio2003]

Yes, Claudio Arrau listened to her in Berlin when he was a kid -she died in 1917-. And yes, she played octaves in the end of the Grieg concerto. The funny thing is that Grieg himself was in the audience but she didn't know it. After the concert ended, he came to meet her and she was embarrased about the freedom she took with the text, and he told her: "I didn't know that my concerto was so beautiful". She was a great friend of Anton Rubinstein, he called her his "sunshine" and an interesting fact is that their hands look similar. She took lessons with him and once, when he said "You have to play this way" she asked why and he answered "because I'm Rubinstein". And then was the first time she said "And I'm La Carreño". When she was a child Gottschalk -her idol in that time- and Liszt listened to her. Liszt did in May 14 1866 -she never forgot that day-. After her playing, he put his hand on her head and told her:"God gave you the greatest gift: the genius. Work hard, develop your talents, be faithful to yourself. With the time, you'll become one of us." He even asked her father to take her to Rome for giving her lessons himself, but her father didn't do it, maybe they didn't have the money or because of Liszt's bad reputation as a casanova -remember that she was a little girl  and they were in 19th century-. Anyway, she always felt that hand on her head as a blessing of the King of the pianists. Cool, isn't it?

[eddie92099]

Yes and I am also right in thinking that she was married to 6 people? (including, Eugene D'albert where they lived on opposite sides of the house, and two brothers!). Did she have any children with D'albert - I wonder if they played!
Ed

[la_carrenio2003]

She had 4 husbands:

-Emile Sauret, french violinist.With him, she had a daughter, Emilia, but she must
gave her in adoption -she was young and poor at that time-.

-Giovanni Tagliapietra, italian tenor. 2 kids: Teresita -she played the piano and had a career, but of course not like her mother's- and Giovanni.

-Eugene D'Albert, german pianist -the love of her life-. 2 girls:Eugenia and Hertha, I didn't read anywhere if they were musicians at all, I don't think so.

-Arturo Tagliapietra, her former brother-in-law.

About this mess of personal life, that was uncommon at the time, there's a joke in a newspaper -Berlin,1893-: "Frau Carreño played yesterday for the 1st time the 2nd concerto of her 3rd husband in the 4th Philarmonic concert." And from her private life with D'Albert: he was divorced too and had a boy, and with them lived Giovanni and they already had their first common daughter,Eugenia. Once he interrupted her practicing to say: "Your children and my children are fighting with our children."

[thracozaag]

Horowitz did nowhere near this much and he wasn't too bad was he?

 Maybe after the 70's he practiced only two hours a day, but in his youth he practiced ALL DAY.  Menuhin, Merovich, and Milstein all attest to this.  Richter was known to practice in excess of 10+ hours a day.

[allchopin]

Dont they have anything better to do?  What about the life going on around them?  I find that practicing excess of 4 hours is exactly what it warrants- EXCESS.  Being obsessed with anything is unhealthy and is a bad lifestyle.  Perhaps it may be fun (like visiting a forum for more than 4 hours   ), but it still probably isn't the best road to take.

[Sketchee]

I think whether anyone has something better to do are not is a matter of personal priority and it's nobody elses business unless they're trying to say that it's the only way to do it.  If someone chooses to practice on that level and finds it helpful, more power to them.  People have jobs and work on average for more than eight hours a day and very few of them are "obsessed" with work or workaholics.  Some people enjoy piano or do take piano as a full job.  This thread seems a bit odd to me, since it's not about "How much time should *I* practice" but about how wrong some people are for doing there own thing.

Anyway, I wouldn't personally say I practice 6 hours a day but I have had dedicated practice sessions for that long in the past.  Not every day, though! I'm not in school this semester, but when I was I sometimes had unavoidable long spaces inbetween classes which went to practice.  I never really timed practices, but it was more about whether or not I had a recital or lesson coming up and whether I felt like playing.  That's the more important thing, rather than trying to measure your hours against someone elses.

[allchopin]

Well, practicing as a job is one thing, but for fun is another.  I understand that some people need to practice in order to get money.  These (I dont think) are the people that he's talking about.  If you mustnt, then I would call it superfluous.

[thracozaag]

Dont they have anything better to do?  What about the life going on around them?  I find that practicing excess of 4 hours is exactly what it warrants- EXCESS.  Being obsessed with anything is unhealthy and is a bad lifestyle.  Perhaps it may be fun (like visiting a forum for more than 4 hours   ), but it still probably isn't the best road to take.

 Yes, I would have love to have seen you approach Richter, Horowitz, etc. and exclaim "don't you have anything better to do?".  
 Simply put, you don't have the rep these guys do, and play at that sustained level of quality without putting in lots and lots and lots of hours.  

[allchopin]

Look at the bigger picture- life is short.  Practicing for 10 hours every day of your life is just not good for you, expert of not.  These guys have excuses, though, but they did it for a living, and that I can partly understand.  But as for me, I don't think I would just want to do 1 thing my entire life every day from sunrise to sunset.

[Sketchee]

Life IS short. If you're so passionate and are fortunate enough to do something you enjoy for so much that seems like a good thing.  I'd rather practice away my life than spend it worrying about whether other people think I'm wasting my time.

[redberry]

well . in a general view of prof. concertpianists...
it is a    s-t-r-a-n-g-e-    profession!    

[liszmaninopin]

I don't know about absurd, but I definitely think it might be over-doing it if indeed one played 8 hours a day, every day.  I can't usually practice for more than about 2 or 3 hours without needing a water break and walking around a little bit; or, more frequently, my family complaining at me for not being able to watch t.v., listen to radio, carry on a conversation.  I can't wait until I am old enough to leave home, then I can practice as much as I want, not as much as my family will let me.  But even then, I usually break up my longer practice sessions.  8 solid hours of work is alot!

[guven]

Dont they have anything better to do?  What about the life going on around them?  I find that practicing excess of 4 hours is exactly what it warrants- EXCESS.  Being obsessed with anything is unhealthy and is a bad lifestyle.  Perhaps it may be fun (like visiting a forum for more than 4 hours   ), but it still probably isn't the best road to take.

They don't have better to do because the best things was playing and practising for them, that's why we're still having and listening their records

I think it was not being obssessed with anything since music was already their life ...

[Clare]

I read that Padarewski had to practice all day and all night for a few weeks for some big concert tour he accidentally said yes to. Man, I can't even imagine playing for four hours without a break.
But then again, if you think that people work a 9-5 job, if you practiced piano it would be like exactly the same thing. People work eight hours a day at things all the time, so why not the piano?
I don't think I could do that much, though.

[cziffra]

it did always strike me as to how these men practiced for so long and achieved what they did, richter and co.

the answer could be as simple as: if you live in the ukraine or in russia and it's freezing outside, you're going to need something to spend your time on.  
and chess needs two people

[leemay001]

Actually Eddie, I'm 14 and I just started to take piano seriously as you know, and yesterday I practised for 4 hours and today I have practised for 5 and a half so far and I plan on practising some more tonight. But this is ONLY on holidays and/or weekends.

When I have school I can only practise for about 3-4 hours at the most. But I'm really keen on improving so I try to get every moment I can to play.

I do take 10 minute breaks every hour or so to prevent fatigue but I started Chopin's prelude #20 today and have almost completed it.

Although if it's on school days I also doubt they can play for up to 8 hours unless they don't sleep. But that also brings the problem of fatigue which makes it almost impossible to play. Well that's my thoughts anyway...

~Lee~