What would you do if......... (pretend)

[lagin]

Okay guys, play a game of pretend with me here.  Say you had pretty much nothing else to do but play piano and socialize.  Unlikely, I know, but still.  Now say you HAD to practice 42 hours a week.  1.  What would you RATHER do.  2.  What do you think would be the most BENEFICIAL in terms of quickly learning and perfecting your repertoire.  Note:  this is NOT playing but real practicing.

Also note:  All options below would be broken up like a workday with a couple breaks and a larger lunch break.

A.  Practice 6 hours a day 7 days a week, and maybe take a couple days off a month for sanity sake. 

B.  Practice 7 hours a day, Monday through Friday, and 3 1/2 hours each day on the weekend (Saturday and Sunday). 

C. Practice 8 hours a day Monday through Friday, but only 1 hour on Saturday and Sunday to make this option equal the same amount of hours as the others.

D.  Work something like 8 1/2 hours a day Monday through Thursday, and 8 hours on Friday, and then have weekends totally without piano. 

Please keep in mind that this would not be a short period of time, but your regular practice habit for say a year.  And let's pretend we have set repertoire and goals and exams and stuff (similar to a universtiy student, but not quite), so our practice is trully "practice" not "playing." 


I've been pondering this and have come to a couple conclusions which make me lean towards option C as my preference.  Option A.  I think you would burn out and thus lose more days overall due to "needing a break."  Yes, you would work less hours in a day, but you would hardly ever get a day just for you to relax on. 

Option B. seems to be a pretty good option, but I think when one gets to Saturday and Sunday, they would not want to practice almost half their day away (3 1/2 is almost half of 8 ), after working almost 8 hour days the rest of the week.

Option C.  My concern with this one is do you think that practicing only 1 hour each day of the weekend is enough or do you think the break would be too long?  Or maybe the break would do some good.  I've heard lot's of people say that after a day off or so, they feel like they can get into their pieces more.  And if you had to miss a day, you'ld lose more hours than missing a day in the other options.

Option D.  Don't know if one would really want to work more than 8 hours a day without overtime pay .  Haha!  I think one would like to at least "touch" base with the piano on the weekends to stay in the flow. 

Anyhow, please vote just for fun, and explain further in a post if you have time as to why you voted what you did.  Thanks.
 

[lung7793]

Well, considering that I like to go away a lot on the weekends, I would pick option D.  I think this is beneficial because, like any job full time job with weekends off, weekends are for YOU.  Sure, I may sit down and play for fun or myself for others during my time off, but I wouldn't be doing hard core practicing.  This is also good for the physical mechanism of playing piano because the body needs rest as well, especially if the repertoire you're working on is very demanding.  Memory is a muscle and needs to be worked like any other muscle, so I think it would also be beneficial to give it a couple days of break every week, let it sit back in the lounge chair and soak up what it's learned 

Just my thoughts, interesting question thanks!

[lagin]

Thank you for answering.  That's a good thought.  I never thought a memory as a muscle before, but that makes sense. 

[desordre]

 Dear Iagin:
 My answer would be A "with a twist": one day off per week. In the original option, there are two days off per mont, so I changed it a very little bit.
 By the way, it would be 3 sections of two hours each. If you sleep for 8 hours, minus the six of piano practice, then would left 10 hours a day to do whatever. To myself, kind of perfect! The day off is necessary 'cause I find it harmful to muscles getting on an stopless practice.
 You make me remember my summer vacances during undergraduate, when I used to wake up at 2:00 PM, get a lunch, go to the cinema (every day!) and then returning home to study about 10-12hours, till 6:00AM or so. Very good times...
 Best wishes!

[pianistimo]

i like desorde's choice the best because i cannot go more than one day without practicing (especially if i was a concert pianist).  the fingers would lose the last day's work (before the day of rest) and i'd have to practice too much on monday to catch up.  everyone is individual.  this is how my brain works.

if this were the case (six hours a day) - i would try to do it in one fell swoop.  i'd just sit down and start in.  taking 15 minutes breaks occasionally to see what time it is.   of course, we'd need a maid, someone to write out the bills, someone to take care of the children, someone to do errands.  whew.  six hours a day would be really something. 

yes. desordre is right !@ if you want to put that much time in - you're looking at a piano with silence capabilities and practicing into the wee hours of the night.  i do not wish to take any more days off than one per week.  i am a piano addict.  used to play the piano for church, too, so i never really took a day off from at least touching the piano.

[liszt-essence]

I would prefer option D.


8.5 hours a day is like a 'normal' working day, and in the weekends I would like to do whatever I want.


sh*t, I would never practice 8.5 hours a day

[arbisley]

I'm not really sure, but I would choose B just because I think you could do properly tiresome work MOn.-Fri. but then take time for musicalty and interpretation and enjoy yourself more at the weekend.

On the other hand, C. seems quite interesting, since sometimes I play better after having done nothing for a while, and an hour is enough to enjoy yourself playing but also listen to interpretation, although with a concert pianist repertoire, I'm not sure that that would be enough!

So yes, I choose B

[bernhard]

Given the constraints of the question (I don´t relly think it is necessary to do 42 hours a week), I am with Desordre: 7 hours a day for 6 days and one day off (not necessarily Sunday) every week.

BW
B.

[barnowl]

I think sex, six hours a day, seven days a week, would be much more fun.

Might be more productive, too, come to think of it. 

[arbisley]

emotionally?
or physically?

[gruffalo]

option C for me. i would get all the difficult work on reptoire, memorization etc during the week and maybe do just scales on weekend. for some reason if i take 2 days off the piano, it feels like i have to start again when i come back.

Gruff

[lagin]

This is great feed back guys, thanks~

Could some of you further elaborate why you think tha,t with a concert repertoire or a university repertoire, which would be about an hour's recital worth at a time I think, taking the weekend off would be bad?  This is the sort of thing I was wondering about when I perfered option C.  Is an hour for those days enough to keep it alive?  You'ld have enough time for a run through each of those days, but not really "working" on them.  Does the added hours on the other days make up for the lack on the weekends?  Or does one need to "immerse" oneself in the repertoire and be working on it constantly and evenly "ish" (over each day I mean) at university level and this then, would be a bad idea?  (Note, I realise your days would not be so free if you really were in university, but it's the concept I'm after).

Thanks.

[arbisley]

That's where I thought option B is better, because you have time to enjoy the playing more and at the same time go through all your repertoire properly, maybe practicing on specific technical bits, whereas the rest of the week you would be "drilling".
At the same time, don't force yourself if you're tired because you might just burn out. As I said, sometimes it helps to rest for a while for things to sound better.

As I don't practice that much ("yet" I hope), I don't know wether this opinion has validity, so you might take it with a pinch of salt!