Use of time

[rogercacv]

I was just wondering how different people use there time playing the Piano.  For instance how much time on anything that could be considered exercises, Hanon, Scales, etudes and so on.  How much time is spent on sight reading. How much time is spent on learning pieces casually,  how much time is spent on learning pieces seriously, and how much time is spent memorizing. OH and last but not least how much time is just spent kind of meandering around the piano with no particular purpose in mind.

For myself I always find myself drawn about how much  time to spend on seriously learning pieces and how much time to spend on mastering new technical difficulties.

Here is an example of what I do on a typical day

1. Exercises - 20 minutes
2. Bach  - 20  Minutes
3. Sight reading 15 minutes
4. Working on something technical ( EX: working on an akward fingering or jumps that I am not satisfied with) - 20 minutes.
5. Continuing to master the main composition that I am working on at this time( 45 minutes)
6. Most anything I feel like doing no structure - 1 hour

Of course some of this overlaps, but it is the general idea.  Just wondering how this might compare with what other people do.

[amelialw]

this is my practise scheldue, there will be alot of changes end of this month after my competition classes are over though.

Practise Schedule A
1 hr Bach:Partita no.2 in c minor (Sinfonia)
30 mins-45 mins Technique (1 key)* if I need it
1 hr-90 mins Haydn Sonata in E flat Hob/49;L/59 (1st and 3rd movement)
1 hr-90 mins Chopin Etude in F major Op.10 No.8
1 hr-90 mins Chopin Etude in c sharp minor op.10 no.4 and Chopin Etude in g flat major Op.10 No.5
or Mendelssohn Rondo Cappriccioso /and Prokofiev Visions Fugatives

Practise Schedule B
30-45 mins Technique (1 key)
75 mins-2 hrs Beethoven Sonata in A Op.2 No.2 (1st and 3rd/all movements)
45 mins-1hr Rachmaninoff Prelude in g sharp minor Op.32 No.12
1hr+ Schumann Piano Concerto in a minor Op.54
1 hr Chopin Etude in c sharp minor op.10 no.4 and Chopin Etude in g flat major Op.10 No.5
or Mendelssohn Rondo Cappriccioso

Practise Schedule C
1 hr Bach:Partita no.2 in c minor (Sinfonia)
1 hr-90 mins Haydn Sonata in E flat Hob/49;L/59 (1st and 3rd movement)
1 hr-90 mins Chopin Etude in F major Op.10 No.8
75 mins Beethoven Sonata in A Op.2 No.2 (1st and 3rd)
45 mins-1hr Rachmaninoff Prelude in g sharp minor Op.32 No.12
1 hr run through of all competition repertoire

[pianogeek_cz]

Hah, lucky you, six hours a day for practice...

Since I never know how much schoolwork awaits me, I have a priority list I cycle through by 15-30-minute sessions. It looks roughly like this:
- every day scales/arps (in sets of 3 keys: currently C - C sharp - D): roughly 15 mins, once a day only
- Chopin 10/4 (this one's usually a 30-minute session)
- Mozart K333, 1st mov (nearing completion, will be moving down the list shortly)
- Prokofiev sonata no. 3 (Yay!)
- Chopin 25/9
- Rachmaninoff 33/7
- Bach P&F c minor WTK I (basically done, playing with the fugue)
And, if there's extra time after going through this set at least three to four times, slowly starting to re-visit one small Dvorak piece.
And, if there's even more time (weekends...), improv/composition. (Or more etudes.)

[carazymcmahon]

jees, I guess I have to learn how to practice.
Most of the time I spend at the piano is just playing a few pieces along with some experimenting with current pieces. I do work a lot (30 minutes, haha :] ) on rubato and touch sometimes though.

-Usually start of with Chopin's Nocturne Op 9 No 2 and other not-so-fast pieces.
-Work on Chopin's Etude Op 25 No 12. If I'm in a working mode ill take a stab at Scriabin's Etude Op 8 No 12, and sometimes ill get further into La Campanella.
-You'll all hate me but I love playing Fantasie Impromptu and I try to play it everytime I sit at a piano.
-After that i might repeat a piece or two and just mess around.

total time is usually always less than an hour
I've never had specific excersises as part of anything other than lessons but it's worked so far, I just hope it keeps working as I keep progressing.

[wotgoplunk]

Do people really need to practise that much?! 

15 minutes of technique, usually scales, chromatics, arpeggios. I tend to omit chords, I get enough practise within the pieces.

10 minutes, grade 9 Baroque. Usually consists of metronome and articulation work.

15 minutes, grade 9 Classical. Same as above, hence the small practice times.

25 minutes, grade 10 Romantic. I have more of a flair for romantic, hence the grade 10.

20 minutes, grade 9 20th Century. Two pieces, usually contrasting.

5 minutes, sight reading.  Doesn't need all that much work.


I seem to do fine with an hour and a half of practise a day...should I be doing more 

[amelialw]

well, you're playing gr9/10 piano..

i'm getting my ARCT performer's done, i'm not in school, gonna enter music school nxt year end of july. and i'm majoring in music

[wotgoplunk]

well, you're playing gr9/10 piano..

i'm getting my ARCT performer's done, i'm not in school, gonna enter music school nxt year end of july. and i'm majoring in music

Ok, well that would explain a lot 

Even so, playing quadruple the amount of time I practise still strikes me as an awful lot.

I can't see myself ever getting up to 6 hours in a day, even at higher levels. Even if I have all day, I can't psychologically play for that long, it's just too much.

Of course, if I were to spend more time practising, I'd have been easily done grade 9 by now. My teacher is preventing me from moving forward due to technique, but I find it exceedingly difficult to maintain focus and interest. I can only play diminished seventh arpeggios a few times before I'm absolutely sick of them. To me, no matter how many times it's explained, playing endless scales just doesn't make any sense. It just becomes a rigmarole, to be done day after day.

So why would I spend an immense amount of time running scales up and down the piano  if I don't enjoy the time spent doing it?


I seem to have gone off on a tangent. 

[amelialw]

technique is important, it enforces eveness, proper control of the fingers etc. scales, appegios etc are often seen in many pieces so that is the basic foundation, even at my level is still practise it, I do dislike it but in the end I do it for my own benefit.

[wotgoplunk]

But why not practise something when you come to it? Why drill beforehand, when you can learn one specific thing once you encounter it?

If you need a diminished seventh in say, d-minor, to throw out a random key.

Why must you also learn all the other ones, when at that point in time you only need the one?

It might help in the future, yes, but it's still time saved, no?

[amelialw]

I still think that it is important to practise technique(all keys) so I guess in the end it depends on the individual.

[pianochick93]

Ok, i get lazy doing scales and things occasionally, my family usually only lets me have an hour a night, so my schedule is as follows:

- Raindrop Prelude - Chopin

- Prelude in C# min. - Rachmaninoff

- Nocturne in E minor, Chopin

- Sight reading excercises

- Exam pieces (not for a while, and they are easy, so I don't move them up my schedule until about 2 months before the exam)
1. Triplet Falls - Kerin Bailey
2. La Navette - Boismortier
3. Undecided yet
4. Ditto above.

- Other random pieces, some old ones that I want to practice, some new ones that I am just starting to look at, etc.

- Scales etc. These come easily to me so I don't practice them that much. I should practice them more though.

[mcgillcomposer]

For me it's pretty straight forward...

25 mins. - 30 mins.:  reading through repertoire at random (flipping through all sorts of things)

30 mins. - 1 hour: working on pieces I am currently studying

30 mins. - playing and re-working repertoire I already know

1 - 2 hours - composing

This said, I have the advantage of being a good sight reader - so a lot of my reading at random stays with me, and I am able to learn the pieces I have read quite quickly when I decide to study them. I agree with Barenboim - the earlier you start a piece (even if you're just reading through once every 2 weeks or something) the better. It has certainly worked to my advantage.

[slobone]

I do a lot of Hanon/scales/arpeggios, up to an hour, because I'm trying to retrain my fingers after a long hiatus of not playing.

Then I work on my main piece (right now it's the Goldberg Variations), starting with a lot of slow practice to learn a new section, then going back to an older section and really working on making it sound good. That's another hour or so.

Then my secondary piece, which right now is the Chopin F minor Nocturne. But I'm getting a little tired of that, I may give up and move on to something else. Something by Gershwin?

As for sight reading, my policy is: never sight read the same piece more than once. I used to sight read the Beethoven Sonatas a lot, without ever fixing mistakes on the difficult passages, and I really kind of ruined them for myself. Currently I'm enjoying the Kuhlau sonatinas, they're a lot of fun.

[amelialw]

well...i'm bored so here's my new schedule anyway

Schedule A
45 mins to 1hr:J.S Bach-Partita in c minor (Sinfonia)
30 mins: technique (1 key)+last page of mendelssohn
45 mins to 1 hr+:Mendelssohn-Andante & Rondo Cappriccioso op.14
1 hr+:Rachmaninoff-Prelude in g sharp minor op.32 no.12 & Prokofiev-Visions Fugitives no.3,7,8&10
5 mins: octave technique
45 mins to 1hr:Chopin-Etude in F major Op.10 No.8

Schedule B
10 mins: appeggios & octaves
1 hr:Beethoven-Sonata in A major op.2 no.2 (1st and 3rd movements)
30 mins+:Chopin-Etude in G flat major op.10 no.5
1 hr+:Beethoven-Sonata in A major op.2 no.2 (2nd and 4th movements)
1 hr+:Schumann-Piano Concerto in a minor op.54*finally*
1 hr:Chopin-Etude in c sharp minor op.10 no.4

lol...jus realised that I really need to add something else to my repertoire so that I can practise longer hours, probably will add a schubert sonata& debussy piece (estampes or images)? or maybe a p+f?

[ilikepie]

well...i'm bored so here's my new schedule anyway

Schedule A
45 mins to 1hr:J.S Bach-Partita in c minor (Sinfonia)
30 mins: technique (1 key)+last page of mendelssohn
45 mins to 1 hr+:Mendelssohn-Andante & Rondo Cappriccioso op.14
1 hr+:Rachmaninoff-Prelude in g sharp minor op.32 no.12 & Prokofiev-Visions Fugitives no.3,7,8&10
5 mins: octave technique
45 mins to 1hr:Chopin-Etude in F major Op.10 No.8

Schedule B
10 mins: appeggios & octaves
1 hr:Beethoven-Sonata in A major op.2 no.2 (1st and 3rd movements)
30 mins+:Chopin-Etude in G flat major op.10 no.5
1 hr+:Beethoven-Sonata in A major op.2 no.2 (2nd and 4th movements)
1 hr+:Schumann-Piano Concerto in a minor op.54*finally*
1 hr:Chopin-Etude in c sharp minor op.10 no.4

lol...jus realised that I really need to add something else to my repertoire so that I can practise longer hours, probably will add a schubert sonata& debussy piece (estampes or images)? or maybe a p+f?

You are learning too many pieces.. gasp. And with those practice times... you're just scratching the surface >_> It would be better if you practiced them longer, maybe 2 hours each piece, but obviously lesser pieces in a day. Since you need time to take in what you learn, the break when you switch pieces everyday should help you a lot, imo at least. Doing all those pieces is insane... unless you've finished some of them and just reviewing/maintaining?

[amelialw]

yes, I have finished 4 of them and am just maintaining them at performance standard for my exam next year in June. That's why I want more pieces and anyway I learn better that way

I just recently finished my Bach, Beethoven sonata (1st&3rd), Rach prelude and Chopin Etude in F major.

and did you even think that maybe i`m not in school and I can practise as much as I want to everyday, I don`t need t limit my time.

[ilikepie]

yes, I have finished 4 of them and am just maintaining them at performance standard for my exam next year in June. That's why I want more pieces and anyway I learn better that way

I just recently finished my Bach, Beethoven sonata (1st&3rd), Rach prelude and Chopin Etude in F major.

and did you even think that maybe i`m not in school and I can practise as much as I want to everyday, I don`t need t limit my time.

Not being in school was never an issue my dear ... It's more of how you can maximize your gains in shorter amounts of time. I'd have to say 45 mins for a piece... assuming you're still learning it is hardly enough. You have to give your brain enough time to grasp it and 45 mins. per piece is kinda short. Whatever works for you though. How long does it take you to learn a piece, like a chopin etude(sincey ou have 3 I noticed)?

[amelialw]

well, for the one in F major I took a year to master it since I it was my 1st one.
I started the one in G flat major worked on it with my teacher for 3 lessons and then have been working on it alone since then because of my competitions, i'm about 70% done for that one. Just started the c sharp minor one a couple of days back. I would say that I have about 30% done.

well...I have finished my Bach,Rach and Chopin etude in F major that's why I can pull off effective practise within 45 mins-1 hr because I know exactly how to practise it and considering that those pieces have been with me for a long time. i'll have a huge problem too right now if I get tired of my Bach to fast, had it with me for a year and a half already.

for mendelssohn, yeah maybe I should practise 1 hr+ at least

[ryanyee]

do you really need to practise your sight-reading  even before practising? i immediately practise my pieces the moment i sit down at the piano.

[pianochick93]

So do I, Ryan. If I feel like training my sight reading, I find a random piano book and pick a piece that looks good. That would generally be after I do my pieces, if I'm having trouble with a certain piece, I will practice the bit that I am having trouble with, then play the whole piece through to make sure that I can do it.

Curse the last section of Prelude in C sharp minor by Rachmaninoff. My hands hurt afterwards, because they aren't really big enough.