Practicing

[welltemperedklavier]

A bit of background info first....
I started playing the piano at about thirteen years old, didnt do scratch for the first two years and was almost 'fired' as a student(for want of a better term for this?)by my teacher at almost fifteen before I started taking it seriously and knuckled down on it. Practice gradually increased until I was doing between 5 and 9 hours practice a day. I never got as far as music college but I did progress to the standard of stuff like islamey and the second rach sonata(both badly) by my late teens. I kinda stopped practicing so much once I hit about nineteen because I had so much in the way of getting to music college and had no idea what to do, plus I had finished with my teacher(who had been a neigbour) by then and hadnt yet found another to take up where she left me(I have found one now). So now at 22 I still havnt made it to music college, I have avoided competitions for the most part but plan on doing a few this year. I have managed to get my licentiate diploma and will take the fellowship(recital type rather than regular performance type) this summer. I have a plan worked out(roughly) to build up to some rather far fetched ambitions of mine which involve some very big competitions in 2012...ive been working(kinda) on it since september, all thats missing right now is the right amount of practice. This is my last shot at my rather far fetched ambitions of making some sort of career out of this and far fetched as it may be I really have to try it..its just one of those things il regret for the rest of my life if I dont give it a shot at least.

Any tips on how to build back up to the aul '9 hours a day' routine? Or should I just jump straight from one hour a week to nine a day?

[amelialw]

i have no idea what you are thinking but why 9 hrs? go watch imagine...being a concert pianist as well as read up on advice given my famous pianists and you will find that you are not being wise. Once it goes beyond 6 hrs, you can cause damage to your hands and i'm sure you don't want that.

You do not need to practice 9 hrs to suceed!!!!

and don't waste time anymore. Find a good teacher and go to a music school if u want to become a musician

[welltemperedklavier]

Yeah, Ive seen imagine and did see the whole point of not going beyond about 5 hours a day...but other piano playing friends of mine tried to argue against that at all costs and backed it up by saying that their conservatoire teachers had told them theyd need to practice about 8 hours a day if they wanted to go professional....Ive been through that phase and see the point of not going beyond five hours but so many people say such different things about this....

Im still trying to work out the whole music school/college/conservatoire thing but theres alot in the way like I said and I dont want to sit around waiting if you get me...

[hyrst]

You are going to end up with sore hands and back if you try to jump from 1 hour a week to 9 hours a day!  Not recommended....

You need to find the most effective time for you - and how to divide your day's work to manage the physical and mental demands of an intensive practice regime.  However, you won't be able to physically cope with this routine yet.

If you are keen to start a reasonable amount of time, build up to it mentally and physically.  This is somehting you need to keep up over the long term.  If you suddenly dive in and do 9 hours a day, you will be zealous for a few days and then most likely suddenly not want to touch the piano again for just as long.


Start with a few hours, but include in this time long and short term planning, theory, reading, general knowledge / listening / interpetive studies and techical studies.  If you have not been practicing much, work for about 20 minutes a day at first for the first week or two doing finger studies and scales.  Do some effective muscle exercises and yoga style relaxation before and after this work out.  Gradually build up over the weeks until you can manage a full workout.  Give other practice time to memorising, reasearching and listening to selected pieces.  Research and read principles about managing marathons and body building and apply similar ideas to piano practice.  Don't try to sit at the piano for more than half an hour at a time.

Find a good performance teacher.

[amelialw]

Yeah, Ive seen imagine and did see the whole point of not going beyond about 5 hours a day...but other piano playing friends of mine tried to argue against that at all costs and backed it up by saying that their conservatoire teachers had told them theyd need to practice about 8 hours a day if they wanted to go professional....Ive been through that phase and see the point of not going beyond five hours but so many people say such different things about this....

Im still trying to work out the whole music school/college/conservatoire thing but theres alot in the way like I said and I dont want to sit around waiting if you get me...

well...sometimes you have to ignore what others say...even my canada teacher said a max of 6 hrs is enough and when I practice 5 she's perfectly fine with it so, that explains it.

yes I get you but u need to get it going right now, just get a teacher 1st!

[goldentone]

Welltempered, let me echo what others have said.  Nine hours a day is asking for a short-lived life at the piano, not to mention the possibility of burning out.  I believe you can easily cut that time in half without jeopardizing your aspirations.

[gerryjay]

dear wtk:
if you are talking about bare physical practice, i agree with the others: it's non-sense.
however, if you plan to use your 9 hours to musical practice, i encourage you very much. i would have a plan for you, btw  :

(a word before i proceed. if you are 22, don't hurry man. you have plenty of time to make your path, whatever it is.)

- from the first day, include at least one hour of music listening (not only piano: do the complete homework, and dig orchestral, vocal, chamber...well, anything you put your hands on, from medieval to 2009). also, include at least one hour to read about music (biographies, music history, descriptive analysis). finally, one hour at least to analyse music (and study music analysis, if you need to): from roman numbers to tarasti, from schenker to meyer. the starting point, if you are not acquainted with proper analysis, is phrasing and chord-labeling. this alone will give you a very nice practice time. btw, those hours are basically away from the piano;

- at the piano, start practicing old and not challenging repertory (islamey would be such a bad idea by now). among that, build a concert program of about an hour. then, plan your study according to your needs: if you are into the revision of satie's gymnopedies (why not?), you can play it by heart directly, with no HS or anything like that; in the other hand, if your goal is a revision of an easy beethoven sonata (opus 27/2 or opus 13 for that matter), a bit of sketchy practice would be of great benefit both to your skills and to the piece itself. the goal of that is to reach one hour a day, to play your recital straight (even if in the first days of sight-reading and remembering you'll probably take much longer. what could be funnier than playing like this?);

- after you have your recital in your belt, do two things: schedule it in a couple of venues, and start playing something harder. then, i think that you'll already (re-) developed a daily practice, so i'd assume that you will not hurt yourself trying a piece such as a ravel, or a late beethoven, or a liszt (or anything your fancy tells you). notice, please, that it's not the time yet to resume the big shots: my suggestion of late beethoven would not be opus 106 (or prokofiev's late, or anything like that). choose something, and it will probably give you from one to two hours of daily practice.

- use one hour to raw technique practice. how to do that is a very popular and controversial topic, so i will not give you any ideas. basically, do what you like to do: hanon, scales, exercises, etudes, specific parts of works, weight-lifting...well, if you are out of ideas, use the search feature of the forum, and use your hour of reading 

well, that's all. the basic plan looks like that:
- listen: one hour;
- reading: one hour;
- analysis: one hour;
- recital oriented: one hour;
- new repertory: from one to two hours;
- technique specific: one hour.

you will complete your nine hours according to your needs: perhaps, another hour dedicated to the recital, or working two new pieces at a time (although i think that is misleading). anyway, keep the other advices above in mind: more than six hours a day at the piano is a complete waste of time.

best wishes!

[gerryjay]

PS: if you will really need a ground-shaking recital program, just replace the pieces as you feel confortable with the new (and tougher) ones. with so many hours of daily practice, you'll have a mighty selection of pieces in a couple of years, including islamey or the rach sonata if you like to. btw, if you let me criticize your previous choices, i would never ever pick either...
best!

[welltemperedklavier]

Thanks 

Firstly, when I mentioned returning to '9 hours a day' il admit it was mainly based in the insistence of one friend that it was grand and anyone would need that amount to succeed..  I didnt entirely agree but since he was so adamant about it I took his word for it and also took it as being an issue where people may have conflicting views. I have no intention of setting myself up for injury though so im reverting back to my previous thought of '5 hours is enough'. Sure ive more fuel for debate if the topic ever happens to come up with him again, hehe. Il admit I had no idea what I was doing back when I used to do that amount and im lucky I didnt do damage. I like the plan gerryjay set out though.

I should clarify one thing though, the 'recital' option I chose for my fellowship diploma instead of taking the regular performance route basically just means that I have to play slightly more pieces than otherwise, choose pieces based on more specific guidelines but at the same time having more choice than I would otherwise have, and provide programme notes etc in the exam..so unfortunately it doesnt involve an actual recital, just an exam in which I have to behave as if I were giving a recital. The teacher I have at the moment doesnt teach beyond fellowship diploma so I would have been looking for a new one come June but I have started the ball rolling there already anyway to be sure I have found one by then, its doubtful id have that sorted any sooner anyway because thered be application forms to fill out and auditions to do and that kind of thing.

On Rach sonata 2 and Islamey..... can I get away with blaming my age for those choices? I went through a 'flashy' phase in my late teens.

[gerryjay]

dear wtk:
about the recital, what i mean is an old believe of mine: it's impossible to truly develop without playing live. furthermore, that is what all is about, isn't it? the examination path is secondary.

On Rach sonata 2 and Islamey..... can I get away with blaming my age for those choices?

yes, yes... just remember the kind of chicks you dated... the teen years are of great excess and wisdomlessness.

best!

[lostinidlewonder]

9 hours a day? Do the Chopin 24 Etudes in just over 3 weeks. Here is a description of what to do.
https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php/topic,16476.0.html

[amelialw]

dear wtk:
if you are talking about bare physical practice, i agree with the others: it's non-sense.
however, if you plan to use your 9 hours to musical practice, i encourage you very much. i would have a plan for you, btw  :

(a word before i proceed. if you are 22, don't hurry man. you have plenty of time to make your path, whatever it is.)

- from the first day, include at least one hour of music listening (not only piano: do the complete homework, and dig orchestral, vocal, chamber...well, anything you put your hands on, from medieval to 2009). also, include at least one hour to read about music (biographies, music history, descriptive analysis). finally, one hour at least to analyse music (and study music analysis, if you need to): from roman numbers to tarasti, from schenker to meyer. the starting point, if you are not acquainted with proper analysis, is phrasing and chord-labeling. this alone will give you a very nice practice time. btw, those hours are basically away from the piano;

- at the piano, start practicing old and not challenging repertory (islamey would be such a bad idea by now). among that, build a concert program of about an hour. then, plan your study according to your needs: if you are into the revision of satie's gymnopedies (why not?), you can play it by heart directly, with no HS or anything like that; in the other hand, if your goal is a revision of an easy beethoven sonata (opus 27/2 or opus 13 for that matter), a bit of sketchy practice would be of great benefit both to your skills and to the piece itself. the goal of that is to reach one hour a day, to play your recital straight (even if in the first days of sight-reading and remembering you'll probably take much longer. what could be funnier than playing like this?);

- after you have your recital in your belt, do two things: schedule it in a couple of venues, and start playing something harder. then, i think that you'll already (re-) developed a daily practice, so i'd assume that you will not hurt yourself trying a piece such as a ravel, or a late beethoven, or a liszt (or anything your fancy tells you). notice, please, that it's not the time yet to resume the big shots: my suggestion of late beethoven would not be opus 106 (or prokofiev's late, or anything like that). choose something, and it will probably give you from one to two hours of daily practice.

- use one hour to raw technique practice. how to do that is a very popular and controversial topic, so i will not give you any ideas. basically, do what you like to do: hanon, scales, exercises, etudes, specific parts of works, weight-lifting...well, if you are out of ideas, use the search feature of the forum, and use your hour of reading 

well, that's all. the basic plan looks like that:
- listen: one hour;
- reading: one hour;
- analysis: one hour;
- recital oriented: one hour;
- new repertory: from one to two hours;
- technique specific: one hour.

you will complete your nine hours according to your needs: perhaps, another hour dedicated to the recital, or working two new pieces at a time (although i think that is misleading). anyway, keep the other advices above in mind: more than six hours a day at the piano is a complete waste of time.

best wishes!

ahh...if it's 9 hrs of musical practice there's nothing wrong with that, in fact it will be beneficial. My practice takes up 4-6 hrs a day, listening alone another 1+ hr plus theory and history already shoots it above 9 hrs...well, i'm a music student and it is my career after all

[gerryjay]

ahh...if it's 9 hrs of musical practice there's nothing wrong with that, in fact it will be beneficial. My practice takes up 4-6 hrs a day, listening alone another 1+ hr plus theory and history already shoots it above 9 hrs...well, i'm a music student and it is my career after all

that's the path, isn't it? i think that when someone get into it, everything turns musical and studying for many hours a day is not that deal. specially, if you are pursuing a career, there is nothing strange about a routine of 12 hours a day, from piano practice to undergraduate classes.
best!

[gerryjay]

9 hours a day? Do the Chopin 24 Etudes in just over 3 weeks. Here is a description of what to do.
https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php/topic,16476.0.html

dear lost:
thanks for the link. amazing discussion and an almost irresistible idea 
unfortunately, that's not to me by now 
best!