how much practise per day?

[njalli]

Hello,

I'm 14 years old and i have been playing for 4 years,

i just want to know how much i should practise each day. School usually starts at 8:10, i dont practise in the morning. School finishes always about 2:00-3:20. I usually just hang out with my friends at school i dont often hang out with friends after school so that gives me much time. I take two lessons in piano every week (1 hour each). I just want to know if you guys can give me any information on how to practise musch per day.

if you have some extra time, try to tell me:

• how much practise in scales/arpeggios/and broken chords
  how much time in the songs/pieces i play

i allso compose alot of my own music. Should i include that time i take for that in my practise time or take extra time for composing?
[/list]

[javacisnotrecognized]

How much practice a day?

As much as it takes to master what you're practicing. If you never seem to master it, you need to find a new practice methodology.

You might want to look at this thread: https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php/topic,2265.0.html (Especially on the second page)

You can find threads that are possibly related to any question/problem you might have by looking at "Search" at the top.

[njalli]

thanks,

ive read it. i know of all this

but if you were a teacher what would you recomend to your student to practise much each day?

[javacisnotrecognized]

thanks,

ive read it. i know of all this

but if you were a teacher what would you recomend to your student to practise much each day?

Do you have a teacher? If you do, ask him/her. Otherwise you have to make a decision: Suppose you want to learn your piece in 2 months, with 2 hours of practice a day, or 4 months, with 1 hour a day? Or 1 month with 4 hours a day?

Basically, the more hours you do, the sooner you'll be finished. But how long are you willing to wait to be finished, vs. how many hours can you give up a day?

[njalli]

ok thanks, i usually play for 2-3 hours, my teacher says atleast 2 hours. just wanted to hear this from a different person

thanks tho

[zheer]

 practise for no more than 20 min every hour or so if you have the time.

[njalli]

ok, thx but why only 20 min per hour?

[zheer]

ok, thx but why only 20 min per hour?

  The first 20 min we are most alert, after that concentration quickly fades away. Too many pianists on this forum talk about 8 - 10 hour practise daily, it's too much. Plus when you're a little older you realize that piano isn't the most important thing in the world and you begin to wounder why so many hours were wasted. Idealy as a adult it is a good idea to incorporte piano practise with-in other daily activity.

[db05]

I practice 3-4 hours a day. Lessons are now 2 hours in one go, and really intense - less exercises and more pieces now.

Depending on what you're working with, and your difficulties, you should allot time for them. At least 15 mins working on learning each piece, for example. Technical exercises should be short and specific, so maybe 10 mins? Play some memorized/ finished pieces everyday. No set limit on this one. This is where the interpretation and details come in, which take more time.

[go12_3]

It all depends upon the individual and level of difficulty of the pieces.  Technique exercises is for a warm-up, and then whatever time there is alloted to practice the pieces and how much time is being spent on which piece------that is up to the pianist.

[xmrbrightside89]

2-4+ hours a day, it depends!
I usually spend like 40-50 mins on my technique, like scales, arpeggios, octaves and stuff! the time left for the piecies
Anyways, you should study at least, 2 hours a day!!! If you really wanna advance on what you do!
Work hard on your technique, it will help you a lot believe me

I'd recommend you to take some time, at night... to relax and play the piecies you have already learned (try to play without sheets)... It will help you to memorize them better...and also, you'll have some relaxing time ! but you know, that's also a way to improve your performance and TOUCH your piano!

Ps: A little personal advice for your lessons! If you're about to learn a new piece(I guess you already know what you're going to play in the future, right? you have a sort of programme no?), give it always a first sight reading... That'll help you to save a lot of time so you don't waste that during your private lessons! 

[maisymouse]

Plus when you're a little older you realize that piano isn't the most important thing in the world and you begin to wounder why so many hours were wasted.

erm, i'm 16 now, and i kinda regret how much time i've wasted when i was a kid playing truant and hating piano practises. a bit on the opposite 

i usually practise randomly, whenever i feel like it. maybe i really want to practise my Beethoven pieces, and when i'm done and i don't really wanna continue, i'll just leave and do other stuff, probably come back again if i feel like it. i think this is sorta important to me, because i HATE being forced to practise all day. just think about sitting there for 2 hours!! haha. so the 20 minutes advice seems ok to me

[db05]

Back to practicing 0-2 hours a day. Oh my. My progress spurt didn't last long. Usually I hit the point of diminishing returns in an hour, and have to stop whatever I'm doing. Ruins the mood especially when there's so much work left to be done! *faints*

[go12_3]

Back to practicing 0-2 hours a day. Oh my. My progress spurt didn't last long. Usually I hit the point of diminishing returns in an hour, and have to stop whatever I'm doing. Ruins the mood especially when there's so much work left to be done! *faints*

Go gets a fan and rushes to db.....*please don't faint* !

[simon_horsey]

I would suggest you are asking the wrong question. Make sure you are very clear about the targets your teacher expects you to achieve each week, divide them up into the number of sessions you have available during the week and make each practice session last as long as it takes to achieve the targets set for that session...then stop.

Once my students get used to this method of working, along with planning their practice by event and careful use of review during each session, they find they make far more progress in less time. As the ice hockey player Eric Lindrons said: "It’s not necessarily the time you spend at practice that counts; it’s what you put into the practice ".

As an example: if you had school work in a subject other than music to hand in with a certain deadline and turned up on the day without that work saying, "Sorry, it's not finished...but I have been working for two hours a night on it..." how far would you get? Or imagine doing that in a meeting at work.

As a teacher I care that I don't have unreasonable expectations of my students, but I don't care how long it takes them to complete work for the week. My gauge of successful practice is "Has a student met the targets I set? If not, has he or she made notes about the specific problems that need support in the coming lesson?" As long as the answer to one of those questions is "yes" I believe the practice for the week has been successful...no matter how long it took.

If you have a few moments you can read more on my website www.essential-music-practice.com

Good luck with your playing
Simon

[giannalinda]

id say 3 hrs

[dr. j]

Each practice session should have a goal and practicing long enough to make positive progress toward achieving that goal should help you decide how much to practice. 
Dr. J

[juggernaut15]

i choose to practice 1 to 2 hours a day

[hitthekey]

I do a minimum of 30 mins, max of 1 hour per day. Even though I haven't been playing long, I find that I'm more alert for that 30 mins than I would be in the 3 and a half hours that followed if I were to sit at a piano for that amount of time.

[langsam]

i practice at least 4 hours a day.

i must have annoyed my neighbours 

[mike saville]

You need to work with your teacher to work out which TASKS you need to do each day to achieve the goals you have set for yourself - for me time is irrelevant.

I discuss practice with my students at every single lesson (not just when it hasn't been done) and I never tell them a number of minutes to do. I do however explain very clearly what they need to do, how to do it and importantly how they will know they are finished for that practice session.

Please don't be trapped into thinking that because others plan practice in terms of hours that you should. In my experience those that practice for minutes rarely improve as quickly as those that have a clearer more detailed plan.

[kiwi_bd]

i practice at least 4 hours a day.

i must have annoyed my neighbours  

me 2!! I practise at least 4 hours a day as well...
what add fuels to the problem is that i live in an apartment!!
I guess one day my neighbour would rush into the house with their knifes to kill me!!
But my teacher says it is not enough - - she said i should at least play 7 hours a day

[hanlat]

I practice an hour per day.  I find it helpful if I practice 15-30 minutes in the morning (usually scales and my least favorite piece) and 45-30 in the afternoon.  It helps break things up and I stay more focused.

[mad_tom]

It is simple. The more you practice the faster you'll improve.

With a few provisos:

1. The optimum, for most people, and the most that is sustainable long-term seems to be about 4 hours a day.  Beyond that the extra practice does not do a lot of good.

2. Not many people can sustain concentration/attention for 4 hours.  Frequent short breaks are needed - or better still (sadly impossible for many of us) split the practice into 3 or 4 sessions spread through out the day

3. Unless you are practicing sensibly, no amount of practice will help.  If you are doing it wrong, then repeating it more will do harm.

4. You need to be getting enough sleep, and enough sensible exercise to stay in good shape.  Unless you are fit and well rested your brain and body can't respond properly to the stimulus of the extra practice.

[weissenberg2]

A pedestrian who was on his way to Athens met a peasant working by the roadside and asked him "How far is it to Athens?" The peasant replied, "Walk!" The man said "I know I have to walk, but tell me how long will it take me to get there?" The peasant repeated, "Walk!" When the third inquiry drew forth the same information, the traveler, giving the peasant up as a hopeless idiot, walked away with great strides. After a few seconds the peasant called out: "Half an hour!" Greatly surprised, the man turned back and said: "Why did you not tell me that at once?" Whereupon the peasant replied, "How could I tell you before I saw how you walked?"

-Egon Petri

So basically it depends how well you practice.

[pianist7]

ok thanks, i usually play for 2-3 hours, my teacher says atleast 2 hours. just wanted to hear this from a different person

thanks tho

That's a lot for 4 years. If you want to...

[nanabush]

I probably spend anywhere between 10-15 minutes on scales (I'll usually pick one key, and do lots of stuff on that; this is probably easier once you are comfortable with all keys)  For example, I'll pick C minor, do some scales, some poly-rhythmic scales (triplets in right hand, eighths in left, etc), some slow, full solid chords, broken chords, arpeggios and inversions.  I always like to finish off with a minute or two improv in that key; you let loose and it feels good applying your creativity to the techniques you just went through.

That takes about 10-15 minutes, sometimes more, sometimes less.

If you like working on many pieces at once, you might play through each once or twice, then go on to the next; this could take an hour if you have LOTS of stuff.

I'm starting to get more into focusing on one piece for 45-60 minutes, polishing off every section I come across.  In 2 hours, I'll have worked quite a bit on specific stuff in 1-3 pieces.  It's harder to do this (because you usually want to play lots of great stuff), but I've found even after doing this for a short while, the quality of my playing is improving drastically.  Set goals for your practice:  "I want to work out such and such technique" or "Pedalling and voicing" or "Memorizing a section".  If you have an idea of what you want to accomplish, practice is just that much more rewarding.

If you like composing, then you probably like improvising.  Again, for your warmup, you can make your own chord progressions - try applying techniques into those (C minor chords leading into F minor arpeggios, going into Ab major scales, Eb major chords as a basic example).

[little-prince]

I'm still new here...
about practising... hmm... well I practice just about less than 1 hour a day...
or when I'm in a good mood I practice till my fingers are tired =P