30 min lessons

[just_me]

How long should you practice if you are taking 30 minute lessons, once a week? An hour a day? 30 mins per day? 3 hours per day?
Just wondering & thanks.

[frank_48]

the amount of practice time should not be justified by time itself, but for how long it takes to get the task at hand finished, and just because a lesson is 30 mins instead of 1 hour makes absoloutley no difference to how long you should practice.

[just_me]

I understand that sessions should go by task, but since there are endless tasks that can be completed on a piece (ie, even if you have a phrase correct, you can still practice it in the opposite hand, using diff't rhythms, etc), I would like a reasonable time guideline...so that I don't go crazy.
Thanks again.

[rc]

Short answer is to practice as much as you can.

Expanding on that, when I'm paying for lessons I prioritize my practice based on what I'd like to have ready for the next lesson...  Which is usually to work out what we looked at in the last lesson.

I want to have something to show.  That may be just getting the notes under the fingers, improving aspects of interpretation,  improving aspects of execution (technique), sightreading...  Anything really, the point is to make some sort of progress from one lesson to the next.  Then I can show what I've done to my teacher and she can give feedback and we continue to work at finer and finer details.

Of course there is infinite room for experimentation and exploration, which is important!  But my main point is to have priorities, to help give direction, so I know what to be working on next and don't become aimless.

As for the craziness...  I think it's useful to be able to enjoy the process of practicing something over and over and over.  Drilling, ingraining, forever perfecting.  Perhaps this sort of craziness is something to be embraced

hopefully this helps answer your question?

[frank_48]

I understand that sessions should go by task, but since there are endless tasks that can be completed on a piece (ie, even if you have a phrase correct, you can still practice it in the opposite hand, using diff't rhythms, etc), I would like a reasonable time guideline...so that I don't go crazy.
Thanks again.

i would strive to get in some practice every day if possible, 1-3 hours a day would be sufficiant i would think, but even 20 mins a day is better than 6 hours every saturday..

[simon_horsey]

Ask your teacher for specific targets to achieve each week. Ask him or her to be as specific as possible, e.g. including tempo targets.

Plan your practice at the start of the week by dividing up the tasks over available sessions, and making subtasks where necessary.

Work towards achieving the targets for each session and stop after that. Give yourself a break. This helps your brain get used to focusing on a target to achieve, rather than a time limit. If you want to continue playing after the session target has been achieved either work on something else that you enjoy playing, or work on targets for the next day and revise your practice plan.

Give yourself a score out of 5 at the end of the week for each target and ask your teacher to give you a score for how near you were to all the targets.

I have found my students progress much quicker using these techniques as they know exactly what I expect in their lesson. I have some sheets I use to help my students with planning their practice on my website. https://www.essential-music-practice.com/downloads