Efficient practice when you have little time to play

[eueueu91]

As a background, I'm gonna give a little of my routine. I wake at 6:00, have class until 11:45, have lunch -not always at home- and have classes again from 2:00 to 5:10 and go to bed -depending on my sleep- at 9:00 or 10:00. Thrice a week I still have other classes after that, so that I have only about 9 hours of free time to play and study at the weekdays.
After getting home, studying and doing my papers for college, I'm usually so tired that I have no will to play, and even if I do practice, it won't be very efficient.

What can I do to, at the very least, not lose technique and keep my hands fast and flexible (and how long should I do it)?
Are there any exercises that can be done away from the piano?

Thank you and sorry if I wasn't very clear, my English has been getting worse by the day since I stopped studying it.

[jimbo320]

My father showed me an exercise when I was a young boy that his father taught him when he was young. It involved making a fist with one hand and open palm the other holding them both in front of you in a clapping manner. With the one like a fist tap the middle knuckles by the thumb on the palm of the open one. Then alternate. Slowly speed up and see how fast you can do it without a mistake. When you make a mistake start over slow again. This was for speed.
He also showed me one for finger agility too. This involved placing your hand palm side down on a table resting your wrist on the table. Then tapping the finger tips on the able one at a time but keeping the fingers that are not tapping 1 inch above the table surface. Starting with finger #5, then #4, then #3, then #2. Don't use the thumb. When you reach finger #2 reverse it and tap #3, #4, #5. Back and forth over and over until done smoothly. After you can do this smoothly, see how fast you can do it. Not as easy as you may think!  lol  Good luck.

Musically, Jimbo

[lostinidlewonder]

If you feel you are time poor then you need to prioritize what you choose to do. If you are tired then set yourself a very small task and spend 10-15 minutes solving that. It is better than simply ignoring the piano and saying you are too tired to try. You will find when practicing these short bursts while tired eventually you will condition yourself to deal with tiredness. It is actually extremely beneficial to learn how to work when exhausted, it will improve your endurance.

Perhaps during your busy days you can spend time organizing what you will be studying on the weekend 9 hours. Identify trouble parts of pieces you are learning and want to solve, new sections you want to learn, parts which challenge your technique (such as fingering) and/or musicality(such as expression). This will make you more prepared and your efforts during the weekend on piano will be more focused. Organizing your study requires that you sit at the piano and play but not be interested in solving your problems rather be more interested in listing them, categorizing whether they are easy, normal or difficult problems and which would either take a short amount of work, average and larger amount respectively. Perhaps then you can choose to practice easy sections when you are tired and leave the normal/difficult ones for the weekend.

You can take this a step further and visualize how you will go about solving your problems and writing comments that may act as a catalyst for you to solve your problems. To understand a problem is to take the first steps in solving it efficiently, to work on a problem merely by brute force repetitions without trying to fully identify it merely sets you up for longer practice times and something people who are time poor must avoid.

[becky8898]

Hi : Bach, the answer is Bach, Bach and more Bach. Both hands stay flexible.  The technique is not to impossible.  Your keep your flexibility,  develop your skill to bring out different voices and many pieces are short enough to keep them under control.  Bach everyday keeps the pianist healthy and well.

Cheers, Becky