how long and how often should my son practice piano?

[jzp93]

My son likes piano especially when he gets to play star wars
or stuff he likes. When it comes t classical he's not as happy.
It doesn't't help that his piano comes second to his soccer.
This year he's starting to get serious again and plays advance
pieces and I'm wondering how much time he needs to practice
without sacrificing his soccer which he plays 5days a week.

[bleicher]

Practising every day is best. When I was growing up I normallly practised  half an hour a day, and I made reasonable progress (started when I was 6, took grade 8 when I was 15). Half an hour a day should be manageable with football commitments too, but more than that will help him to progress faster. It depends on what his goals are: it's quite normal to do six hours a day if you want to be a concert pianist. But us mere mortals have to find a piano-life balance.

[jzp93]

@ McDiddy-My son just turned 13. I dont know the complete names of the pieces he's played but he's played some Chopin's etudes, Chopin's Berceuse, Schubert's Impromptu 199 or something, Rachmaninoff's Pollichinelle and Etude Tableau Op33 no7, Tchaikovsky's February, April,  August, Prokofiev's Montagues and Capulets, Beethoven's Sonata no6 Op10, 2nd movement, Golligog's Cakewalk, Le Petit, Negre, Sonatinas by Clementi, Bach;s inventions 1 & 2, Prelude and Fugue B Minor. He's never good at practicing until he broke his foot in soccer, then he got serious in piano, his foot got well and he started soccer again and stopped learning Liszt's Tarantella. Last winter he got serious again after seeing Kissin perform on you tube. He's participated in the International Russian Music Piano Competition. Right now he's learning, La Campanella, Pathetique and Prokofiev's Toccata. There are other pieces but I dont memorize them all and forgive me if I made any mitsakes in my spelling. I am not a professional. This year he started practicing around 2hours a day and more on weekends.

[jzp93]

BTW His teacher uses Czerny...

[geze]

Your son should practice every day for a start. Depending on which level or grade he is on, if he is grade 1 to 4 then 30 mins is ok but from grade 5 onwards, then 1 hour minimum. He must practice and not play or perform.

[mcdiddy1]

@ McDiddy-My son just turned 13. I dont know the complete names of the pieces he's played but he's played some Chopin's etudes, Chopin's Berceuse, Schubert's Impromptu 199 or something, Rachmaninoff's Pollichinelle and Etude Tableau Op33 no7, Tchaikovsky's February, April,  August, Prokofiev's Montagues and Capulets, Beethoven's Sonata no6 Op10, 2nd movement, Golligog's Cakewalk, Le Petit, Negre, Sonatinas by Clementi, Bach;s inventions 1 & 2, Prelude and Fugue B Minor. He's never good at practicing until he broke his foot in soccer, then he got serious in piano, his foot got well and he started soccer again and stopped learning Liszt's Tarantella. Last winter he got serious again after seeing Kissin perform on you tube. He's participated in the International Russian Music Piano Competition. Right now he's learning, La Campanella, Pathetique and Prokofiev's Toccata. There are other pieces but I dont memorize them all and forgive me if I made any mitsakes in my spelling. I am not a professional. This year he started practicing around 2hours a day and more on weekends.

Thats very nice repertoire why not have learn concertos for competions? Sounds like he has the technique to do it.

The Prokofiev and Liszt are very advance repertoire so daily practice is a must so finding 2-3 hours of practice will get the job done pretty fast. I learned Campanella in 5 weeks with about 2 hours -1 hour of practice. If you know shortcuts you don't need to spend 6 hours practicing but if he interested in being a concert pianist then the sky is the limit for how much practice he should get.

[jzp93]

Thanks McDiddy. He doesn't't know any shortcuts.
I don'tknow why she hasn't't taught him any concertos.
Maybe because he's too busy w sports we travel on
weekend tournaments. His teacher believes that if hepractice a lot and
stop dropping his theory class he can play anything. In-
fortunately the time he spends in piano means less
time for video games and playing and he's too active to
sit for more than an hour.

[mcdiddy1]

You could try dividing his practice time by 20 minutes or so between different activities. 20 minutes of piano, video games, 20 minutes of piano ( different section or piece), sports, lunch, 20 minutes of piano. That type of schedule may benefit him so it is not like he has to choose between one or the other.

[bachbrahmsschubert]

You could try dividing his practice time by 20 minutes or so between different activities. 20 minutes of piano, video games, 20 minutes of piano ( different section or piece), sports, lunch, 20 minutes of piano. That type of schedule may benefit him so it is not like he has to choose between one or the other.

I don't mean to quarrel with you in any way, but I disagree with this practice method.

Because your son is still young, developing proper practice habits is vital. If he wants to study music as a career, a vigorous practice schedule has to start right now. By vigorous I mean 3 hours a day minimum. He would, of course, also need a private teacher. If he would rather do it as a hobby/area of interest, there is a way to juggle practicing and things he would rather do. I would still recommend a private teacher, though I guess it wouldn't be a must. If it's just a hobby, it doesn't really matter how much he practices a day, just let him do what he wants. If you force him to practice an instrument or piece of music he doesn't want to learn, it will stunt his learning process and musical growth; it will just become a waste of time for both parties involved.

If you are able to find a GOOD teacher, it may peak his interest in music. He's obviously been influenced by Kissin, why not buy him some recordings Kissin has done? Or I guess YouTube would do just fine. It might encourage him to practice more.

Best wishes,

[mcdiddy1]

I found an interesting quote about Chopin approach towards teaching

Chopin encouraged short practice sessions. Madame Dubois (Camille O'Meara) reported: "One day he heard me say that I practiced six hours a day. He became quite angry, and forbade me to practice more than three hours." (Eigeldinger 27). Another student wrote: "He always advised the pupil not to work for too long at a stretch and to intermit between hours of work by reading a good book, by looking at masterpieces of art, or by taking an invigorating walk."

Being the fact he was one of the world's greatest piano virtuosos and the kid is currently studying some of his pieces, it would be a good idea to take his advice into consideration

A 20 minute or so practice section can be extremely vigorous and having a break in between would allow the mind to come back refreshed. You could easily have enough sessions to equal 3 hours or so if you wanted but I argue doing it in one long session the quality of your practice go down. I am not the only one who suggest this, it is pretty commonly held belief  by many piano pedagogues

It is like weight lifting or being a basketball player. You do not need to spend half your day in the gym or on the court. Consistently is what will get you the results you need to gain muscle, become a basketball player or play piano at a high level. Burning out the mind and body everyday is not efficient in the love run and may lead to the student avoiding the instrument all together.

Also the mind  that is constantly engaged in a variety of activities continues to dwell and analyze things subconsciously. So even when you are not on the piano and practicing your brain in your sleep and while doing other activities is going over what you did in your mind and better implants it in your long term memory. 

So basically we want to work smarter, not harder. Shorter sessions = long sessions =

[jzp93]

@Bachbrahmsschut, my son has a teacher. She went to genessin school and moscow conservatory. She's pretty good but there's a little "language barrier". She loves my son and he loves her even though she's strict. You're right about losing interest when forced to do something...I tried that and he lost interest for 2 years...then he saw Kissin and Horowitz and Argerich...but he idolizes Kissin so he now has his dvd. we did try to scatter the practice before and he loved it. We'll try it again this summer.It's hard to do it during the school year. He told me the other day he's willing to practice up to 5 hours if I make sure he gets video games time and time for movies or w his friends...@ McDiddy, his teacher recommends a total of 3 hrs/day, we will spread it like you suggest. I agree about consistency. I know 1 thing for sure, my son has no problem playing video games all day and all night if I let him.

[mcdiddy1]

Thats awesome its great that he is inspired again. Maybe you could get him to play the Guitar Hero video game. There might be a piano instrument he could play during the game

[bleicher]

Does he want a career as a pianist? A lot of these replies have assumed he does. If he says he wants a career as a pianist then making him practise for three hours a day makes sense, although it must be a challenge fitting it in after a school day, let alone with football as well.

If he just wants to learn the piano so that later in life he's a competent amateur pianist, then half an hour to an hour a day is fine, and also allows time for him to go to school, play football, do his homework and relax playing video games like a normal kid.

It has to be his decision how seriously he wants to take piano, and how much practice he is willing to put in. Once he's decided how much practice he can commit to, then it's up to you to tell him to do it day to day.

[bachbrahmsschubert]

I found an interesting quote about Chopin approach towards teaching

Chopin encouraged short practice sessions. Madame Dubois (Camille O'Meara) reported: "One day he heard me say that I practiced six hours a day. He became quite angry, and forbade me to practice more than three hours." (Eigeldinger 27). Another student wrote: "He always advised the pupil not to work for too long at a stretch and to intermit between hours of work by reading a good book, by looking at masterpieces of art, or by taking an invigorating walk."

Being the fact he was one of the world's greatest piano virtuosos and the kid is currently studying some of his pieces, it would be a good idea to take his advice into consideration

A 20 minute or so practice section can be extremely vigorous and having a break in between would allow the mind to come back refreshed. You could easily have enough sessions to equal 3 hours or so if you wanted but I argue doing it in one long session the quality of your practice go down. I am not the only one who suggest this, it is pretty commonly held belief  by many piano pedagogues

It is like weight lifting or being a basketball player. You do not need to spend half your day in the gym or on the court. Consistently is what will get you the results you need to gain muscle, become a basketball player or play piano at a high level. Burning out the mind and body everyday is not efficient in the love run and may lead to the student avoiding the instrument all together.

Also the mind  that is constantly engaged in a variety of activities continues to dwell and analyze things subconsciously. So even when you are not on the piano and practicing your brain in your sleep and while doing other activities is going over what you did in your mind and better implants it in your long term memory.  

So basically we want to work smarter, not harder. Shorter sessions = long sessions =

3 hours straight would be ridiculous, I did not mean it that way. I practice roughly 6 hours a day and I take a 10 minute break about every hour. Then again, I'm not 13, I'm an undergraduate student at a conservatory.

Thanks for sharing the information on Chopin. Rubinstein had a similar practice schedule. He would practice no more than 3 hours a day because he felt anything after that is purely mechanical. The counter-argument, and a good one in my opinion, is that it helps when you have one of the greatest musical minds of your generation; as is the same for Chopin.

And yes, smarter not harder. The tricky part is finding the perfect way of combining the two.  

@Bachbrahmsschut, my son has a teacher. She went to genessin school and moscow conservatory. She's pretty good but there's a little "language barrier". She loves my son and he loves her even though she's strict. You're right about losing interest when forced to do something...I tried that and he lost interest for 2 years...then he saw Kissin and Horowitz and Argerich...but he idolizes Kissin so he now has his dvd. we did try to scatter the practice before and he loved it. We'll try it again this summer.It's hard to do it during the school year. He told me the other day he's willing to practice up to 5 hours if I make sure he gets video games time and time for movies or w his friends...@ McDiddy, his teacher recommends a total of 3 hrs/day, we will spread it like you suggest. I agree about consistency. I know 1 thing for sure, my son has no problem playing video games all day and all night if I let him.

This is good to hear. I assumed he did not have a teacher because they are the ones that should really be giving the advice on this matter. Each individual has a different learning curve, and thus different practice schedules. The Russian piano school is an interesting one. It can be very strict, though I have obviously never experienced it; only hear stories. Do you sit in on his lessons? Some parents do, some don't. I have a couple of students (all under eight), and their parents sit in on our lessons. The parents learn just as much as the student, as they are the ones really trying to motivate their child to practice. I understand what you mean about the language barrier. It can be very frustrating. I hope it's not too much of a problem.

It sounds like things are well on their way to working out for you and your son. This makes me happy to hear.

Best wishes,

[countrymath]

There was a  time that i was practicing 12 hours daily.

Now I just realized that from that 12 hours, only 2 was worthing.

Now I practice only 3 hours of classical + 3 hours of popular + 2 hours of theory

[jzp93]

@Bleicher. Does my son want to be a concert pianist? He says yes. But he also wants to be a prof. soccer player and architect, you know what I mean? He's 13, so he'll change his mind a million x more. I cant base his practice time on what he wants to be in the future, I can only control the present. He's a better pianist than soccer player only because of excercise induce asthma. It's summer & if he's not practicing piano he'll spend his hours playing video games, tv, etc..The problem is during school year. @ Bachbrahmschut, thank you for the advice . Yes, I sit in on his on Friday classes because it's at night and held in a small concert hall. I learned so much from this teacher than I had from my piano teachers growing up who hit my hands w a ruler when I make mistakes. She can be very strict and can be loving. To help him w expressions sometimes she sings the music, tells him to feel this in his heart, imagine this pain or anger or joy, lol. She asked my son to choose from Islamey, Prokofiev's toccata and Pterushka's room and she played them for him like she's been playing them for awhile when I just brought the pieces that night. The only thing is that I like a lot of the Chinese style of interpretation, she likes Russian style, I didn't even know there's "styles" until I met her.

[mcdiddy1]

Sounds like a wonderful teacher. Definitely one to keep around and allow to be a positive influence on your son.

[jzp93]

Thanks McDiddy1. She recently broke 4 ribs and a clavicle in an accident. 1 wk later she still  came to teach my son (@night) because he had a competition coming. I knew she was in pain so I drove her to her daughter's  (she was planning to walk a few blocks there). I knew then she was a keeper because she cares. One time I said something carelessly and hurt her feelings. My son nagged me until I called her to apologized.