When and how long do you play the piano?

[jinbrother1]

I was just wondering, when do you guys find the time to play the piano and how long do you guys play? Or are most of you guys professional pianists who dedicate their life playing the piano? I've been told that as one grows up, they rarely find the time to do what they like because of job, family, and other life factors but by reading some of the topics, it seems like many play the piano passionately often. So what gives? I hope I find plenty of time to play the piano when I grow up Thanks in advance for your replies.

[Motrax]

I'm majoring in physics at the University of Maryland, and intend on majoring in Music too (I have to audition next year, I missed the deadline this time around). I practice piano before classes, between classes, and after classes, and study like a madman whenever I'm not eating, in class, sleeping, or practicing piano. And I somehow manage to stumble upon the occasional social situation (something normal people would call fun... movies, hangin' out, etc) once in a blue moon.

I don't know how I find the time for any of this (and I have time to post on this forum too!). If I knew how I made all this time, I'd make some more and sell it to others.  

[Tash]

ok well there are so many threads (including rather recent ones) roaming around like this i suggest you go find them so we don't all end up sounding like broken records or just paste other threads like bernhard obsessivley does. but welcome to the forum!

[janice]

As Motrax verified, we have no social life!!!  So, our social "outing" is this:on Friday nites, we sit at the computer (we are probably alone!) and we "chat" with other pianist who have no social life either.  And what do we discuss?  We complain that we have NO social life (or love life) but we also say that we are obsessed with and devoted to that one thing that takes time away from our social life (or love life)!!!   So we have a common bond here!

[ted]

I usually play, mostly improvisation, every day. However, the quality of musical creation is not proportional to the time spent on it beyond a certain minimum. In fact, I would be confident in asserting that other activities and influences in life seem to help creation rather than hinder it. Now no doubt performance is an entirely different kettle of fish, but as I have no desire to perform I am not concerned with working very hard to get my limited repertoire of set pieces up to the last 5% of perfection.

Having a lot of time is no guarantee that I shall produce things of greater musical significance. Therefore becoming possessive and precious about time is psychologically negative for me. No doubt I shall spend much more time at it and maybe even write more things out when I retire or work less, but I do not kid myself that the quality of my music depends on time. Some of the best music I have created has emerged during abominably restricted musical activity.

It's a bit like saying that because one man can mow a lawn in half an hour, a million men can therefore mow it in a fraction of a second.