Hello all!
I am currently a music student at a university dual majoring in Piano Performance and Music Production/Composition. Although I can handle the load, I need a bit of help managing a busy schedule. I read several articles on people managing their busy lives, but none specifically geared towards students. Now, a little bit of a background on my schedule piano-wise:
- My technique needs improvement, so my teacher helped me develop a technical regime that incorporated the Liszt Technical Exercises and Adele Marcus' regime. For the summer, my top priority for my piano practice is my technique, and the regime runs from 1.5-2 hours everyday.
On top of that, I am learning two other pieces, and adding a few more in the middle of summer, since I will be taking only one class that Summer Session (taking two now). So, today, I came to the conclusion that in order to accommodate other facets in my calendar: I practice my technical regime every day regardless, do detailed work on my main pieces Mondays-Thursdays, Fridays do a quick recap of everything, learn my church music, Saturday recap my classical and church music, and learn some new music (easy stuff) for my freelance work as a background pianist. So, I'm looking around 5-5.5 hours Monday-Thursday, 3.5 hours Friday-Saturday, and Sunday 1.5-2 hours, as I will only practice technique on Sundays.
So, just for a frame of reference, here is what I have going on outside of piano:
I have an internship with a production company that books live shows and manages bands, working 15 hours a week, trying to pick up more freelance work as church pianist, background music for hotels, restaurants, etc, distributing health products through Shaklee, taking two summer classes for the first session, then one the second, and composing in my spare time.
So, with that being said, what is your input on this? Is it okay to lower my practice time on the weekends to balance out everything?
Thank you,
PMZ