How fast can you progress with only 30mn of lesson per week?

[eric0773]

Hello fellow piano students,

This board has been very helpful to me, so thanks for the helpful knowledge some of you regularly share here.

I started taking piano lessons about six months ago, 30 minutes per week, with a good teacher. I am currently 25, and had already taken lessons as a kid during a couple years - although not seriously at all.

The progresses done so far satisfy me. As a kid, I could barely sightread at all, and my most challenging piece was something like BWV 999 - that is, poorly executed. I now have better sightreading skills, and can study much more satisfying pieces. I just "finished" Heller op. 46 no. 1, at a decent tempo, and started Chopin Nocturne #11 last week. I practice between 1 hour and 2 hours on weekdays, more on weekends.

However, I feel that things could go even faster had I more lesson time. Right now, the weekly 30 minutes always feel rushed, even when we go over limit. It is impossible to review everything. And because of my teacher's full agenda and of the cost, increasing the lesson time is not a possibility at the moment.

Have you been in a similar situation, and how have you dealt with it? Do you feel it is possible to progress fast with only 30 minutes per week? I do not want to spend 2 years on a learning phase that could last 6 months. For those of you that have increased your lesson time, did you feel strong benefits?

Thanks by advance for your feedback!

Eric

[j_menz]

IMO, it depends what you do in the 30 minutes and how that relates to how you spend your practice time.

I would suggest that instead of trying to "review everything", you concentrate the time on those bits that are causing you trouble, what you need to do and how you need to practice to fix/improve them.  Time spent on reviewing that which is already working fine is time wasted.

[hfmadopter]

As mentioned, maybe skip the review and get right down to the trouble spots and or new material not yet taught to you. Also two 30 min lessons, IMO, is better than one solid hour long lesson if taught in that way. Back when I took lessons we tried all three approaches, 30-40 min at a time is good or was for me. Practice time is important and how it's implimented.

[iansinclair]

Totally agree with j_menz and hfmadopter.  Half an hour a week for lessons is probably adequate; an hour a week would be more than enough.  Be sure to bring in ideas as to where your problems are, and work on those.  Then practice.  And practice.  And practice some more.  When I was studying organ in college (a long time ago now!) we regarded two to three hours of practice per day as sort of a useful minimum.  Being college, we were lucky to get that much...  That's where your progess will be made.  Everyone has different practice styles which work for them -- so I'm not going to go there.

[drflash5080]

I would do an hour you are right little can be accomplished from week of practicing questions to playing and getting critique to refine issies

[outin]

I have 45 minutes and sometimes it is enough, sometimes it's too short. Depends on my progress during the week and the dynamics of the lesson (mainly my ability to concentrate, which varies a lot). If we get really into something time flies and we go overtime. But some days it feels like we are finished before time and I just need to go and work on something at home. Then we just do some technical stuff to make use of the rest of the lesson.