How many pieces should you learn at once

[lance132]

I was just wondering what the standard amount of pieces was for learning. My teachers have always give me like two or three at a time. Is that how it should be? What did the top artists do when they were learning their music. Did their teachers make them play 3 or 4 pieces at a time?

[iansinclair]

I am hardly a "top artist"!  However, both when I was working as a pro. and now that I'm retired, I much prefer to have at least two or three pieces in various stages on "in progress" at a time.  I find that it keeps the practicing from becoming stale or boring.  I usually have one or two which I'm just starting out on, one or two which are pretty well along, and two or three which are almost there.

I also try to practice at least four or five of my concert rep. every day -- at least play through them, and see if there are any surprises...

Back in the days when I had a teacher -- a long time ago now -- she always had me working on two or three different pieces, in different styles (organ student then -- so modern French, Baroque, Renaissance all at once, or something of that sort).

[onwan]

I usually have one or two which I'm just starting out on, one or two which are pretty well along, and two or three which are almost there.

I also try to practice at least four or five of my concert rep. every day -- at least play through them, and see if there are any surprises...

How many hours a day does it take to you to manage such a repertoire?

[m1469]

How many pieces depends a lot upon the person and the purpose(s).  There was a time when I generally tried to have every student working on an ideal of 3 at one time, for various purposes, but that is not the standard anymore.  Sometimes they are working on only one plus an exercise (but that is not the standard, either).

Personally, during fundamental formal learning, my top number was around 12+ advanced works, I believe, that I would organize my practice around and actually slave over every day.  Almost none of these works were truly being prepared for public performance as it turns out, though I treated them that way and I always performed for my teachers.  Looking back, that time served as a means for gathering a much larger musical/technical image than what I had had before.

Generally, in terms of strictly learning (not connected to performance, necessarily) a variety is meant to help a student both physically and mentally, but in some cases the opposite will be more helpful along those lines.