Piano Forum

Topic: Good or Bad Practice Routine/Habit?  (Read 2336 times)

Offline elconquistador

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 14
Good or Bad Practice Routine/Habit?
on: April 16, 2014, 08:40:29 PM
I'm intermediate. Playing seriously for almost 3 years (after playing clarinet for 4 years, trumpet for 1 year) and 21 years old.

Repertoire:
1) Solfeggietto by Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach
2) Themes: New World Symphony by Antonin Dvorak
3) Sonatina in G Major Opus 39 No. 2 by Clementi
4) Circle of Life out of Hal Leonard book
5) plus miscl little radio songs that I want to learn

If I have to do a 30 min practice on a busy day:
1) 5 min scales
2) 5 min Hanon exercises
3) 20 min repertoire

If I get my full 1.5-2 hour practice:
1) 15 min scales
2) 15 min hanon exercises
3) 1-1.5 hours of  repertoire

Is this a good practice routine? Anything I should add or subtract?

Any and all advice will be very helpful!! :)


Offline indianajo

  • PS Silver Member
  • Sr. Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 1105
Re: Good or Bad Practice Routine/Habit?
Reply #1 on: April 16, 2014, 09:30:08 PM
This belongs in the student area of the forum.
After the third year, my teacher let me drop the scales since I knew them. I didn't start learning them until the second year.   I think 15 minutes of scales is way too boring, especially if you are playing them perfectly. 
I played one Edna May Berman, or later Czerny, exercise at a time, until I had mastered it.   A couple of repetitions a day was usually good enough to dispose of an exercise between one weekly lesson and the next.  Sometimes I had missed the point of the exercise and had to repeat it another week.    I don't have an opinion of Hanon; I never knew anybody that used them. They don't stock them in music stores here.  Only EMB. 
You need to do something to warm up or stretch out your muscles at the beginning of practice.  Scales aren't it IMHO, but arpeggios in both hand might be. A few turns of a scale might be useful to flex that tendon, but not every scale is necessary to do that. 
I use Scott Joplin rags to warm up, but I am years ahead of you.  They are not boring at all. 
A good teacher would assign you performance pieces that stretch your skills just enough, without being beyond you.  My teacher would never consider anything popular, which was a shame and inhibited my understanding of chord structure to composition.  I think a popular piece or two at a time is good, both for chord sensibility and sight reading.  If you learn to sing them at the same time, it stretches your mind to include a third track. 

Offline elconquistador

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 14
Re: Good or Bad Practice Routine/Habit?
Reply #2 on: April 16, 2014, 09:38:49 PM
Thank you so much for responding! It means so much to me! And I know, I apologize. I'm new and noticed right after I had posted it.

Offline pianist1976

  • PS Silver Member
  • Sr. Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 506
Re: Good or Bad Practice Routine/Habit?
Reply #3 on: April 20, 2014, 07:35:39 AM
I think you could wipe off the Hanon minutes and use them for something more productive. And I don't think you need that much time for scales. I think 5 minutes are more than enough, and not necessarily every day. Just an opinion, I know there are other opinions and I respect them.

(BTW, I'm not a Hanon fan, I guess...  ;D)

Offline themusicworkshop

  • PS Silver Member
  • Newbie
  • ***
  • Posts: 5
Re: Good or Bad Practice Routine/Habit?
Reply #4 on: April 20, 2014, 10:04:07 PM
That is a great practice routine. It's good that you have one routine for a long practice session and one for a short one. Good thinking. I would definitely add some sight reading into your routine. Grab some new music that you've never played before and see how accurately you can play it. It's an often skipped part of many pianists practice but I find that as with any language, the more fluently we can read it, the easier it will become to advance to more complex pieces in the future.
I am always surprised at how many pianists skip sight reading as part of their practice routine.
Hope this helps.
Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy. -Ludwig van Beethoven
For more information about this topic, click search below!

Piano Street Magazine:
The Complete Piano Works of 16 Composers

Piano Street’s digital sheet music library is constantly growing. With the additions made during the past months, we now offer the complete solo piano works by sixteen of the most famous Classical, Romantic and Impressionist composers in the web’s most pianist friendly user interface. Read more
 

Logo light pianostreet.com - the website for classical pianists, piano teachers, students and piano music enthusiasts.

Subscribe for unlimited access

Sign up

Follow us

Piano Street Digicert