Do you ever feel fully prepared for a lesson?

[bernadette60614]

I'm a "rebound" student, i.e., an adult who took lessons as a child, stopped and then resumed as an adult.

I must say:  As an adult, I never feel fully "prepared" for a lesson, by which I mean that I absolutely nail my assignments for that week.

My teacher advises me that I should be practicing 3 hours a day, which isn't happening.  I'm practicing consistently one hour a day.  Should I scale back my/her expectations?  Or, is this just a natural part of learning?

[kuska]

Well, honestly, I think telling an adult to practise 3 hours a day is unrealistic. If you're an adult like 24 years old and still studying, well, then maybe you still can practice that much but if you've got a family and full time job, it isn't going to happen. I have like 3 hours a day for myself when I come back from work and I still need some extra time for other things like doctoral studies.

And btw there was time when I was in a college and studying music. Only then I practised 5 hours but only seasonaly just because I didn't do much during the whole semester. Later when I started music high school in piano class I practiced less than that. I think around an hour a day in total, maybe a bit more, never really counted that (I did 5-10 minutes sessions each time) and I was prepared quite OK. Of course I've never been any virtuoso but I did make fair progress likee two grades in a year.

Now I do feel a bit I could spend more time on practising but I guess our expectation just grow with age

[visitor]

practice as much as you can without getting fired or divorced (same is usually said about sleeping/getting enough rest lol). 

*no I never feel adequately prepped, part of that whole pianist inferiority complex we are notorious for having

[indianajo]

I never practiced three hours a day in my life. Hour a day max when I was a student.  I sometimes go 90 minutes or two hours these days, but only because I want to. I don't take lessons; one is required to perform on a Yamaha in this end of the state and I decline.  I know about a dozen professionals or teachers, and all own Yamahas. 
I do play at a fairly advanced amateur level.  I play pieces one hears on recital over at the university, but I don't learn them in a few weeks like the college students do. 
As a student, I felt fully prepared for the lesson, in the weeks before recital or contest. My teacher assigned things at a relaxed pace, no panic was ever required.  Progress was steady, but not fast enough to get me through Juliard. That was never my goal.  Piano was always recreation for me. My work plan involved science at university level, for which I did 2-3 hours of homework a night from Junior High on through HS graduation. At university the load was more like 8 hours of homework a night and 24 on weekends. 
If your teacher feel he/she is wasting his time, maybe bi-weekly lessons or monthly lessons are a better plan.   He/she can save that slot for someone more "serious".  Or just cut his/her income by 1/4. 

[outin]

I never feel prepared for the lessons. But I have settled to being able to solve those problems my teacher pointed out on the previous one. Would be silly going there still having the same issues. She will have new nuts for me to crack anyway...

I have also realised that 30 minutes of really intelligent practice is worth more to me than 3 hours of mindless repetition (which I am not able to do anyway due to attention issues). I seem to do much of my learning in my subconscious, since things miraculously solve themselves between practice session. So after I see diminished returns I either go to work on something else or quit the session.

[pjjslp]

I can't currently take lessons (another adult "rebounder" here) because my lesson money is busy paying for orthodontia, but any teacher who expected me to practice for 3 hours a day would not be my teacher for long! I work, along with having a home, husband, and children. I also try to run, bike, or hit the gym at least 5 days each week. Most days, I'm lucky to get 30-45 minutes to play. Some days I don't get to play at all. If my teacher had those types of expectations, no, I would never feel - or be, in the teacher's view - fully prepared.

[coolpianoman]

I never feel fully prepared for my lessons and always think i should have done more - not the best mindset to walk up the road to your teacher.  Funnily enough one of the best lessons I had which was recently was when I happened to mention a piece i liked towards the start of the lesson but had not tried it yet and my teacher siad lets have a wander through it now.  I thought I would die!  But we worked on the piece together from scratch sight reading mistakes and all.  It was great.  Maybe you should also fit your timing into what you can manage in amongst everything else as currently you are always approaching your lessons having failed your practice goal.  Again not a good mindset. Chris