How much do you practice on a day you have a lesson?

[celticqt]

I find that if I come home and practice for 3-4 hours before my lesson, by the time I play for my teacher, I'm wiped out both physically and emotionally.  So I've been doing only about 2 hours on my lesson days.  Is this normal? or ok? What do you guys do?

[eins]

I am not taking classes yet but I think this would be a perfect question to ask--your teacher.

[joachimf]

Because of school, I regularly only have time for two hours max., before my lesson. But unless I feel really unprepared, and feel I have a lot to work on, I try to relax as much as I can, maybe play through it once, warm up a bit... and perhaps listen through the piece if I have a good recording of it...

Joachim

[nanabush]

What I hate is that my teacher wants me to play all 6 songs from my repertoire at once, each one slowly, slowly coming along.  Do you think it's better to practice one piece until satisfaction then go to another one?  Or do 6 moderately difficult pieces at once, then the next week none of them are all that much better...  I don't like doing that, and then I get bored because I'm practicing every piece so much, that I find something new to play and then forget the others... GAAA I need a schedule... that'll help..

[Rach3]

I have no problem with starting a lesson cold. Just so long as I'm awake and alert enough, I'm not dependent on 'warming up'.

[celticqt]

Do you think it's better to practice one piece until satisfaction then go to another one? Or do 6 moderately difficult pieces at once, then the next week none of them are all that much better... I don't like doing that, and then I get bored because I'm practicing every piece so much, that I find something new to play and then forget the others... GAAA I need a schedule... that'll help..

Have you looked at Bernhard's practice method suggestions?  He has some pretty good ideas that will definitely keep you from getting bored!

[sznitzeln]

Nanabush:
I think its good to have a couple of pieces... if i have only 1 piece i get very bored.
Its not a problem if you learn the piece in a few days... but to have only 1 piece for a longer time and trying to master it... that is really boring.

I like to have some pieces that are "almost" done ... and as pieces get "done" i learn more pieces. Perhaps ill focus on a new piece for a few days. But during those days i will still work a little bit on the other pieces to keep them moving forward.

Some pieces need a really hard session to move forward, so you could either play through them once a day so they will not deteriorate, or work like crazy on them.
In other pieces its enough to sight-read them a few times a day. And stop on some places that need a closer look.

There are so many great pieces out there, so often I cant hold back and start learning more pieces than I can manage, but perhaps my repertory will benefit from this attitude in the long run.

A problem with learning many pieces is that they all move slowly... so if you are in desperate need of some pieces for your repertory, then you should work at 1-2 pieces. But its not good to be desperate. Patience is better

I recommend working on pieces 15 minutes - 1,5 hours ... these numbers are just for me
So when you know how much you want to practice on each piece you can calculate how many pieces you can deal with. Also, you dont need to work a piece every day. Some pieces you will work on every day, and some once in 3 days.

This is how I think, do as you feel

[sonatainfsharp]

When is the best time to practice? Right after a lesson.

[japzz]

I never play before my lesson which is at 18.00 and coming home from work at 17.00 .The lesson-hour is NOT a performance hour but a working hour....as far as I'm concerned.Also when playing your pieces cold before your teacher reveals a lot more the weak points of your playing which should be interesting for your teacher,your lesson and you.And indeed,if you have a good teacher,the only thing you want to do when comming home  is to practice.Ok I'm speaking for myself but a good teacher normally inspires you to play and practice a lot.And I'm lucky to have a good one....at least for me