How much should you push yourself?

[Bob]

How far do you go during a practice session?  Physicall, mentally, emotionally.... (spiritually?)

When do you stop?  How do you know when it's time to stop?


And for all the stuff you do?  How you know when to take a break?  How do you take a break or what things do you do to "ease" the working conditions so you can work more?

[ted]

This is a hard question for me to answer because my objectives are not simple,  progress is not easily measurable and I do not have "practice sessions" as such. I do not feel as though I am "pushing" myself at all, and frequently say things to that effect on the forum. It seems to me I am very lazy and I have often said so. However, taken in the overall context of what I want to do in music, I might actually work and think a great deal more than many - in my own way.

Complete break from playing ? At least one or two days a week, but I usually listen to a lot of music and think a lot about music on those days.

[Glyptodont]

If I am going to be home for several hours, I will play a piece of -- say -- four pages once or twice.  Then I go about my business.  An hour later, I will again play the piece. By evening, I will have practiced perhaps 3/4 hour to 1 hour, all told.  Of course, I'm just an amateur, without any great dreams or goals at this point.

Just remaining at the keyboard, doggedly grinding away for a very long time, does not seem to me to be a fast way to learn.

One respected member of this forum, Bernhard, recently suggested playing a new piece about 20 minutes per day--  but do so EVERY day.

Hope I'm not misquoting him--

Good luck --

[gee]

Until you start bleeding through the gut.........



Play until you feel you no longer have the will to become better at a piece. The more you play after that, the worse you get, well at least that's how i feel. Anyways, just my $0.02

[minimozart007]

until you become half a pianist

[tds]

take a break every hour will help you to feel un-pushed. practice 4 hours each day is usually more than enough. tds

[tds]

like ted, i take one day off each week. cheers, ted!

[Bob]

A related idea...

Topic: How to push yourself beyond your comfort zone for extended time periods
https://www.pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,9741.0.html