Hi all, first off, my questions.
"what would you, the teachers, define or recommend as proper practice?"
"What kind of practice would you expect from your better or best students?"

I know this is a broad subject that probably varies with each individual but I have started wondering lately about how I practice.
While perusing these forums I have seen statements like "its not strictly about how much you practice, its about proper or correct practice" and one where a teacher said "I had to teach my student how to practice"
In my searches I have found little gems that I have tried to include in my practicing but I haven't found anything specifically about how to practice.
Now I have a lot of material my teacher has given me to work on but "how" I practice is up to me and im curious if maybe I could be working more efficiently than I am.

Thanks, Dave T.

I would disagree with the part that I put in italics. Your teacher should give you input on how to practice. In fact (imho) it is one of the most important things that a teacher can teach.

I agree. I won't say more.

Im not referring to technique or how I actually play the piano but how I spend my time at the piano practicing.

I don't know, maybe this is a dumb topic and I have been looking at it from the wrong direction.
I should probably just keep doing what I have been doing.

Im an adult beginner that started last year about this time and found a good teacher in late april, since then I have become a little obsessed and to me I still feel like im learning slowly and want to do what I can to learn as efficiently as I can.
Though I have come to realize that I have been progressing very quickly so far.

Thanks, Dave T.

P.S. I hope this doesn't come off sounding like im looking for praise or anything like that because im not!
I just feel like the piano was / is supposed to be a part of my life and I have missed out on it for far too many years.

We actually talk about practice a lot in the Adult Beginners Forum. There's currently topics on scales, how much time to spend/what's an effective use of time, sight-reading, rhythms, a variety of things that are probably relevant for you.

Some things we talk about:
"chunk" your pieces - don't just play from beginning to end each time, isolate the hard parts and practice them more, and link them to the parts before and after.

play it slowly correctly, not fast incorrectly

play it without tenseness - and that often means slow, too.

analyze your pieces so that you understand what is happening with the flow of the piece, don't just read notes.

And there's lots more. I see you've been in the ABF before - there's a lot of discussion there that's helpful, to me anyway We don't know everything, but there's a lot of collective knowledge for you to chose from.

Cathy

This is very effective IF the student follows through at home. Most of the time it doesn't happen.

That's why sometimes I opt to teach a bunch of short pieces instead of a gigantic sonata movement, or do a "theme and variations" piece, and just pick a couple of variations, skipping around the piece, just to break this "play from the beginning to the end" habit.

Dave, I understood your question, and it is something that I personally find very important. Your other posts tell us that you found a teacher you like working with last April. This teacher seems to be guiding with a sense of purpose in mind, (decides which pieces he'd like you to do and not to do, (strongly) suggests things, etc.). His guidance per what you've written comes in the form of *what* you are to do: the Tempest in your sig, learning the circle of fifths etc. You have been figuring out *how* - taking the Tempest home to explore it, asking the forum how to approach learning the circle. The only advice I've seen from your teacher on the *how* has been slow practice, and to try the first few pages of the Tempest and see how far you get.

It is possible that your teacher has given you some "hows" that you missed. That kind of advice can seem almost incidental so that we miss the point - a clue is if the casual comment is mentioned often. Then it was advice. If you're told to relax your shoulders, make these notes legato, or if he demonstrates something, then these details should go into your practicing. On that point, if your teacher stresses something, you might ask, "How can I practice this?" because there are practicing strategies.

But not every teacher tells us how to practice. The practicing of little kids is probably shaped over time into habits because they have to be told things in more detail. But our ability to work independently as adults can work against us. You're given a piece, you work hard at it, next week it's better, so you must know how to practice. Some teachers believe that a piece or exercise or study will give us skills. Of course that is true: but HOW we get at it matters. Here the teacher is stuck between giving too little guidance, and micromanaging.

You could ask your teacher outright whether he can advise you on effective practicing, and see what he does with it.

You may also want to break this down further for yourself. Right now you only have a vague idea that you could be doing things more efficiently. If there are problems or things slowing you down, what is their nature? Are there specific things: note recognition, technique, playing quietly or loudly, remembering, reading? If so, do you know how to approach strengthening these things? Can you ask your teacher?

The other thing is how to organize your time, and how to approach everything. You have a number of pieces in various stages so that's one thing. Then any given piece gets developed in different stages - do you know how to organize that from day to day over a few weeks, and how to organize how you approach it on any single day?

If you have a clearer idea then you will probably come up with some solutions, and if you do ask your teacher and he says "What do you mean?" you won't be hemming and hawing.

My question to teachers:
Supposing that for some reason or other you have not told your student how to practice. Would you like to be asked? As a general question? In regards to something specific?

Secondly, is it possible that a teacher will be telling a student how to practice, and for the student to be missing it? Or even doing the "how" but not catching it?

1. I would like to be asked anything that the student wants to know.

2. It is definitely possible.

Anyone have any experience with the book Practiceopedia?
http://www.insidemusicteaching.com/bookstore/practiceopedia/

Not too long ago I read an article somewhere that said most students waste 50 minutes out of every hour of their practice time playing through material they already know. People think practicing is playing through songs. What I finally did was break every thing down into an easier way to think about it and it is working here.

During lessons we mark the problem measures/parts.

The first day after lesson they are instructed to only work on their problem measures (of the songs they know, new songs have a different routine). They are to work on that measure until they can play it X# of times in a row without the mistake.

Day 2 they check the mistake. If they can play it they add in the measures/parts before and after. If they cannot play it, they rework it as in day 1.

It builds from there each day.

I make a big deal (especially with my little ones) about how funny and maybe even horrible (the repetition) it is going to sound. Mom and Dad may run for the ear plugs - the dog will start howling - the cat will scratch a hole in the screen to get out... I cannot tell you how many parent's jaws drop and lightbulbs turn on. Practice doesn't sound like a pretty song. Practice can be annoying and repetitious. Performance sounds like a pretty song. I then give them "permission" to "perform" some of their known songs at the end of practice time to keep them fresh. Separating those words have really helped for me.

Thanks for this great description!