Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner How much time do you get to practice?

Can't answer for everybody, but when I was doing this, I practiced before work. That way, my brain was fresh. Conversely, sometimes I would also practice very late (just before going to bed). This helped me to get my brain 'out of the way' and let the music flow better. (Obviously, I didn't work on anything 'technical' during those latter sessions! )

Of course, even on those days, I'm only talking about 30-60 minutes of practice, max. Often, I would have to make up for it on the weekends.

I'm struggling with this problem at the moment. I need my job though, to fund my taste for expensive kitchen utensils.

Usually I take a really long break before I start practicing, so that means that I end up eating dinner at ridiculous hours... but most of the time piano's not work, so it's a bit relaxing. But when there are performances coming up...the pressure helps me to focus.

And speaking of performances, Liszt sonata + Franck violin sonata in April! Arghh, not enough time..!

I work full time, and unfortunately I'm on the road a lot when I don't get to practice.

But when I'm home, it's 2 hours/day during the week (1 hour AM and 1 hour PM) and 4 hours on Saturday and Sunday.

I find this is the absolutely minimum required.

I practice pretty much everyday. Maybe 9 out of 10 days in the long run. I'll normally practice 60 min interspersed with 30 min of breaks making for a total of 1 hour 30min sometimes switched with 30 min before work, 30 min after as the day warrants. I'd practise more if I wasn't so busy. I'm not sure if I'm objectively productive by comparison but do feel productive at the piano.



The above got me curious.

All-Clad/Le Creuset pans, Shun knifes, a KitchenAid etc.

I would love to have more time for practicing. I work full time during the day, and teach a couple nights a week, plus have my own music lessons and rehearsals in the evenings. I'm preparing for a piano diploma exam right now (RCM), so I force myself to carve out practice time. Since January, I've been spending 30-mins every morning before work on technical requirements, and then about an hour later in the day on repertoire. On Saturdays, I can usually squeeze in more practice time -- about 3 hours. Also, I've just recently gained access to a church's C7, so I can go there to practice late at night (my husband doesn't like me practicing after 10 p.m.).



Often when I'm driving home from work, the thought of practicing or teaching when I get home exhausts me, but I find once I start, I get my second wind. Since it's not what I do all day, the hours I get to spend doing 'music stuff' are still really special and energize me rather than draining me. I do find however, that I can only handle a couple hours max of practicing after working all day. After that, I'm not able to focus.

Time gets lost when I'm at the piano. an hour, two, sometimes (rarely three) but never in such blocks of time. I might wander there for a few minutes to work on a measure that's giving me a challenge, or actually focus in for a larger block of time.

Sometimes I'm focused, sometimes not, but the time I spend is always rejuvenating.

I'm not under any pressure (except the internal 'why the @#$(*@#$& can't that trill settle down and sound natural', or some such), don't care about grades (although I get a grade for my lessons).

My MBTI (Meyers Briggs Type Indicator) score is INFP, heavy on the 'introvert' - meaning time by myself is especially enjoyable - so this makes sense.

Forrest

It's hard. Teaching is exhausting. I have to be "on" for 5 straight hours and the multitasking doesn't stop from 6:30 until 3:30 p.m. All the while I'm working, there is a little voice in the back of my head that really wants to be practicing. When I get home, my son or husband needs attention or dinner needs cooking or there are chores. I usually squeeze in about 90 minutes a day, even on weekends. The worst thing is when I finally have some time to sit down to practice and my mind is just too exhausted to concentrate. I have no time for TV and I squeeze in about 30 minutes to read. It's a long day. On the up-side, I get long vacations and my summers off. Then I can practice 3 or 4 hours a day, sometimes more.

2 hours a day during the week although sometimes I cannot make time at all. During the weekend I do more. Up to 4 hours. I am always exhausted so I do Bach pieces in the end. It always wakes me up. I have to do romantic pieces before anything else. Otherwise it makes me sleepy. I am in the middle management in my company and work 6 AM through 4 PM. Its a highly technical ans demanding job. By the time I exercise my dogs and feed dogs & husband, it's always 8:30 PM!

Kuan, that's an insane program!
Btw if you want I can hear the Franck sometime and plant some ideas if you need. I know the piece inside out!

Not as much as I would like. I've been using a music journal app recently to see how much precisely and it was less than what I thought.

With this revelation I've pushed it to an average of 2 hours a day.

I find it a struggle to get enough time, or as much as I'd like. I aim for at least an hour - sometimes I manage more (did about 90 minutes today), sometimes less. It would be even harder if I didn't work from home. Even then, I have to get any required work out of the way and give the dog a nice long walk. Then if it's a weekday and my wife's working too I have to get our fourteen-month-old from the child minder, so I normally need to fit playing in before that. Playing when after she's in bed works sometimes, other times it wakes her up.

When the wife works weekends I basically get no practise done, as it's pretty much all parenting duties. Should improve as the little one gets older and doesn't need constant supervision... until no. 2 comes along, anyway. Maybe by then we will have a nanny or au pair.

Could do a bit more at night, I suppose. I have a Yamaha S90 synth - not ideal, and no sostenuto or una corda, but it has 88 weighted keys and a sustain pedal, at least.

I usually practice about 2 hours a day on workdays and 3 hours on weekends. It varies some from week to week depending on what I am working on. when I first start a Bach invention, it takes me a long time to get it memorized hands separate (This is what my teacher wants before I put it together) so this past week I put in about 18 hours at the piano as I am also working on memorizing a Chopin waltz at the same time. I'm in my sixties and memorizing music is a lot harder than when I was younger. At the same time, I figure it's good for my brain so I do it. Most of the time I really enjoy my time at the piano. As someone else said, sometimes when I get home from work, I'm tired and don't feel like practicing but once I start I feel better and the time flies.
Zillybug

Three hours a day. Two first thing in the morning, and then a third hour later in AM, every day.

I'm retired, so I have time to practice even more, but there seems to be a point after which I fatigue, and I feel may be counter productive to practice further.

TomasinoTom
aka Tomasino

There's been the occasional weekend day when I've felt it's "enough"--but normally I'm wishing for more. This is probably a good thing, as it keeps me eager to play.

I don't keep track of hours spent. I used to, but then realized this served no good purpose for me.

Since music is an avocation for me, it's often time stolen from other things I could/should be doing (not quite like time spent playing video games or watching tv, but still an indulgence). So I don't document it.

I'd practice piano more if I weren't also trying to keep up my flute embouchure (OT).

Yesss, I will need help! + I'll need help on the Liszt too. I think I'll be ready by mid-march with both? So far I've learned the 4th movement of the Franck and have worked through most of the 1st movement, but the second one is tough.

The Liszt sonata meanwhile is ridiculous but soo fun to practice!

I get 1-1.5 hours on weekdays; more on weekends.

Sometimes I am just too tired, or have too much work to do in the evenings and don't have time or energy to practice.

I have absolutely no time in the mornings before I head off. There are simply too many bodies to get out the door and on their way to work or school. When I get home, we make and eat dinner, supervise any homework that remains to be done, do any chores that need to be done, then get the children off to bed. That's when I can begin my practice, but I don't want to practice too late into the night or I'll keep everybody from getting their sleep, including myself.

I find practicing is a release from the cares of the day. It engages my brain in a different way than my work. Practicing also helps me to be more patient at work. And, if I get stuck in a boring meeting, I can mentally run through my music and think about some of the bits that need more work (there are lots of those).

Cool! I'm away until mid March, and then have a couple of recitals, but done around the 24th! I'd love to hear it all!

I LOVE the second movement of the Franck sonata. I'll one day learn it and try to find violinists to play it with me. Usually it's the other way around, right? Lol.

Pogo, do you run your music and your practicing strategies/thinking about actually practicing through your head while doing other things? I do it all the time (same with conducting), haha. I think it helps me a lot.