Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner If you had 10 hours per day for piano...

I would really appreciate hearing people's answer to this hypothetical question:

If a beginner / beginner-intermediate player wanted to completely dedicate their life to piano and become the best pianist they could possibly become, what would you advise they do every day for their first year?

While answering, please presume the following:

They have 10 hours per day to spend on piano and anything piano related.
They will NOT give up. From getting tired of piano or any other reason.
They are extremely passionate and they have a lot of life experience to draw from.

I think the question could be answered in two parts:
1) Any advice and or steps to take to develop their skill as much as possible.
2) The routine (with however many hours would yield best results. The person is completely willing and happy to spend 10 hours if it would be of benefit).

I appreciate any advice you guys have as I begin my journey

Kindest regards, Matt

Example answer for (2).. The following to be done every day:

1 1/4 hours prac work on a classical piece learning off sheet music.
2 hours working through a theory book.
3/4 hour listening to diverse music.
1 hour playing scales and finger exercises.
1 hour practising any piece(s) of their choice (can be from sheet or by ear).

I used 6 hours of focused work but if more or less time would be beneficial please work on your own opinion.

Thanks

Ok so you're beginner-intermediate, awesome!!
Alright so in your off-time you could be relaxing and listening to classical music, also maybe check out some books that I have really liked: Music: An Art and a Language by Walter Raymond Spalding, Piano Mastery by Harriette Brower, Great Pianists on Piano Playing by James Francis Coooke, and Lessons in Music Form by Percy Goestschius. These are really nice books which have helped me a lot in trying to figure out what music from the piano is. It is nice to start with songs, as they grab the attention with language, and attempt to figure out the polyphony of the weaving and contributing voices to the melody. From there Bach is absolutely wonderful. Every voice is one to itself, without the rankings of 'melodies' or 'upper middle voices' etc. When you feel like the comprehension of that polyphony is becoming apparent, then you can go to reapply the rankings of voices in later music, and figure out how you really want everything to move. From there move to larger piano pieces and then symphonies and piano concertos! I've heard opera is the last step, but I still cannot manage to stay awake throughout a whole opera...oops Honestly, I'm probably still stuck somewhere in the whole song thing as far as music comprehension goes.

In your go-time, you should figure out a practice method that really suits you and the strenuous hours of sitting you are going to put yourself through. Although I really hate to say it, practice might soon become more technical than you would like, but it is really for the delivery of the music. You can pick as many pieces as you like based on what is coming up in the future and create sets of pieces that you try to get through in a day. If you keep a journal this way, and with your ample amount of time, you could mark down where you left off in a piece and then resume when you get back to work. With your time and a two different sets of 5 pieces, you could put two hours of work into each piece in a set a day. I usually get through from about 1 line to a page an hour.

So here's to practicing. I feel like us learners should be trying to acquire dexterity and grace upon the keyboard more than getting brute strength of the hands of fingers. With finding out about focal dystonia, that could even be dangerous. You want to develop independence in your fingers and efficiency of motion and energy in your movements. Your body should be relaxed, a conduit of what you think which goes into the piano which then projects your voice. A slow focused practice method will get you there, and build strength upon knowledge of the workings of the piano action acquired through practice.
So it is easiest to notice awkwardness in any passage working hands separately and going through slowly. It feels like my focus isn't barraged by a million things happening at once. I try to find a spot where my hand feels awkward and it seems like the movement can improve. I think I notice an inefficient usage of energy and motion when a hand flies from one key to the next, hovering there above for a split second before touching down, or if the movement itself isn't confident enough for it to be almost like a second nature.

I like to practice to try and get rid of that. So we find an awkward spot in a passage. It could be the only sloppy interval that is throwing off a whole beautiful passage. I try to realize the shape that my hand will have to acquire to deliver the sound and strike upon the notes. Then I try to remember that and push down on the key, and I want to be able to control the whole motion going down, as every bit of it sends the hammer moving towards the string. After that, I try to think about how to keep the key pushed down while using as little strength as possible, to preserve as much energy as I can. Then I want to completely control the release, and know how I am letting the hammer come off the key and what kind of sound it is creating. From there it continues, and on and on and loop de loop. It is extremely frustrating for me, but I am starting to really enjoy the benefits of this practice. I had feared losing speed and strength with this method, but in reality by learning how to use the piano to the best of my abilities, with the relativity of musical excitement required to keep an audience interested, I can start producing the sound that I want from the piano, that which I hear in my head. And through confidence of movement on the keyboard I am finding it less necessary to worry about technical motions or movements on the keyboard when all I really want to do is just hear the music, and try to share it through a piano.
If you post up some troublesome passages or anything I could say some more about how to apply this method onto those passages.

I hope you will find this useful in some way!

All the best

Do NOT spend 10 hours a day just pounding away at the piano. You'll kill your hands for sure. Learn how to learn quickly! Spend time on technique, and practice lightly for 9 of those 10 hours.

What was posted above is all light practice. Run your hands under warm water when you take breaks to up circulation to deliver what your hands need from your body! Try and stay away from caffeine and nicotine, they will hurt your circulation and you really need that. Water, breaks, and stretching!

Just a quick comment about opera: it is meant to be watched, not just listened to, so if you're having trouble listening to the whole thing, try watching (especially with subtitles) and that will help tremendously. You can listen to arias alone and get a lot out of that.

Back OT:

I think 10 hours in a day may be too much. It really depends on the individual, and I'd much rather talk about qualitative things a student should do to practice rather than quantitative (i.e., 1 hour on technical exercises, 1 hour on sight reading, etc.). I find the latter to be very useless because for each person the time they can spend on one particular task before being "saturated" and needing to wait until the next day varies so much between individuals.

I think the most valuable things a person can do in this situation is:

1) Listen, listen, listen, especially to live performances whenever possible, and not just piano music, but anything that moves you

2) Learn how to practice well and efficiently. Time is no factor, it's about accomplishing distinct tasks.

To me, there are major flaws in the premise.

1) No beginner or even a "beginner-intermediate" (what does that mean? either one is a beginner or one is not) should be spending ten hours a day on piano-related study. There just is not enough material within a beginner's grasp that spending that amount of time - every day - on piano-related study would produce results, other than quick burn-out.

2) No beginner knows at the outset that s/he wants to completely dedicate his or her life to piano "and become the best pianist they could possibly become." It takes time, study and some experience to develop that sort of commitment.

Even allowing for several hours a day of listening to music away from the piano, if the beginner has no knowledge of what he is listening to and listening for, that time will be largely wasted in a wash of uncomprehended sound. Even adding the study of theory, the time span is too broad for the beginner to effectively concentrate.

Even many advanced conservatory students don't spend ten hours a day on such single-focus activity.

Regards,

Love the encouragement.

It's not all about theory. The basics to music appreciation and understanding of the fundamentals becomes the foundation for what is laid next. The books I suggested books focused much more on general ideas like themes phrases and being able to develop an individual analogy of music and literature. Both are works of art..hey what isn't? We must train our minds and bodies! Secret monks living within modern society, contributing to the welfare of all!!..in art..

Anyways, Bruce, I'm gonna guess you don't believe in love at first sight. Your Chopin must be so wonderful..guffaw..kidding!! How about love at second sight? Third? Fourth if you like to play hard to get? :p

OP: When there's a will....; p

What does your snide remark about "[my] Chopin" have to do with what I posted or with the premise in the original post?

The relation of the end of my post to yours was that it was just a joke at the second point in your post, something along the lines of 'what kind of romantic are you!?' I am very sorry about my comment. It was not meant to offend. It's easier to misinterpret read words than words with inflections and accents!
Apologies again friend.

Are you just beginning? Are you wanting to spend ten hours a day at the piano? If so, I think that's lovely that you're so devoted. Passion and curiosity and interest can be a sort of fuel to drive you toward your goals and it sounds like you really must love piano if you are entertaining the idea of spending so much time (unless you are asking "for a friend" as it were.)

I'd caution at the outset that practicing 10 hours per day for ~9 days(?) and then getting burnt out is a more realistic scenario than practicing devotedly half an hour every day, for your first few months or years, then ramping it up to an hour, then ramping it up to two hours, and so forth. I think you're more likely to see real, tangible gains through the latter method than the former, though I imagine it's difficult to be told to put a lid on your excitement.

If you must I'd break it down like this:

• 30 minutes: Methodical, slow, intentional practice of repertoire that you like, maybe ten minutes or so spent on scales or whatever technique activities your teacher is recommending
• 9 hours and 30 minutes: Listen to piano music you like, read books about piano music, noodle around a bit at the keyboard if you feel compelled.

That's the way I structure my practice time, anyway. I have 2-3 hours of "work, work" time (to quote the orcs from the computergame Warcraft II, ahem) that is pretty belabored and high intensity. Then the rest of my music time is just sort of like the frosting on top and very optional but enjoyable - like I'll listen to lots of recordings in a sort of ravenous way, or I feel like wandering over to the piano outside of my "serious business" time, I might play some things from memory or just play joyfully and tinkle around. YMMV.

If you really do have 10 hours a day, and really are able in terms of logistics and mental stamina to devote that to piano, then the conversation would look different after you'd had 5(?ish) years under your belt. Try to be a bit of a realist as dull as that is, so you don't end up setting impossible expectations for yourself.

Hujidong, Morodiene, Mermilymumpkin and everyone else that responded, thank you so much. Some of the information you guys have provided is exactly what I was hoping for.

I could only quickly read through them right now. Unfortunately I was just with my Grandpa who died a couple of hours ago. But I will read and respond to each one properly when I have some time.

As well a thanking you, I just wanted to point out that I never said I would be spending 10 hours per day pounding away at the piano. I said I have 10 hours for any piano related activity and was after advice on how to use that time (at and off the piano), knowing that I want to dedicate my entire life to learning piano and piano music.

Also, I made it hypothetical and added the presumptions to follow to try and avoid people jumping to conclusions or writing off the idea that a beginner would or could do this. I made it hypothetical because people don't know the situation I am in, so I thought I'd have more chance of getting advice that way. I hope to become a part of this great community and may get to share some of my story in time. But for now, please take those presumptions as whole truths. I will be spending my entire life learning the piano. Also, if you really don't believe a beginner can spend 10 hours in piano related activities, that is fine. I would still love to hear your opinion on things to do in a lesser time.

Kindest regards, Matt





Ps. I didn't think using "beginner-intermediate" would be confusing. If a pianist can be placed on a scale from absolute beginner (never played piano) to advanced (very competent) I would place myself somewhere between beginner and intermediate. Much like people do with any other activity. I can explain where I'm at further when I have the time to respond properly.

Thanks again

Then maybe make it a 24/6 kind of schedule. :P

This doesn't answer your original post, but is just a thought...

If you are going to be practicing quite a bit, and are not at an advanced level where you understand how technique works, then you should definitely find the time (and money) to be having at least a one hour lesson twice a week. Given the beginner/intermediate status, you are probably more likely to be practicing mistakes or incorrect technique. You don't want to be wasting your time or going backwards by practicing things incorrectly.

5-7 hours of practice (and not all repertoire, do some exercises and try your hand at transcription/composition)

Spend the rest of the time listening to music and reading fiction, poetry, or talking walks in nature.

(Which is basically what Brahms and Liszt did...)

Haha




That definitely answers my post, thank you and I'm happy to say I have a piano teacher with whom lessons will continue later this month (a placement is opening as a student is finishing). I started a whole thread on exactly what you just said "practicing mistakes or incorrect technique" and about a choosing the right teacher and whether or not I should stay with the teacher I have. This thread sprung off of that one.

I am booked in for 1 hour per week but I was already planning to make it two



Thank you for this advice

Also, I want to know the truth, but its nice to hear you say I can practice for that long. Others said 1 1/2 hours per day max or I'm wasting my time :s I do hope you are right

I think you'll find that as a beginner/intermediate, you'll need to vary the type of practice a great deal and take a lot of breaks until you build up stamina (both physical and psychological.)

I'd spend 1-2 hours on exercises and repertoire. An hour or so on reading (finding a duet partner would be awesome.) And another hour or so on improvising, composing, transcribing, or just doodling - exploring different sounds and techniques.

Is this because you want to be a professional?

Why would you want life of a pianist??

You definitely have to come back and check in in a year or so :-) I will be really interested to hear about your progress. It's an interesting experiment in what will happen if you have the optimal learning conditions and level of drive.