Hi, I'm new to the forums! I'm wondering- how long do you require your students to practice daily? Do you assign a different amount of practice time to advanced, intermediate, beginner students? Or do they all practice the same amount? Also, do any of you use Hanon (or something similar) and, if so, do you require your students to work on these exercises a certain amount of time per week? I'm just trying to figure out what the practice schedule looks like for most intermediate students.

Hello Zoba and welcome! I'm a student that likes to lurk in the corners of the Piano Teacher Forums to scrounge up knowledge and whatnot. Hope you have fun while you're here!

I had different experiences with different teachers--two of my teachers expect you to practice more as you get more advanced. The "require" no practice times in general, but they want your lesson to be perfect and as flawless as possible. My other teacher made me write down the times that I practiced each day. She gave me a minimum requirement of say...5 and a half hours a week. That was another thing.

I do think that advanced students should practice more than intermediate and beginner students. They need to get more in-depth with their music and that does require more time.

hope that helped! welcome again!

Em

At minimum, 15 minutes more than what their lesson time is.

Exception: Really young beginner. Then it can be only 5 minutes to start, building to 30 minutes by the end of a couple months worth of lessons.

Beginners can do practice times 10-15 minutes per day, 5 days or more per week, without missing more than one day in a row. However, I always say that 5 minutes is better than 0 minutes, and if a student comes in with a 5 minute day, I think them for trying to get at least some practice in. For students who then move into the 2nd book in their method, I generally require 15-20 minutes. By the third book, they should be at 30 minutes.
Early intermediate students should be 30-45 minutes, and late intermediate about an hour.

I try not to stress time as much as efficiency, however. Students can sit and play for an hour, but have they accomplished anything?

Hi Zoba - welcome. Great to have you join us.

You ask an interesting question. The answer depends somewhat on what age group you're teaching, obviously.

For years, I used to hand out practice guidelines.

I've changed my mind. Now I answer a question with a question: how good do you want to be? Then, to help them be realistic, I explain that practicing is a routine, a routine that begins with warm-ups, then moves into problem solving, and finally, repertoire review. I tell them that I understand that some weeks, they won't be able to practice very much, and other weeks, they'll be able to devote lots of time and energy to their practice. When they do, they will amaze themselves with their progress.

Generally, I tell my middle school students that if they find they are practicing less than 45 min a day, on average, they are really short changing themselves, and will become very unhappy with their progress. My elementary students, I address the question to the parent: how much time are you willing to spend with your child helping them remain focused and learning to problem solve?

In the end, the monkey needs to be on the backs of the students and parents, not on you.

Does this help?

Beginners: 10-15 minutes per day

Intermediate: 30-45 minutes per day

Advanced: 1-2 hours per day

Beginners . . 15-30 min/day
Gr. 1-3 . . . 1/2 hr/day
Gr. 4 . . . 3/4 hr/day
Gr. 5-6 . . . 1 hr/day
Gr. 7-8 . . . 1 1/2 hrs/day
Anything above 3-5 hours

Adults, times everything by 2!

I am glad to see the grinning emoticon beside Diane's multiplier for adults. As an adult student, I am terrible at practicing, and am thankful that my teacher is tolerant. I get the feeling from many of the other threads on this forum that most piano teachers who post here would have dropped me long ago as an unworthy recipient of their time, energy, and wisdom. I am absolutely certain that I am unworthy of my own wonderful teacher's time, etc., but at the same time grateful that she keeps me on.

I want to register a bit of concern about the word "require" in the post that started this thread. I am not sure that any piano teacher should think in terms of requiring specific practice times. This might work if the pupils are children, but is guaranteed not to work for adolescents or for adults, at least not for many of them. Most of the times listed above strike me as aspirational; they are certainly not enforceable.

Anyway, just two cents from an elderly and delinquent piano student. By the way, I probably spent more time rebelling against being required to practice than I spent practicing when I was an adolescent. Now, I don't rebel; I just don't do it. But I have a fabulous piano teacher!

Thanks everyone for your answers!

Rank Piano Amateur,
I didn't mention adult students in my list of the time I recommend. That is because while I can recommend a student practice more, I understand that it might not be possible. However, when I have an adult beginner student who thinks they can learn piano in a matter of months to the level that they can perform at church without consistent practice, I tear my hair out. But I do not have "Requirements" for practice times, only suggestions. Sometimes the kids take them, sometimes they don't. I much prefer that they practice more often (no less than 5 times per week) rather than a set amount of time.

The amount of time practiced can sometimes be irrelevant. That is why I have used a system of goals for student assignment. In the last 4 years, I have not once told a student to practice "45 minutes" etc.

Each tune has a number of small goals (10-20) that I write into the book (yes it is a lot of work for me), But every single minute has more potential for the student to be concentrated and aware. Each goal has a co-responding test that must be self-administered by the student at home.

When the student comes to the lesson next time, they are often grinning ear to ear..."I PASSED ALL OF THE GOALS!!". The goals allow students to see their progress at home which is a powerful thing.

The progress is astoundingly better than it was with my old system. I imagine that some of my students are practicing 3 hours a day without even knowing it.

I've never laid out times. Like Jeremy, I have goals for them to work on, although not as specific (I'm learning...) and I expect them to meet certain things by next class. Some students do, some don't, but I have the feeling that's more based on the students and their respective parents rather than what I do (or don't do). The students/parents I have who are involved are doing quite well.

"However long it takes"

That's the word I was looking for in this thread.

My teacher, oddly, has never addressed this, which makes me curious if any teachers out there teach their student "how" to practice (or guide them on how to make the most out of the time they do practice).

Maybe I should have used the word "suggest" in my post instead of "require". Although, most of my piano teachers have been incredibly strict in requiring a certain amount of time practiced daily. I was just curious how my teachers compared with others.

This is probably about 90% of what I do in all lesssons.

What do you suggest we ask for as teachers? What do you think would be a reasonable amount of time for you to practice, to make reasonable prgress?
I have a couple adult students with your attitude. They are trying to use me as a "piano personal trainer". I do all the work. They practice only when they feel like it, which is seldom.

I would personally be ashamed to ask for help from someone I state that I respect, then joke about the fact that I don't do my best.

Its strange I don't measure my practice time anymore. The teacher I have now sets me up with a load of work, enough to keep me occupied and extra to keep me busy and the phrase "I've finished" never comes out of me. The last few teachers I had used to accept a sightread job and used to give me repertoire that I'd finish practicing within a week. That's when measured practice time and that's when I made sure I spent an hour at the piano.

Now, I've got enough to keep me occupied for hours and even so, I am told to not spend 1.5 hours a day, I was told that 5 hours a week is sufficient, it just depends on how I practice.

I think practice should be measured in accomplishment rather than time. But at the same time (ignore the pun) I think a piano teacher's job is to supply enough work for a student that satisfies a time frame. (x amount of hours/minutes).

I often spend about an hour to an hour and a half a day.

I think that the motto should be "just do it" ... as a student I used to wait for the wave of motivation ... I used to wait to be excited. But I found that most of my time was spent waiting ... so I just got into it and once I started I found that I get excited and rip right into it.

I like to set small goals - write them down before each practice session and highlight them as I go ... it works for me. I find when I am writing them its when I feel excited to start.

So thats what I say, its not how long you practice its how you practice.