How Often And How Long Do You Practice? Options

[Terra]

I'm just wondering how often and how long do you practice your stringed intstriment?

I do 1-2 hours and sometimes 3 hours a day. I'm wondering if I do too much too little? Today I did a morning session (about 20-30 mins) and then my regular evening session which ran to about an hour and 20 mins.

[bohemian]

At grade 1 I wouldn't expect most people to do more than 30 mins a day, max! But great if you are doing more. The only thing is that it's easier to get into bad habits in the beginning stages, so unless you are having 2+ lessons per week to ensure you're not developing bad technique, I would be more inclined to limit practice to 1h per day, and use the other time to listen to a lot of violin rep, study the great violinists etc... What are you actually doing in your practice time?

Personally I do 5+ hours a day but then I'm starting college in September...and learning rep that requires a lot of time, because the pieces are just plain long, and have to deal with chamber and orchestral assignments. On top of technical work.

[Libitina]

At grade 1 I wouldn't expect most people to do more than 30 mins a day, max! But great if you are doing more. The only thing is that it's easier to get into bad habits in the beginning stages, so unless you are having 2+ lessons per week to ensure you're not developing bad technique, I would be more inclined to limit practice to 1h per day, and use the other time to listen to a lot of violin rep, study the great violinists etc... What are you actually doing in your practice time?

Personally I do 5+ hours a day but then I'm starting college in September...and learning rep that requires a lot of time, because the pieces are just plain long, and have to deal with chamber and orchestral assignments. On top of technical work.

I do 1 hour a day and 2 hours a day on weekends + lesson. I couldn't do 5 hours a day, just dont have that much free time.

Rachel

[Terra]

At grade 1 I wouldn't expect most people to do more than 30 mins a day, max! But great if you are doing more. The only thing is that it's easier to get into bad habits in the beginning stages, so unless you are having 2+ lessons per week to ensure you're not developing bad technique, I would be more inclined to limit practice to 1h per day, and use the other time to listen to a lot of violin rep, study the great violinists etc... What are you actually doing in your practice time?

Personally I do 5+ hours a day but then I'm starting college in September...and learning rep that requires a lot of time, because the pieces are just plain long, and have to deal with chamber and orchestral assignments. On top of technical work.

I practice the songs that I'm working on for the exam. I repeat them over and over. I'm trying to improve being able to play them. I userally practice my 3 exam pieces for about 40 mins to an hour and then scales.

Rachel: I think my hands would fall off if I did 5 hours.

[maya3]

Well, I have my grade 8 viola in 2 weeks and would say that I'm averaging about 45 mins a day. I did about the same for my grade 8 violin.

[bohemian]

I practice the songs that I'm working on for the exam. I repeat them over and over. I'm trying to improve being able to play them. I userally practice my 3 exam pieces for about 40 mins to an hour and then scales.

I think it would be more useful to not just play the same thing over and over again. It's more efficient to practice certain techniques that come up within the piece like string crossing exercises, LH patterns with different bowings etc. Then you are preparing yourself for any pieces you will learn in the future as well as the current pieces. Playing the same piece repeatedly can ingrain any intonation problems and technical mistakes so they are really hard to get rid of. I personally spend the majority of my practice time (3 1/4 hours out of 5) on technique because then I can learn pieces really quickly, since I already have the techniques at the tips of my fingers, rather than having to learn a technique within a piece. Maybe your teacher can recommend you some exercise books so you can make your practice more interesting and efficient.

[jojo]

Playing the same piece repeatedly can ingrain any intonation problems and technical mistakes so they are really hard to get rid of. I personally spend the majority of my practice time (3 1/4 hours out of 5) on technique because then I can learn pieces really quickly, since I already have the techniques at the tips of my fingers, rather than having to learn a technique within a piece. Maybe your teacher can recommend you some exercise books so you can make your practice more interesting and efficient.

I think you are right there bohemian,
I do like my teacher, he's a 'nice guy' BUT, he has NEVER asked me to play a scale and NEVER asked me to play one study or exercise (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)
Sometimes I think it's because I am an adult and he's used to teach children, maybe he thinks I do these things anyway? maybe he thinks as I will never be a 'paganini' what's the point? so might as well just play pieces with me as that way I will enjoy playing pieces and will not get bored as an adult???? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/huh.gif)

I know I know,the answer is to ask him and talk to him (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif) He does know I want to do my grade 5 this winter but he still does not do any scales/sight reading/aural with me, the only thing he's ever done is play pieces! Then if a technique comes up in the piece I am learning he will briefly explain what I ought to do with bow/fingers and that's that.

I really believe what you have said is TRUE, if you practice technique through studies/exercises then you are much better equipped to learn pieces as then all you have to do is get your intonation/dynamics/expression for that piece and this will come much easier if technique is solid.

I think a good talk with my teacher is long overdue, he's been teaching the above way for 2 years and 5 months now.

[elisabeth_rb]

Some young friends of mine are basically taught piano to pass exams. No wonder at least one of them isn't enjoying what she's doing as all she can play is her exam pieces and she doesn't like any of them! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) Teachers! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

I practise when I can for however long I can. Of late that's been extremely rare. I intend to put in half an hour today though. Wonder if it will happen?? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blush.gif)

My teacher is leaving teaching soon and I'm going off to Taiwan for a year in less than 10 weeks, so motivation isn't exactly at a premium right now.... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

[bohemian]

I do like my teacher, he's a 'nice guy' BUT, he has NEVER asked me to play a scale and NEVER asked me to play one study or exercise (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)
...
I think a good talk with my teacher is long overdue, he's been teaching the above way for 2 years and 5 months now.

Please, please do something about this...it's just about acceptable up to about grade 3, but I actually had taken my grade 8 before I moved to a new teacher and discovered that technical exercises actually exist! Then I essentially had to start from scratch, learning every bowing and LH technique from nothing, but worse, having to undo so many awful habits like a terrible vibrato technique (which had given me tendonitis)...so it took a good 18 months of 4+ hours a day (3h technique, 1h rep) to put things where they should have been when I took my grade 8. Really at grade 5 level you should be using Kreutzer, Schradieck and Sevcik every day plus scales as a bare minimum, balanced with a similar amount of repertoire (30m on rep and 30m on technique). The technique is not so arduous if it's a regular part of practice, and besides you only need to do a minimal amount if you start on it seriously at an early enough stage.

If you can do something about it now, even if that means a new teacher, it will be well worth it in the long run. Otherwise you will get to a more advanced stage and suddenly be completely stuck, or end up screwing your body, and have to play catch-up for a long time. It's very disheartening and leads a lot of people to give up. Please believe me on this, having gone through it!

[Jacobi]

I started from scratch in March and since then I manage to play everyday (unless away and can't take violin with me! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) ). The total per day is probably around 45 mins of playing time but I tend to break half way and do something else for half an hour and then come back to it, which I find works better. Of this time a good bit of it is spent on scales and checking I'm in tune! The rest is on probably three or so different pieces I happen to be working on. I have also started randomly playing a scale in between the odd bar when practising as well.

[kerioboe]

Sometimes I think it's because I am an adult and he's used to teach children, maybe he thinks I do these things anyway? maybe he thinks as I will never be a 'paganini' what's the point? so might as well just play pieces with me as that way I will enjoy playing pieces and will not get bored as an adult???? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/huh.gif)

Apologies for being an oboist butting into the strings thread but I think you ought to talk to your teacher as he may well not realise what you want.

After I'd been playing the oboe for about 18 months I told my teacher I wanted to do only technical exercices for a while as I felt the pieces he was asking me to play were way beyond my technical ability. He was surprised and said he had never had a student ask him that before and that with his other pupils (at the time all children) he had to try and slip technical exercices in without them noticing. However, he came back the next lesson with a whole lot of books. I spent about six weeks just working on these in lessons and then moved back to pieces in my lessons via studies. I have continued to work on scales and technical exercices at home and spend at least half my practise session on them. Every now and then he brings in a new book or teaches me a new exercice and I play these in my lessons until he has is sure I've grasped how I'm supposed to be working on them and then he just trusts me to practise them by myself.

I do think it is a very individual thing, though as my teacher now has another adult (who I play in a windband with) and she thinks he spends too much time on technical things and not enough on pieces.

[Terra]

At the moment I'm just doing exam pieces, I'm trying to get them right with the piano piece. Userally I'd never play the same song over and over it would be too boring! I can play them just fine with out, I'm just trying to memeorise cues by playing though with the violin.

I hope I get some more pieces to play next week, because practicing exam pieces over and over is a bit boring. Although I am getting to practice stacato, slurs etc all in this one piece so it's helping me a lot by practicing. Also I'm begging to memorise the pieces so it's easier in the exam. I like 2 of my exam pieces and enjoy playing them, but I'm sick of the other.

[false_harmonic]

My lesson on Wednesday I spent pretty much the entire hour playing the first half of the opening bar of the Bach I'm playing at the moment. For some reason I can never seem to get the opening five notes right, so teacher made me play them over, and over, and over until I got them right. Admittedly a significant proportion of the lesson was also spent giggling, as I made the mistake of telling teacher about something amusing that had happened at work (I don't even remember what it was now) and as a result it kept creeping into my head while I was playing and I kept bursting into fits of giggles.

At my lessson on Thursday (I have an assessment coming up!) I was playing the Schumann and it went pretty well, even if I do say so myself. Teacher actually complimented me on my rhythm - this is unheard of! There are still two sections of two or three bars that I just cannot play with the piano, partly because they're awfully fast and with lots of tiny position changes, and partly because the piano part is so beautiful I keep forgetting where I am because I'm paying attention to the gorgeous sounds accompaniest is making!

To get back on topic, I always intend to practise three hours a day, but that involves getting up at six in the morning, so it's pretty rare that I actually manage it, probably an hour and a half a night is more like what I actually manage to do during the week. Last weekend I ended up doing about six hours on Saturday as I had orchestra rehearsals all day, and practised my exam music during the lunch hour, and about five on Sunday, as we had rehearsals in the afternoon, and then an evening concert! I must admit that within five minutes of the concert starting I felt like my spine had snapped as I was in agony and was really struggling to breathe, evidently I do not have the stamina at the moment for an entire weekend of orchestra rehearsals! Worth it though, the Saint Saens Organ Symphony gives me such a thrill half way through the second movement with the big crashing chord from the Organ right before the start of the theme.

[jojo]

To get back on topic, I always intend to practise three hours a day, but that involves getting up at six in the morning, so it's pretty rare that I actually manage it

This made me smile as I already get up at 6 every morning, but that's to GO TO WORK! so if I had to get up earlier to practice I think I'd drop dead after a month (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

quote from bohemian post:
Really at grade 5 level you should be using Kreutzer, Schradieck and Sevcik every day plus scales as a bare minimum, balanced with a similar amount of repertoire (30m on rep and 30m on technique).

reply:
bohemian,thank you for this, I actually went and bought sevcik opus 1 part 2 book (it has exercises for 2nd to 7th position) as I felt I need to get very confident in finding any note I want 'on the spot' on the fingerboard without thinking which position I should be in, which note is this and therefore which note would that be if I put an extra finger on etc etc (am I making sense here?), I am VERY confident in 1st position (of course) and if you tell me play G sharp I immediately know which spot and which finger to put down, but take me off first position and I have to stop and think which finger and which string etc, so I thought this sevcik book would be just the thing for me.
Showed it to my teacher, he fobbed it off and started getting me to play a piece (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mad.gif)

Maybe I wasn't 'upfront' enough with it, so on Monday in my next lesson I will take sevcik out and say: 'I will ONLY do scales and exercises with you now for a few weeks, I am sorry if this will bore you, but it's what I want to do!'

I think I will buy another sevcik which concentrates on bowing technique so I can do a bit of both (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

ps 30 mins on exercises/scales and 30 on repertoire sounds ok as I only manage to have 1 hour a day to spend on violin

[Rosie91]

I actually went and bought sevcik opus 1 part 2 book (it has exercises for 2nd to 7th position) as I felt I need to get very confident in finding any note I want 'on the spot' on the fingerboard without thinking which position I should be in, which note is this and therefore which note would that be if I put an extra finger on etc etc (am I making sense here?), I am VERY confident in 1st position (of course) and if you tell me play G sharp I immediately know which spot and which finger to put down, but take me off first position and I have to stop and think which finger and which string etc, so I thought this sevcik book would be just the thing for me........

...I think I will buy another sevcik which concentrates on bowing technique so I can do a bit of both (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

A lot of Sevcik is available for free here. Unfortunately the school of bowing is only available for cello but you might be able to get it on another website if you do a bit of digging, or else i'm sure you can get the general gist from the cello version.

To answer the original question, at the moment I do around 2 hours a day and 3 on a Saturday (usually take Sundays off), because I've finished my exams. In September I'll probably have to cut back to more like an hour or an hour and a half a day. I'm grade 8 level and try and split my time 50/50 between technique and repertoire.