When Do You Practise? Options

[piano*singing*lover]

Hey guys
I'm taking a year out this year to really focus and alot better and hopefully take my grade 8 at some point before returning to education and getting a better grade overall than if I had stayed on. I know what hours I will be working so i'm going to make a practise scheduale, something that I can follow.
What I'm asking is when do you find the best time to practise? Morning/Evening/Night/Weekends? Do you have a strict scheduale you stick too or do you just practise what you decide there and then.
Feel free to add any comments. It would be nice to see how others practise and how they learn.
PSL (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

[gary quinn]

What I'm asking is when do you find the best time to practise? Morning/Evening/Night/Weekends? Do you have a strict scheduale you stick too or do you just practise what you decide there and then.

Hi piano*singing*lover

I practice after lunch - sometime around 1300. If work or something else prevents that, then I try to get 30 minutes after work. I don't have a fixed schedule, but when working towards an exam I'll aim to practice the troublesome things a bit more than everything else.

30 minute sessions work well for me, although I've recently found that time passes quickly and I can drift into 40 or 50 minutes quite easily.

Sometimes I'll practice just pieces, sometimes just scales/etc, and sometimes a bit of everything.

I guess that everybody has their own way of doing things - which is why life is so interesting :-)

Gary.

[kingsley13]

Hey guys
I'm taking a year out this year to really focus and alot better and hopefully take my grade 8 at some point before returning to education and getting a better grade overall than if I had stayed on. I know what hours I will be working so i'm going to make a practise scheduale, something that I can follow.
What I'm asking is when do you find the best time to practise? Morning/Evening/Night/Weekends? Do you have a strict scheduale you stick too or do you just practise what you decide there and then.
Feel free to add any comments. It would be nice to see how others practise and how they learn.
PSL (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

I usually practise when I feel like it, if I made a schedule I wouldn't stick to it because I'm often not in the mood to practise. I normally practise in the evening after school because thats when I have time, but I do sometimes wake up a bit earlier to practise befroe school if I'm busy on an evening.

As for my practise routine, I usually play scales at the beginning and then pieces, normally in the same order. I guess my actual practise session is quite organised, even if the times I practise at aren't! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

[Fran*Piano]

I usually practise when I feel like it, if I made a schedule I wouldn't stick to it because I'm often not in the mood to practise. I normally practise in the evening after school because thats when I have time, but I do sometimes wake up a bit earlier to practise befroe school if I'm busy on an evening.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif) I'm exactly the same! I can't stick to a schedule, partly because I'd not stick to it, but also because I frequently get involved in other things (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

[pianism]

Me too, i have no schedule on practising piano.
I practise best when nobody is around (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)
All the best for your practise

I guess that everybody has their own way of doing things - which is why life is so interesting :-)

Totally agree

[madbassoonist]

I've made a schedule and am making myself stick to it - with three instruments I often end up only doing piano then having to sight read the piece I've been told to learn at my next clarinet or bassoon lesson!
It involves 5 practices of piano (including one 'practice' which is selecting and running through hymns), 4 of clarinet and 3 of bassoon. I'm also supposed to do scales etc. every morning but it doesn't usually happen (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[clavicembalo]

Well, since I'm up ...... now is as good a time as any! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Solari]

Whenever I get home from work... trying to get 2 or 3 hours an evening done, which still seems nowhere near enough to get stuff moving as quickly as I'd like! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[jojo]

Whenever I get home from work... trying to get 2 or 3 hours an evening done, which still seems nowhere near enough to get stuff moving as quickly as I'd like! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

SNAP!
my life is very predictable, get home at 5:15pm, cook dinner check forum posts, eat, practice from 7pm to 9 or 10pm bed by 11pm (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)
and like Solari 2 to 3 hours is not enough to get there as quickly as I'd like (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

[barry-clari]

Well, since I'm up ...... now is as good a time as any! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Ah, you're a morning practiser too (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) I find I work better practising then. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[jojo]

Well, since I'm up ...... now is as good a time as any! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Ah, you're a morning practiser too (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) I find I work better practising then. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

'one day' when I don't have to get up at 6am to commute to work every day, I want to try the 'joys' of practicing in the morning.
Right now I could not get up at 4am to do it before I go to work (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ph34r.gif)

[Mad Tom]

Piano:

Typical working day:

20 minutes, first thing in the morning (Electric piano) (stuff I was memorising the day before)
an hour at the practice rooms on my way home from work (etudes, scales, exercises)
Another 2 to 2.5 hours at the practice rooms after dinner, finishing at 11:30 (pieces under development, revision etc)
as often as not another hour on the electric piano after midnight (memorising, working out fingerings, ...)

Typical non-working day:

Practice rooms 13:00 to 17:30

[Dulciana]

Piano:

Typical working day:

20 minutes, first thing in the morning (Electric piano) (stuff I was memorising the day before)
an hour at the practice rooms on my way home from work (etudes, scales, exercises)
Another 2 to 2.5 hours at the practice rooms after dinner, finishing at 11:30 (pieces under development, revision etc)
as often as not another hour on the electric piano after midnight (memorising, working out fingerings, ...)

Typical non-working day:

Practice rooms 13:00 to 17:30

Glad to see you leave aside time for eating! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

I just do what I can when I can manage to find the time! Schedules don't work for me because the rest of life tends to throw hurdles in my way and then I get peeved off. I practise most when the priority is cleaning the house, and really enjoy the time then because I feel it's naughty. The more dishes there are in the kitchen, the longer I will practise for...

[jojo]

Piano:

Typical working day:

20 minutes, first thing in the morning (Electric piano) (stuff I was memorising the day before)
an hour at the practice rooms on my way home from work (etudes, scales, exercises)
Another 2 to 2.5 hours at the practice rooms after dinner, finishing at 11:30 (pieces under development, revision etc)
as often as not another hour on the electric piano after midnight (memorising, working out fingerings, ...)

Typical non-working day:

Practice rooms 13:00 to 17:30

Mad Tom, I take it the practice room and work are not far from home? and that the practice room is not too expensive to hire?

[Prins]

I practise most when the priority is cleaning the house, and really enjoy the time then because I feel it's naughty. The more dishes there are in the kitchen, the longer I will practise for...

That sounds so like me ...

Usually from 7 p.m. to 8.30 on working days. On other days, whenever I feel like it (which is is pretty much always). The main limitation is that I do not want to drive the neighbours crazy.


P.S. The surest way of making sure I get nothing done, is having a deadline or a schedule. When I was taking the only exam I have ever done (Gr 6), I was happily practicing my pieces (off and on), until I got the official exam date. In those circumstances I will play and explore anything and cannot focus what I should be doing.