When do you fit your practice in? The best time for me is usually straight after work - either before dinner (but then it's not always a good session if I'm feeling hungry) or just after I've eaten.

Hi Carys, mainly in the evening 7.30 to 8.30/9.00. On the weekends I try for a morning , afternoon and evening session. Since June I had been getting up at 6 to get in 45 min before I have to get ready for work for my grade 4 on 3 July. Now that the exam is over I have been getting up most mornings to practice grade 5 scales. I can't really get back to sleep once I wake up, and my wife bless her could sleep through the 1812 overture. I find the morning session really helpful

When I practice, i always end up doing an hour, and it could be anytime between 5 pm to 9pm(so as not to disturb the neighbors).

Having said that, i have my lessons at home every other Wednesday from 7-8 pm.

Sometimes, if i feel like doing more, i start using the mute.

QUOTE (amati @ Jul 9 2004, 09:53 PM)

Since June I had been getting up at 6 to get in 45 min before I have to get ready for work for my grade 4 on 3 July. Now that the exam is over I have been getting up most mornings to practice grade 5 scales. I can't really get back to sleep once I wake up, and my wife bless her could sleep through the 1812 overture. I find the morning session really helpful

Now that is what I call dedication! Would you call yourself a 'morning person' usually? I really find it hard getting up in the morning.

QUOTE (tootsie @ Jul 9 2004, 09:54 PM)

When I practice, i always end up doing an hour, and it could be anytime between 5 pm to 9pm(so as not to disturb the neighbors). Having said that, i have my lessons at home every other Wednesday from 7-8 pm. Sometimes, if i feel like doing more, i start using the mute.

I live in a flat, so I'm always conscious of the neighbours too. The flat above me is empty at the moment though, so it's been great to be able to practice without fear of anyone hearing me

I'm really lucky in that I don't need to worry about the neighbours - they are too far away! I live next to the secondary school playing fields, so I have to compete with the PE teacher, who seems to have a very loud voice, and one or twice the school samba band have been sent to the bottom of the field for practise - presuambly they are too noisy in school!

I usually do about 45 mins to an hour in the evening, if I'm lucky, and about half an hour in the morning. If I'm not working late into the evenings too, I might also get in an hour of theory....

But I'd like to do more, of course!

There was a time when I first started 10 years ago and when the children were young that I had to practise early in the evening so that I did not disturb them. Now they both play so I get my turn when they have done their practice sessions! So it's usually for about one hour between 9 pm and 10pm. I like to watch the 10'clock news! But at the weekend it is often later and sometimes I get carried away until 11 or 11.30pm! Luckily I do not have to worry about next door neighbours but beware..I have been told by other people in the street that they can hear the piano when they walk past the house.. ! So you never know who is eavesdropping! As I have said before, I am sometimes quite tired in the evenings, especially if I am home late from work but I still do a bit. I do try to play every day even if it is only a few minutes.

The Summer is always a problem because piano practice vies with the garden !

QUOTE (Silver pianist @ Jul 10 2004, 12:08 AM)

The Summer is always a problem because piano practice vies with the garden !

LOL, not with the weather being as it at the moment though!

QUOTE (carys @ Jul 9 2004, 08:58 PM)

[Now that is what I call dedication! Would you call yourself a 'morning person' usually? I really find it hard getting up in the morning.

Yes carys, once I've washed the sleep out of my eyes. Plus the shortage of time helps me focus. Evening practice is okay as I can use it to relax from the day's work, but i do prefer the morning.

I'm very fortunate (well I think so) in that I am a lady of leisure (housewife) at the moment so I practise during the day when the children are at school. I try to do several hours practice a day as the time may come when I may have to go back to work. School holidays soon.

Totally sympathise with you! I'm preparing for my diploma exam next week, have just read the thread in the general section about the long hours of practise some of them are doing and wondering if my 8-10 hours a week is bare faced cheek... It's that whole 40-50 hours of work a week thing that's the problem...
My strategy is to try and get home for 7pm, grab a quick drink and a snack and get a good hour in before dinner. Then maybe another another half an hour. Of course it all depends on a supportive other half to do the cooking! Weekends I'll try and fit an hour first thing in the morning and then a couple of shorter sessions during the day.
Also find that a couple of gym sessions a week help to get general energy levels up.
Looking forward to a couple of weeks of loafing once the exam is done!

I love playing late at night, often after midnight (i'm a night owl ), but i've recently got new neighbours. They know about my piano playing and have said 'no problem', but I'm very conscious of them being next door (I'm in a semi).

However, I've recently resolved this (hopefully) by getting my sis to help me drag the (heavy!) furniture around and move the piano to the outside wall, so I'm less worried about waking the neighbours adjoining. Now though, I'm worried about the air brick in the wall behind the piano letting out the sounds to the outside world...!

About time for practice... I've just taken 4 days off work to give myself a 'piano holiday'. Been doing pieces, loads of scales and lots of sight reading from the Paul Harris books. ( P.S. My teacher laughs at me for the number of books I buy on sight reading - with the mantra 'just sight-read some music for goodness sake!!').

Wish I could be more consistent with practice. It varies day to day from hours on end to nothing. Ah well...

Great to have this new forum!

I try to keep to a regular practice time between 5.30/6.00 - 7.00 pm and sometimes have additional practice at the weekend if I'm not too busy.

It's always hard juggling between work, family and passion for music eh ? I work full time, have a family (extra work !), and find it hard sometimes to find the time. When the exams are looming, (with my clarinet) I practice at least 2h a day, but for the piano, (no exams as yet - my relaxation instrument), I play every lunch time for an hour, (often burning what I was hoping to consume rapidly), and if I'm on my own in the evening I play, no matter what hour !! (should I appreciate that there are not music lovers everywhere ?), it is not always easy because my piano is in the only communal room we have (even though it's 15m x 5m), it can be very unsociable - hence one has to give in to other boring passtimes liked by others like television !

QUOTE

About time for practice... I've just taken 4 days off work to give myself a 'piano holiday'.

Oohhhh, the luxury of it! Lucky you. When I take time off work my wife suggests to be (very tactfully, I must say, and not altogether seriously) that there is more to life than piano and suggests all those household and DIY chores that need attention! But I rarely listen...!

Have a lovely 4 days playing. I love it when I am alone in the house and can play and play.... Sheer bliss!

Like most of you I have work/study/house/garden/children etc etc to fit into the day but rarely does a day go by when I dont 'tickle the ivories'!!!
Sometimes I say to the boys as we are about to go out 'go and get your shoes on' and I will quickly play the piano while they do !
None of my friends have a piano so if I go to stay with them I really miss playing.

On average I must practise about an hour a day, but this tends to be split up a bit, with a few days with 2 - 2.5 hrs and a few with only half an hr. I honestly don't miss the spare time I *lose* by playing the piano, and have quite a few other interests including cycling, hill walking and fishing.

I quite often decide to sit down with a cup of tea and read the paper for an hour, only to find myself playing the piano 5 mins later and my cup of tea stone cold an hour later. My other trick is 10 mins before going to bed, which turns into an hour.

I thnik that the interesting question is what did I do with the spare time that I *must* have had before I started playing piano seven years ago???

Really can't answer that one.

Stumac and Mrs Beethoven

Hear, hear!

Exactly the same with me! It amazes my family how many opportunities (excuses) I find for playing the piano. I have to share the piano with my two children and, practise-shy as they are (to put it mildly), they never think to turf me off, regarding it as a good excuse for them NOT to do some practice! "Dad, you always said you need to practise twice as long as we do"!!

I tend to sit down after dinner and the other half has the tV on whilst i practice...not so bad on a guitar as it is a quiet instrument,. The main problem is I now have to tell him to turnnit down as I ahve a few very tricky harmonics in grade 6 peices....just passed my grade 5
Trumpet I practice whenever I can but if it ngets too late it is a problem. I have only just gone back to that as we converted the garage so the neighbours won't hear me.....passers by probably do