I'm not going to do a poll.... because I'd put all the wrong categories on. Personally, I get away with as little practice as possible. i.e... no more than 30 mins a week per instrument, sometimes none at all *Gasp*. Piano - more difficult to gauge since I just sit down and mess around for a while and don't count it as 'practising', since I don't have lessons.

How long do you spend per day on one instrument, or altogether? Does anyone have any hints for less willing practisers... apart from "just get on with it"?

I like to try and get in an hours clarinet practice a day, though often enough I haven't enough tme. Oboe I play until my lip gives in (About 15 min at the moment!) Other instruments as and when needed.

Don't see practicing as a chore - try to see it as something fun to do. Can be difficult, but if you have a goal in mind, ie. a certain piece played well/concert/exam then you can say 'if I practice I cna do this'. After a while it just becomes habit. I was once a serial non practicer!

I practice about 45 minutes piano and 45 minutes violin every single day and if I could have it my way I'd spend a LOT more as I just LOVE playing my instruments, I even love playing scales! they sound so beautiful! (I know I am crazy ). I really don't understand those who don't practice or don't like practicing, to me it can only be if you were forced to learn the instrument, but I know I am probably just narrow minded and that's probably not always the case with everyone.
Jo

Well said, Rosemary.

It helps if you practice in an efficient way... if you practise and don't see results, it can be very depressing and feel like a chore. If you can practice for 10 minutes or an hour or however much time and can hear how much better you sound/feel more comfortable with the piece, then it feels like a worthwhile effort and will encourage you to practice more.

In answer to the main question: at the moment - not enough! in my case! I used to manage between an hour and on a good day two hours on the flute and at least 30 minutes on piano/whatever other time I could spare on other things. At the moment I am out of the habit and have not been well so it's been very little for ages and it shows

I play

Piano
30 mins - 40 mins per day

Oboe
sometimes 30 mins, sometimes 10 mins. Depends on what homework there is to do.

Violin
Not much recently. About 20 mins per week

Argh! I feel bad...

I think the biggest problem for me is having other distractions around me. But NO WAY was I forced into music! I just find the whole process of playing in a band far more exhilarating than playing on your own time and time again, the same stuff. I love sight-reading, and I find the most difficult thing to be 'perfecting' a piece.

This is always a tricky one, and I do think it goes back to the old "quality not quantity" adage! I find that I practise is a very differnt way now than i ever did when I was at college; then I had an aim of 4 hours a day and once that was in the bag then I was off the hook. Now, I would love to have 4 hours a day to devote to practise, but in real terms that just isn't going to happen, so I have to make the best of the time I have available. I find that working to a goal for each practise session is very helpful, and advise my pupils to do this also.

Well Miss Jones, you must be doing something right to have achieved your grades so do not despair I can see how it would be more exhilarating playing in a band and I think I will understand it even more one day when I will join an amateur orchestra, but I still love my practice

I usually just play until I feel that I don't need to play anymore that evening (where I see that I'm too tired etc for anymore real progress to be made. That usually ends up being an hour to an hour and a half every day, but then 30 mins is taken up just by doing a seventh of my scales! (I split my scales up day by day so that I know I've covered them in the week before my lesson, and so that I don't have loads and loads to learn on one particular day)

Oh dear.

My composition teacher requires 2 hours piano practice a day & half an hour of singing.

I also do 1 hour of flute, and half an hour of oboe. Actual composition and theory work is on top of that. And so is play.

That's not very much really - when you consider there's 24 hours in a day.

Yes but do you sleep/eat/wash/clean the house/go shopping and work/go to school?

sleep, eat, clean & work - sneekydad shops and takes children to school.

hardly fair division of labour, you do the music and get sneekydad to do the rest....

I disagree.. Cleaning is a MASSIVE chore, right? It IS. I'd rather shop than clean...

I'd rather shop than clean; but only if it involved shoes!




If it's got anything to do with food, then I'd pick the cleaning, I hate shopping for food, I never know what to buy!

UGH to shopping. I like having new clothes, but.... I hate trying them on, etc. it's so much hassle... and my friends always drag me out shopping and all over the town etc. and it is so painful... literally "shopping til you drop" And I don't see what it is about shoes that girls like so much (not that I'm not a girl) but... yeah... they're only SHOES.

I hate shoe shopping - would rather go food shopping! I have awkward feet and shoes never fit

In an ideal world I would do an hour of each instrument, but with 6 of them I would be there for half the day. I normally aim for:
-Flute - 1 hour
-Violin - 30mins
-Piccolo - 30mins
-Piano - 30mins
-Recorders -15-20mins for both.

Still nearly 3 hours, but I do some of that at school which helps.

I play around 15 minutes a day... two times a week

aprox 4 hours a day - 6 days a week ........... i have too much teaching on thursdays, followed by orchestra, so i'm playing 7 days a week, but only serious practice on 6

How do you all get on when you have to "go out for the day" does your first thought fly to your instrument and do you think "oh no, when am i going to practice" or am i the only saddo in the forum

Wow - I've worked out that if I sleep for 8 hours, spend an hour getting ready for work, an hour travelling to work, 9 hours at work and an hour getting home that gives me 4 hours on weekday evenings to do everything else I need to do, including cooking, eating, any housework I can't leave to the weekends, and fairly importantly a little bit of chillout time. My aim is to do an hour's practise at least 3 evenings a week. On a good week I might manage 4, on a bad week 2. At the weekend depending on how intense my Saturday classes are in terms of playing (up to 3 hrs worth) I might do an hour on Saturday or maybe none. On Sunday I try and fit a couple of hours in and play both alto and tenor saxes. Ideally I'd do more, I'd like to do an hour each on alto and tenor every day, I'm sure I'd make much more progress if I did, but being realistic it's not going to happen.

I tend to have one big practice session at the weekend - like 2-3 hours, broken up into hour chunks to save my lip - but if i can i'll do a half hour or two during the week. college seems to take up most of my time though

it's half term at the moment though so every day's a weekend practice day

I play about 45 min a day at the moment in preparation for grade 8. Can't manage to do any more (uni is obviously time-consuming!) and also don't want my housemates to get completely fed up!

Well...

I try to play clarinet once a day... But I don't always achieve this! I practise drums about once a month, and piano even less!

I rehearse with my band once a week...

But mostly, I play in performances and studio sessions more than I practise these days!

Yep, If i go out and know i won't be back till late I do think about my instruments. Not that I practice a massively vast amount - At the moment it's been about 40 mins most days on cello (but friday's orchestra) and then it's hard to gauge piano - i probably play for about 1hour, 2 maybe more on a good day but how much is true practice? Half, if that ! I just love flicking through books and fiddling about with stuff . I'm also teaching myself jazz piano at the moment so that takes up time.

Like some of the others, I love to practise. I feel jittery until I've had my 'fix' and practised. I don't feel I'm satiated till I've practised till I've had enough.

I used to spend 2 hours a day practising. Now, I squeeze it in when I can - no more than 30 mins a day if I'm lucky. It's depressing how quickly 30 min passes.

I know I only practice a total of 1 1/2 to 2 hours per day, but I am a 'saddo' like you
we had a catastrophe at work on sunday (I was supposed to leave work at 8pm and left at almost midnight!), by the time I got home I collapsed on the bed, but I collapsed thinking 'OH NO I haven't practiced violin today! I really want to practice violin...' and with that though I fell asleep!
If for whatever reason I can't practice I am sad about it (I don't let it ruin my life but I do miss it).
so...there's 2 of us

When I'm trying to organise a night out with friends and it inevitably leads to diaries being studied carefully until a Thursday evening 2 months away looks as though it might just work for everybody I have been known to say "Oh, I can't make that day" when what I mean is that due to something else being in the diary for that week adding a night out would mean that potentially available nights to practise would be too low.

I'm the same.
I'm not sure that my husband understands fully that I really do prefer at least a half of each day free to fit in practice.

I took my clarinet to work as I was on standby and didn't want to waste 8 hours. After 2 hours of chatting I took it out and played one piece through. I was then told - Take your trumpet and go home!
I should try it more often!

I'll give you a demerit in your homework diary for that!!!

Violinia

Not as much as I'd like to At the moment I'm making sure I do half an hour of both each day but actually also no more than that as I have schoolwork Weekends I try to do and hour of both each day and harp I just do when I have time, which hasn't been for... the last few months

I think it very much depends on what you're trying to achieve - I've been practicing over an hour a day of piano sightreading for a few months (we live near a music library) and it has really made a big difference. My teacher has gone away for two weeks and has left me a big pile of history books to look at - they have written history with example scores and analysis - I find I can play most of it as sightreading (albeit at half speed) - this wouldn't have been possible without my recent mamoth practice sessions and I would have struggled to get through it all in the time.

Me, too. I only feel comfortable in dreadfully old shoes.

I aim to practise between 9 and 10 every weekday morning when I have the house to myself and total quiet. Then I also play everything between 6 and 7 most weekday evenings along with a host of other stuff for my kids.

Sundays I only play as opposed to practise - and at the mo with the kids off I am so missing practising as much as i am used too .. I wish I could do more but my family already say I seem to live at the piano.

The hardest thing I find is to use the piano for my harmony as I am not used to that, so I do harmony practise on my keyboards when the kids are in bed - with headphones so hubby can watch telly

I usually manage at least an hour each day and if pupils are absent from lessons and I haven't filled the space I usually sing then. If I have accompaniments to learn for exams I work longer at those, and for any concert music. After leaving full time music college training many years ago I spent several hours each day studying; I used to start at eight in the morning with harmony and counterpoint exs, have a break for breakfast at half past nine, then work at the piano for a couple of hours. At midday I would have a snack lunch and then carry on practising, either singing or playing recorders until three o'clock. I used to give lessons from either half past three or four until half past seven or eight and then used to do another hour of practice. I used to travel to London once a week or fortnight for lessons with a couple of top pros and then felt suitably prepared to take my fellowship dip. I used to play the cello too but made the decision to retire from this in my early twenties. Singing, recorders and keyboard work was quite enough! That was probably the time of my life when I worked hardest, and certainly longest hours. How some of you young forumites manage to get where you are on such little work is beyond me. I could not have done it. I know that it depends on quality and not quantity but I needed several hours each week to get to that standard and to stay there..

never thought of practising in the cancelled spots between lessons ..

thats usually brew time

or forums time!
I often respond to "I can't come to my lesson" phone calls with a cheery - that's ok! (thinking - yay I can go on the forums!)

I find that If I don't practice my violin for a week, it hurts to hold my bow proporly for 10 mins! Maybe a full size is too big.

I tend to practise my piano between 5-8 hours a day, but not all in one go, I break it up, as I am at music college that seems to be the time length that most pianists practise for.

yes,
as a music student I practice for about 3 hours a day other wise my flute teacher punishes me with a very boring flute lesson (this is my other flute teacher, not David). Clarinet suffers and goes with perhaps only 30 mins a day plus odd bits when I teach - does that count? Piano, hardly ever and I havn't taken my recorders out of the case for quite a few months!

In my own experience I tend to find leaving a couple of days out in the week not practising works. It gives the lip a rest. Generally my practises are quite good, so a day or two missed is okay.