Hi,

I currently take lessons one a month (4 weekly) on piano and I'm hoping soon to restart clarinet lessons too and I was wondering how best to space them in order to make best use of practice time etc.

Should I go piano, miss a week, clarinet, miss a week etc? Danger here is to practice clarinet for 2 weeks after a lesson and barely touch the piano and the converse after a piano lesson.

or

Should I try to have both lessons within a week or on conseccutive weeks in order to get both lessons' input in at the same time and then try to space the practice of both instruments out over the month. This way I'd avoid focussing strongly on the instrument where I'd had most recent input and not doing so much on the other.

I'm swinging towards the latter suggestion but wonder what other adult learners with more than one instrument find works best for them.

I do not have a fixed pattern to when I practise, I just grab what bits of time I can. Clarinet will be easier to practise on the occasions my son is in preschool and on weekends as it's a bit loud to play when the kids are in bed, although I have done evening practice on occassion.

The piano does not seem to disturb sleep in the same way, less piercing, so much of my piano practice time will be evenings.

I have a fortnightly piano lesson and a weekly clarinet lesson.

I started with 1/2 hour weekly lessons on piano (my 2nd instrument) but it all seemed to be moving very fast so I cut it back to 1/2 hour fortnightly.

I've just changed my clarinet lessons to one hour fortnightly instead of 1/2 hour weekly and I'm sure this will work out better.

The lessons are on alternate weeks

I have monthly piano lessons and weekly (half hour) harp lessons. On the harp I'm planning to change to an hour every fortnight shortly (once I'm a bit more secured with the techniques) and I think I'd prefer having both lessons the same week so I have an idea of how much needs to be done for each and can plan my practice accordingly.

I'm not really an adult learner, but thought I'd add my bit.

I would think of the two instruments as completely separate things and space out the lessons however best fits into your (and your teachers') timetable. If it were me, I might be more inclined to have lessons as evenly spread out as possible, so as not to end up with no spare time one week.

As far as practice goes, you'll probably find they end up about even. As long as you don't go for whole weeks without playing one of them, a bit of variation in the way your time is balanced between them won't really matter and will balance itself out over time.

Thanks for your input so far.

I realised that I might not have made it clear that I will have 1 piano and 1 clarinet lesson in a month if I can arrange this with my new clarinet teacher (to be). He's retired and now only teaches a few pupils so I don't think fitting me in will be an issue.

My clarinet lesson will be for about 3/4 hr (his reccommendation)

My piano lesson will be 30mins (+some duet time shared with oldnotes on some occasions)

I don't know if this really makes any difference to the advice you give....?

I think that the spacing will make all the difference to my sense of achievement/progress having played around with this for piano and now found something which works I don't want to spoil this by adding in the clarinet lessons. However, since getting my new clari in the summer I have been "itching" to have some input to start my journey of improvement on my clarinet.

I feel that if i have lessons every other week, alternating the instrument I'm inclined to practise Clarinet for the time immediately following my lesson and then focus on piano after my piano lesson or that I would practice like mad in the week before my lesson on each instrument and be a bit hit and miss on what I'd practice in between.

With a focus on both at the start of the month I feel I'd then better split my time.

As someone said it may not be the lesson spacing that really matters but putting aside dedicated practise time on each instrument if I could manage to do that. i.e. Tuesday and Friday (when my son's at preschool) and Sat/Sun for clarinet each week and then evenings for piano + some weekend time where it could be managed.

Just musing aloud here really but please feel free to comment on my thinking.

What works / doesn't work for you?

I have two sets of piano lessons (classical, jazz) and find it works best for me to have them alternate weeks where possible. Keeps on on my toes. I think if I had them both at the beginning of the month I might be tempted to slack off a bit and then really push it in the last week before the lesson. Also, sometimes I get stuck with things- if I had to wait a month to ask that might feel like a long time.

For me, having them both at the same time would defeat the object of the exercise. I found it quite stressful fitting in two lessons in one week. Now they're evenly spaced out, I feel a lot happier about both of them. But you may be different!

For me piano has priority and I've had to change how I fit in Clarinet as the need for more practice has arisen (I wonder how it got to an hour a day?).
Unlike you I don't have young children (it can get a bit frustrating when we have the granddaughter for the weekend even though she is a good child) and don't work full time.
I did stop piano lessons for a while when my own children were small as I got to the stage where I needed more practice than I was able to do. For one thing I don't function that well after 8pm and for another the piano was in the lounge then so it wasn't an option.

I would find less frequent piano lessons (fortnightly now) more stressful. I found the change to fortnightly difficult as to me it feels like the year is now only half as long.

That's certainly a possibility I suppose. However, i see my prospective clarinet teacher every week at band and if there was just a little question he could answer quite quickly I don't think he'd mind. He did say I'll see you every week here anyway so I don't thinks that's being too cheeky.

Piano lessons even at 1 a fortnight was feeling like a waste of money as I wasn't often able to practise anywhere near enough so what I might have "got" the week before was soon lost or I might have forgotten what really needed the practice by the time i had time to practise it. Within a month I've found enough practice time to work on things and really make a difference without feeling over pressurised. I am quite self-motivated which helps. So it's worked for me.

Slotting in clarinet too I think will take finding additional practice slots but I'm keen to pull myself back up to where I used to be (around grade 8 standard with a good tone even up in the altissimo register) and maybe to surpass this with time. I'm wanting to improve practically but not to necessarily take exams. I am also not taking exams on piano so this won't be an issue.

I think you are probably right skylark that both in one week will be too hectic and maybe not even possible but I could maybe do say clarinet lesson in week 1 - so main focus, piano lesson in week 2- so main focus and then have 2 more weeks for practice and reinforcement on both....

I guess it's something I'll have to try and then see if it works for me. I do however have reservations about equal spacing as I feel I'd do 2 weeks on one instrument and then 2 weeks on the other either in the run up to the lesson or immediately after it and I don't think that would work well at all. Thanks for the input. keep it coming if you've anything else to add.

P.S. I'm being a bit waffly at the moment but I'm feeling tired and a bit unfocussed (not just on music) as my son's full of cold and I think I'm getting it too. Trying a big dose of mind over matter here!!! I WILL NOT BE ILL!!!!!!

I'm really greedy and have a viola lesson (30 min) and a flute lesson (45 min) every week

Although I haven't planned this consciously, my practice sessions now seem to have fallen into a comfortable and effective pattern. Let's say...


Week 1 - Clarinet lesson

The first few days after the lesson, I concentrate on my clarinet pieces until I can see significant progress has been made. During this time, my piano gets "maintenance" practice.

In the second half of the week, the emphasis is on polishing piano homework in preparation for the forthcoming lesson, and my clarinet gets "maintenance" practice.


Week 2 - Piano lesson

The first few days after the lesson, I concentrate on my piano pieces until I can see significant progress has been made. During this time, my clarinet gets "maintenance" practice.

In the second half of the week, the emphasis is on polishing clarinet homework in preparation for the forthcoming lesson, and my piano gets "maintenance" practice.


The above rota results in a "wave" effect for each instrument, so neither instrument is either overdone or neglected - each has more, or less, prominence during the two week cycle. As I said, I didn't plan this, it's just the way which seems to be working for me



PS. I don't mean to imply that it's always as "neat" as this because sometimes it isn't, but as a general overall pattern, this is the routine I seem to have fallen into.

Thanks for sharing this Skylark. That would probably work for me but with each of your weeks spaced over a fortnight...

Or maybe the same as you with an extra couple of weeks at the end for consolidation if have lessons a week apart, not a fortnight.

Will sort something out and let you know how it goes....

I found this thread interesting. I currently have piano lessons once a fortnight (plus a weekly "freebie" with my mom) and have my 1st initial lesson on clarinet next Thursday. I had suggested when I contacted her I would like to do clarinet once a fortnight too so one week I would have piano, the next week clarinet.

Although I would love to have weekly lessons, work and OU studying often prevent the necessary practice. I know that I will get at least 3 or 4 practice sessions per instrument in per fortnight but if I were to have weekly lessons there would be some weeks where I wouldn't have been able to get any practice in

I am really excited about my impending clarinet lesson. It's been such a long time since I played the instrument. I already have my mom practising the grade 5 accompaniment on the piano (this years clarinet goal is to re-take grade 5 along with my piano goal of grade 3 by the end of the year assuming I pass my grade 2 in march that is)

Lois

I have a 1 hour piano lesson and a 1/2 hour flute (which often becomes an hour) every week. I used to drive straight from one to the other. Now the flute is on Thursday evening and the Piano on Friday afternoon. Provided they don't actually clash I don't see a problem.

As far as practice goes, mine is quite easy: harp morning, piano evening. How much I do of each depends on the available time I have in their respective slot, not how much time I spend on the other instrument. Weekends are for making up on whichever I deem I haven't practised "enough" during the preceding week.

In reference to your above post skylark, hope you don't mind me asking but how much practice time do you do? Do you practise both instruments EVERY day and for how long at a time? I don't think I'd get to practice both each day apart from occasionally - it'd be one or the other and honestly probably not every day even then...

I'm not sure I can be helpful on this as I don't really have a fixed routine. I don't necessarily practise both instruments every day, although sometimes I do. I never practise for a pre-fixed period of time - I practise until I'm satisfied with what progress I've made. It's never usually less than an hour, and often a lot more. Now that I'm friends with my clarinet again , I spent hours on it the other night I don't think I could be rigid and say "I'll do piano on a Monday, clarinet Tuesday" etc.

I think my "wave" pattern has evolved because I feel particularly inspired after whichever instrument I've just had a lesson on, and I feel inspired again as the time for the next lesson draws closer. In-between times, I'll have had a lesson on my other instrument, so on alternate weeks, my inspiration is led to the other instrument.

So it's not really a conscious choice which instrument I practice, it just so happens that my instinct has led to this particular pattern evolving. Sorry to sound a bit vague, but it's not something I've thought about until this thread! I'm a bit averse generally to doing the same thing at the same time week-in week-out (other than lessons ), so a fixed practice routine wouldn't really suit me

Thanks for being so open Skylark. This is actually refreshing to hear as I could not do a fixed practice schedule either and I think that, like you, I'd be inspired to practice the instrument I'd just had a lesson on till I felt I'd made progress and then that I'd need to "practise up" the pieces before my next lesson so a kind of "wave effect" would be my natural instinct too. It's nice to know that it works (for you at least)!!

Also i wonder if it's beneficial to have breaks in practice. I sometimes get so bogged down in what i am trying to achieve (especially on piano) that instead of it all coming together it falls apart instead I've been practising for some duets I've been playing with Oldnotes and for a while really struggled with a few bars of Trout. the more I practised the worse it got. After a break in practise I found it came together a lot more.

Not organised my lessons yet for a number of lessons but am hoping to speak to the lead clarinettist at band again this week or next (depending on if I get there tomorrow with the snow...) and see what I can sort out. I'll keep you all posted.