Today was an absolut first. I usually practice 1 1/2 hours a day. And due to the multifamily home rules I can only play 2 hours a day and it has to be in one shot. Additionally, I have to adhere the rest hours (night time and siesta). I timed it. I either play from 10:30 to 12:00 am or from 3:00 to 4:30 pm. Today, for the first time, the 1 1/2 hours were to short. I couldn't believe it. It didn't even feel like I had played at all. Flute - breathing issues and whatsoever were just not an issue today. As much as I would like, I can't just yet stretch practice time to 2 hours. I am only doing grade 3 and 4 in the next school term. (Although I am in reality grade 6). And, geeez, what am I to do when I reach grade 6 or 8? What's it then? 4 hours a day needed vs. 2 hours granted? I would move but this appartment is just perfect - besides the time issues.

I think that at grade 3-4 30-45 minutes a day is often enough.
By grade 8 then I'd say that 2 hours a day was fine. I'm not a fast learner and found I needed about 2 hours at grade 8.
Remember that it's not so much quantity as quality counts to a great extent.

one and a half hours for grade three sounds a bit excessive, do you really need to do that much practice?

The 1 1/2 hrs are hardly enough. I am doing scales for Grade 3 and 4, 6 pieces (Grade 3 and 4) and a couple of pieces which are in the books and which I like to practice. I just started on the (my) full "exam program". And when I had to stop today I haven't had even time to do one of the "free" pieces which I would have liked to play - and usually do as a bonus for practicing. I felt a little deprived of a treat today, although I enjoy playing the exam pieces as well. A lot.

sbhoa, the quality is why it takes me so long each day. And that takes at least 10-15 minutes a piece each day. And 10 x 7 is already 70 minutes out of 90. So, somehow, it probably has taken me slightly longer than 10 minutes per item today. Thus, no bonus pieces.

And yes, I need the practice. I want to get good as fast as possible. You would not believe what I have achieved within the last 1 1/2 yrs. with all that practice.

A couple of things....

Do you need to do both grade 3 and 4 next term? If you are grade 6, why take 3 and 4 at all? Just wondering

45 minutes is plenty of time for g4 (at least it was for me). 90 minutes should easily be enough. You could try not practising everything every day, but making some sort of rota where you practise different things one day, and then others the day after etc

I decided today, I will increase - for the time being - practice time by 10 minutes. That should be enough to do some "free" pieces. I did a Koehler piece today "Farewell". It is just so beautiful. And the Bach piece which is in the exam book for Grade 4.

babybird, I have gaps. And by doing the exams I close them on my way to my actual level. Did me a great job already. And I certainly have a hard time with the 3rd octava right now. Just not as fluid as I wish it to be. And some notes come hardly at all. And that just is level 3 and 4.

Right now, there are simply to many sources for errors in my exam pieces. And each day I work on one of those for each piece. The less errors I make the more time I have again for my "free stuff".

I sympathise with you on the 3rd octave notes

Just make sure you don't go overboard with the practice...I found myself practicing my gr5 pieces for my AS performance alongside my gr6 practical pieces (don't ask why i didn't do gr6 pieces for the AS), and cus i'd not played the gr5 pieces for ages (despite not doing the exam) I found I was making mistakes that I didn't used to make, so I split it up and practiced those bits over and over.
Basically the week before my AS my teacher told me to back off, lock the music away in a box and don't even think of touching it again until 2days max beforehand cus I'd basically practiced making mistakes in those places, a classic case of over practicing he said, and to back off it and just do scales and fun stuff for a few days.

Worked a treat, come the exam, I didn't slip up at all.

*note, i'm not saying practice is bad...just some kinds of practice lol

I sympathise with the 3rd octave, but once you get it cracked it's ace...I had terrible trouble with F# in that octave, still do sometimes, and the B above it (thankfully pretty much sorted by our resident Bagpuss)

I simply don't believe the "you don't need to do lots of practice so long as it is quality practice" line.

If your practice is rubbish then no matter how much of it you do you won't improve. You may even get worse.

To improve quickly you need both quality practice AND lots of it, and the better you get the more practice time you need if you are to continue to improve. If you just want to maintain the level you've reached that is a different matter and it takes far less practice.

I practice at the piano about 4 hours or more on most days, and it often seems like no time at all. It certainly is never enough to get through everything I would like to do. If I did not have to earn money to live I'd happily do eight hours a day.

As for over-practicing, there is practicing when you are too tired, or cannot concentrate because you have other things on your mind, or practicing beyond the point where you have started to do yourself physical damage, but I don't think there is over-practising that in itself makes you play your pieces worse instead of better. So long as your practice is done while your mind and body are fresh enough I don't think you can practice too much. But almost any piece will benefit from being put aside for a while to let the subconscious mind work its magic on it.

how are you grade 6 standard after 1 1/2 years? is it your first instrument?

To rephrase...
If you do have less time than you'd like then quality is especially important (not that it isn't generally) and if you have enough time then it's not going to be very effective if the quality is lacking.

I agree, Mad Tom. Sometimes, when I am tired or something else is up, I have difficulties to concentrate. Sometimes only on a certain piece. When that happens I either quit for the day or do something completely different (preferably Klezmer) as not to ruin the progress I have made by a bad practice day. But fully alert, time goes by like nothing. I wish I was allowed 4 hours.

Macha, I can hardly tell you, how long I actually play. I started when I was 16 or 17 and had lessons I guess for 4 or 5 years. It really is hard to tell now. It might even have been less. And than the flute lay most of the time in the closet, although, occassionally, I picked it up again from time to time. But I never came above a certain level. I had a terrible teacher. I know that now, since I now have a genius whatsoever teacher. In one lesson with her I have learned more than in the years with that other guy.

Actually, I agree with fluterocks' teacher as well. Putting the exam pieces aside for a while is actually a great thing. That's one of the reasons I am working currently so hard on all the pieces. But instead of just a couple of days I would like to have a couple of months or at least weeks to put the pieces aside and go along with my grade 6 practices. Yesterday or so I played a piece I haven't looked at in about a year and which I have practiced quite a bit back then. It was georgeous. I did not even make one mistake. And the articulation rocked!

Aside from my ranting not having enough practice time, I certainly decided on a strategy for the 3rd ocatve. Firstly, I will do scales in the 3rd ONLY for an extra 5 minutes of my practice time. And the "free part" of my practice time i will look if I can find pieces with loads of 3rd octave moves, not just the occasional note along the road. The larger the variety of different movements with the fingering there should do some of the trick.