Hi all. I was chatting with a friend of mine regarding my daily schedule and thought others might find it helpful if I posted here. Naturally, most people have their own practise routine, but for those curious about another's daily drill, here we go...

As an adult beginner in one's 30s, this is my daily schedule. Sometimes I vary it a bit on a given day, and I do skip an occasional day here-and-there (aren't we all guilty of that sometimes? ), but more or less I try to stick to it. Bear in mind that I started from 'square one' with only a smattering of lessons when I was younger, so I feel compelled to drill the basics a bit more than someone with a little more training:

Weekly
60 mins lesson using (i) Alfred All-in-One Adult booklet and (ii) ABRSM Grade 1 pieces

Daily
At the Piano

10 mins: Scales (C, G, D, F majors and A, D minors)
5-10 mins: Hanon Nos. 1 and 2
30 mins: Chosen pieces for Grade 1 exam (2010)
10 mins: Homework/review pieces from my lesson (e.g. usually reinforcing specifics like chords, or such)
60 minutes at the piano

Theory
30 mins: Theory reading; review or new material.... either from a hardcopy of book (on my train commute) or various websites (if free time avail on computer)

Lastly, I help my kids with their piano practise--varies daily, but usually an additional 15 mins or so, but most of their pieces or below my level as they are very young.

Hope that helps other beginner's or anyone who is curious about others daily rituals. I'm not sure if it sounds rigorous or simply common, but it's the optimum daily routine I strive for, but being only human... I do miss some components sometimes...

Cheers,
Ezra

Pfoof, that sounds utterly daunting: well done for managing all that, is all I can say!
I restarted playing my recorders in my late thirties, and managed no sort of routine at all that I can identify....

In general, I'd manage between three and five practice sessions per week. I'd be looking at what my teacher had covered with me in my last lesson, which in the early stages included the techniques needed to improve my articulation and give my fingers a neater approach - I already had some basic ones under my belt, and knew how to read music etc, having done a reasonable amount of music as a kid. Once my teacher suggested a grade, I'd add the scales to the beginning of the session, and work on small sections of pieces, because there was never more than about an hour available to me in one go.

Tricky bits of pieces I covered with patch practice, working on maybe one or two bars, or even only two intervals, two or three times for a few minutes whilst cooking or waiting for a child to put on shoes to go out.

Occasionally in the evening, I'd get a short burst of time to play with my husband accompanying me, though this would often be interrupted by the need to sort something out for the kids - preventing minor riots, putting them back to bed again, that sort of thing...

Theory I only brushed up on the stuff I needed to know to get through aurals, again grabbing the odd moment here or there to remind myself of chord structures and cadences.

Aural I did in the car on the way to work, listening to everything and anything to spot beats, listen for different lines of music, cadences, style of music etc etc. Oh, and also worked on tonguing in time to what I was listening to....

All very opportunistic, and definitely not timetabled or in any way drilled, but curiously enough, it still got me there. I'm full of admiration for people who can structure their music to such a degree within the rest of life; I for one would never manage that.

Wow, that sounds a lot more organised than me! And yes, it does sound a bit rigorous .

At best I probably manage about 5-6 sessions per week, ideally at least an hour in duration, but often have to make do with fewer / shorter sessions. I have to say I don't notice the time passing , so I'd struggle to allocate a time breakdown, but in terms of what I actually do:

- warm-up with scales and arpeggios (and as an aside, I'm finding these SOOO difficult to memorise: I never realised previously that when learning piano as a child I was relying on the visual pattern of the piano keyboard to prompt me for the next note!)

- long tones [ie - long sustained single notes, sometimes with cresc / decresc for interest, to concentrate on embouchure, tone quality, breath control. Not relevant for pianists, but wind players will be familiar!]

- a bit (emphasis on the "bit" ) of tonguing practice on single notes

- technical exercises [to help with fingering speed and co-ordination of finger movements and tonguing - in theory scales and arps ought to do this, but the memory failures already alluded to mean that I need the printed notes if I'm to make any real progress ]

- core pieces: whether these be exam pieces, other solos, jazz improvs - basically, whatever my teacher has told me to focus on for this week

- if I have time I sometimes wind down at the end with something I just enjoy playing (especially necessary if my core pieces are seriously annoying / frustrating me in any way!)

Lessons - I just have 30 mins per week (school term-times only). Used to be fortnightly, but I found that wasn't really frequent enough.

I've thought about trying to fit in "patch" practice, but don't have a sax stand, and even if I did, my practice room doubles as the kids' playroom, and I have nightmare visions about my sax being knocked over by a child (or cat) passing by at speed. So given the time taken to put the instrument together and then to dismantle and clean it afterwards, I tend instead to stick with longer sessions.

Theory - passed Grade 5 theory many, many moons ago and have (frankly) forgotten a lot of it. However, eldest son is now learning theory so I am managing to kill two birds with one stone by checking his work and revising my own knowledge at the same time

I am rigidly disciplined and practise according to a "weekly plan" I prepare every Saturday or Sunday to cover what I need to do over a week and what my teacher assigns. I do over 2hrs' practice per day and make good progress in this way. I do all the scales every day (parallel and contrary motion) plus the arpeggios and also practise some staccato, some doubling notes (like: C-D-C-D-E-F-E-F ... etc., which helps assimilate them) and also with varying rhythms (i.e. two slow notes and two fast ones, like quaver - quaver - semiquaver - semiquaver - etc; or the opposite, two fast ones and two slow, like semiquaver - semiquaver -quaver - quaver) as this serves to speed them up and I focus on a particular series (i,e, all the D scales, major, minor two types, contrary motion and arpeggios) every 5 or so days for greater precision. I also devote some 10 minutes to sight-reading, which is by far my weakest point. If I could do without working I'd probably spend more time at the piano, as I find it very gratifying ... when it's not so damn frustrating, that is!
I devote a lot of time to technique (a little less than half my practice time, which may not be very wise) and study the pieces quite gradually. I vary the order in which I do these things but I do them (almost) all every day

Wow, you're all so disciplined.

I try to do half an hour of oboe practice and an hour of piano every day. In relality this happens about 5 times a week, but sometimes I manage it every day - depends on whether I'm working late and what else is happening.

Within each session, the structure is about the same:

-scales or exercises (e.g. Hanon for piano) for about 10 mins as a warm up

- work on one piece - play through once then work on small sections at a time

- move onto something else and work in the same way (depending on what I'm working on at any given time, but usually at least two pieces are on the go)

It can also vary before exams, when I might make more of a point of the scales or include some sightreading. Or after exams, when I'll take a break form scales for a bit.

Lessons - I used to have two each week (one oboe, one piano). Now I've gone down to one lesson a week (alternating between the two instruments)

Theory - Passed Grade 5 and went out immediately in a burst of enthusiasm to buy Grade 6 books. Every now and then I take them out and try to get to grips with it, but always end up giving up. I really will tackle it properly one day...

Slightly off-topic here, but the replies so far made me wonder what the gender distribution was of the rigorous practice vs fit-it-in-when-you-can brigade? Or more particularly, what the distribution is between those who count running a household amongst their major commitments, compared with those whose work always takes them out of the house?

I'm female, but go out to work 4 days a week. Fridays are ostensibly for catching up on housework, though I usually sneak in an hour's practising and let the dust pile up...

I also work 4 days a week, but 2 days 2 at home, so I am able to sneak in 5 mins here and there thoughout the day. Friday too is my day off (ha!) which I used to use to do housework but more often than not piano practise comes first and then housework if i can fit it in!

I dont have a totally rigid practise, but I always ensure I do a bit of everything: sightreading, scales, working on pieces, technique practise and playing lots of pre grade 1 pieces by attempting sight reading.

I also have apps and gadgets on my ipod that I play and practise on on the commute into work.

I also go out to work four days, and am responsible for the co-ordination of my household, even if I do draft in family members to help...that was why I wondered .

I hear you! I work fulltime as a doctor, have children and pretty much run the house albeit in a fairly chaotic and undomesticated fashion. I take practice opportunities wherever I can find them and may sometimes have to settle for two short sessions in a day rather than one long session. The actual time will vary but I aim for daily practice of a minimum of 20 minutes, longer if at all possible. It isn't always possible to meet my aims though and I have learned to be accepting of what is realistic and not beat myself up over missed sessions or those when I am just too shattered to be productive.

Schedule? Schedule?!


(Seemed like a good chance to try out that icon!)

I'm a male and a home worker and I participate in whatever housework there is to do, though the cleaning woman does almost everything. But I do the ironing and my wife does the cooking ... while my children get busy putting everything in a mess, and they are superb at that!
If I had to do more housework, I'd probably leave that for the anti-social hours when I cannot practise but I believe it's a matter of will-power, time management and determination plus passion ... or maybe this comes first.

I dispute that - I think it is a matter of nature. I have passion and obsession for my music, also willpower, but I also have a sense of my obligations in the rest of my life, and choose to balance things accordingly. Having no fixed schedule has not actually done my music so very much harm - the time I can get to play has to fit into little sections of the day, but I still managed grades 7,8, plus ATCL and LTCL in about five years of lessons. I do have gaps in my education, musically, but I have practised efficiently and with focus on my particular aims, and it pays off.

I don't neglect the rest of my commitments (family, job, etc.) but I strive to fit in the amount of practice I claim is necessary. I haven't got a fixed schedule either but I like to reach a total amount. I believe it all depends on how happy you feel with what you practise and with how much you practise.
I believe some people enjoy practising a few minutes every day. In my case, I feel more satisfied if I practise at least 2 hours and see the progress achieved and, when and if I can, even three or four hours. In my case, I believe it has to do with how long I put off music as an adolescent and then as a young man before finally getting to do serious practice as a mature adult and ABRSM has helped me resume it.

As an adult, finding time to practise is definitely challenging. Although I laid out my ideal daily regiment, it does not always happen. Some days it's less, others it is more. Most of the time, for me, it seems to be about a) prioritization and b) squeezing in pockets of time if I can't get 60 minutes in one go.

I work full-time and have a 45-minute train commute in morning and evening (I use this time for music theory reading, silent sight-reading quizzes, etc.).

I have a spouse and five young kids at home. They each have demands and needs, so of course, getting my own practise time is tricky. If I were a bachelor with my own place, I have this dream that I would practice for 4 hours each night and still get a full night's sleep ... of course, then I wouldn't have all my wonderful mayhem.... min you, all of us live in a three-bedroom flat in New York city

On the flip side though, I watch nearly ZERO television in the evenings. Once I'm done reading books to the kids, and of course then settling them down for another 45 minutes (how many new verses of lullaby songs have you all made up over the years) , then I need to unload the dishwasher, etc. You know the drill...

At 9:00pm (finally!) it would be much, much easier to plop down on the sofa and see what is on television for a couple hours. Like most of us adults, I'm quite tired from a day at work as well as dealing with kids for the past few hours.... Instead, that's when I remind myself of my priorities.

Anyway, just my tuppence worth.

Cheers

I don't work now and I do minimal housework as we have a cleaning lady. It sounds like I've got all the time in the world to practise but I have ME so if I do too much one day, I can't do as much the next.

I started with 15 mins practice a day but it's crept up to more like half an hour now. It's not as much as I see many of you do but I'm still seeing progress. I guess I'll get to the point where I'm good enough to need much more and I won't be able to do it but I'll worry about that when it happens.

I do long notes, scales, arpeggios, then work on the pieces my teacher has set. Then I play anything I can manage for a while.

It's working for me at the moment. I find if I'm stuck on a piece it's worth persevering up to a point. Then I leave it and come back to it and eventually I get there.

Much empathy - I have the same problem

i practise somewhere between 1 and 2 hours a day. most the time, i do it when hubby is home... he works shiftwork, so he is offten home during the day... he likes to work in the garden, and takes the kids out there while I practise. Also, he will cook the meal (i prepare everything so all he has to do is put it on) and I practise then. When he is on the late shift, I wait until the kids are asleep, and practie then. I try and practise 7 days a week, but sometimes because I'm busy with Choir and church on Sunday, I'm too tired to do it on Sundays.

I just re-started on my lessons on Sundays after a 2-month break. I missed the registration deadline for theory, hence will give up on theory preparation for now, since my free time is less than 2 hours every workday evening.

Now I have to focus on exam preparation for piano G8. My new plan is:

i) 1-hour practice on 3 weeknights, 1 piece on each night
ii) 2-to-3-hour practice on Saturday, for all pieces and scales

So much to learn, so little time. I really have to improve on concentration to make the most out of my short practices.

I have a big messy house, two largely grown messy sons and a business. I have no schedule at all. My only rule is to practice each day. Sometimes 5 minutes of scales, sometimes hours, depending on time available and how into it I feel when I pick up the violin. It works for me. Oh and I'm doing my grade 5 theory in November so I read theory books on trains, in bed, in waiting rooms - whenever I have a bit of time.

I try to practise every day after work but it isn't always possible since I have to travel from time to time for my job.

I try to stick to this schedule :
45mn-1hour : flute
45mn-1hour : viola.
If I can, I squeeze a little time to practise the traverso flute or I shift with the time due for the modern flute.
In the end, I tend to follow my schedule 3/4 days out of 7.

In that period of time, I practise scales for 20 mn and after that I practise one or two difficult parts in two of the pieces I play at the moment. In the end, I play the full pieces once or twice.