It's-a one of these!

What's a matta you?

HEY!

(sorry, someone had to!)

Gotta no respect!

I don't think I've ever practiced every day, even on the lead up to my grade 8 (which is probably why I only just passed!). I would love to, but I don't have the time or energy. Looking back, if I had practiced every day instead of hardly at all like I did for a while, I think I would be rather good by now!

(I am actually Italian - not sure about you guys though? )

I was waiting for someone to make a post like that!

I'm about as exotic as Eastenders, I'm afraid. My nan was Peruvian, that's about it!

I once knew a chap whose mother was from Iceland, and whose father was born in Cuba - so he was an ice-cube!

Back on topic - I practice sporadically at the piano - and I'm still waiting for the phone call from a prospective teacher to arrange first lesson.

I'm half English. The other half's nationality is Indonesian, but ethnically Chinese.

I practise the piano sometimes for ages and ages, sometimes for only about five minutes before I go to school (if I'm really busy with clubs or homework after school). Over a week the average is probably about 30-45 minutes per day. I probably should do more but I have a ridiculously busy life with about ten different clubs and activities, plus homework and (this coming year) the dreaded coursework! AND clarinet and bassoon practice (which more often than not doesn't happen, and I only play them in ensembles! ).

Usually I do an average of around 3 - 4 hours a day, 5 hours if you include "mental practice", that is just sitting studying the score, possibly with recordings, and figuring out fingerings, bowings, etc.

Piano Grade 8
Flute Grade 6
erm about half and hour on each a day (If I'm lucky very embarrased to admit this!)

When I was unemployed I managed to practise for about 2-3 hours a day and I improved very rapidly! (I also had a new piano) My teacher couldn't believe how well I played. Now I'm working again, I don't get to do as much put I'm trying to get at least an hour in every day if possible, as I really want to take grade 7 next year.
Practise does indeed make perfect as they say!

From everything I have read by or about great pianists the OPTIMUM amount of practice for a pianist while they are improving and developing their practical technique seems to be about 4 hours a day, plus or minus an hour. Some do more - especially over a short period if they have to learn new material at short notice. Few do less - unless they are already established and are maintaining their skills and repertoire, rather than increasing them.

More than 4 hours is hard to sustain over a long period - even for a full-time musician - never mind someone that earns a living in some other field. Also practicing when tired has less benefit, and can even take you backwards. Two hours a day still seems enough for an adult learner to make speedy progress. Less than that, is still enough for continuing improvement, but much more slowly. And most importantly, what you do and how you do it are the first things to get right. Otherwise no amount of time invested is going to have the results you want.

I practice for four hours a day - alongside a full time job - and have now maintained that level of work for two years ... but I am nuts, and I am frantically trying to compensate for 20+ years of relative neglect - It took the first year just to get back to something like my former standard - and a year further on there is still a very long way to go.

Sometimes the practice is done in one big session, with short breaks. Sometimes in several shorter spells throughout the day. In either case it breaks down roughly as follows:

Technical work (scales, arpeggios, finger exercises, etudes): 1 to 1.5 hours
New pieces: 1.5 to 2 hours hours (of which at least a half hour purely on memorization)
Revision: One hour. Making sure I can still play things. Repairing and improving as necessary. Recently learned stuff needs more frequent revision than anything that has been in memory for a long time.

I think a similar broad balance would work well for most ambitious pianists.

I usually do about 2 hours a day during the week, but this can sometimes be as little as an hour, or as much as 3 because of sixth form homework etc. At the weekend, I usually do about 4 hours practise a day, sometimes more depending on the volume of homework.

I think this is probably something that a lot of people neglect. I've started making a habit of playing through early stuff I learned to make sure I can still play it. It's amazing how quickly the standard of your pieces can deteriorate if you don't play them for a while...

I got sick to death of playing a certain piece and left it until a week before a student concert to start playing it again. I took it for granted that I'd be able to play it fine off the bat, even after a few months of neglect... wrong! Cue having to practice it many more times than I'd have liked at home before it was listenable again...

Typically there is a sense of moving on once you've got a piece to a decent standard. I guess the trick is to ask yourself, "do I want this as a permanent fixture in my repertoire?", and if so, to ensure that you play it at least say, once a week?

Sorry, waffling on a bit.

I agree entirely, I have decided that as a beginner I should have say 6 x 1 page pieces as repetoire or 3 x 2 page pieces. I thinks that's enough for me. If I don't practice them every day they slip. Other people may not have to play them as frequently but I do (and they are far from perfect anyway). The worst thing is having to go back to the music when mistakes start slipping into the repetoire pieces!
I still practice about 10 hours a week... if I didn,t, progress would be painfully slow. It means that many household chores just don't get done even with my hubby doing loads! I am lucky he is so supportive.

I was discussing this with someone last night and we worked out that this could become very time consuming and would probably have to go down to once a fortnight in time (rotating pieces each week)... I've managed to get three 5-page pieces committed to memory which add up to about 16 minutes, and I've just stupidly started on another three pieces which are 3, 7 and 10 pages long each (the longer ones aren't that hard, fortunately)

That adds up to a fair bit of practice time to keep them fresh... I expect I'll be verging on a hermit's lifestyle in a few years time at this rate..

My piano repertoire is actually non-existant. There's probably at least 10 pieces that I could get back to performable standard, if I was given a couple of weeks' notice, but nothing I could play now if put on the spot. My recorder repertoire is better though, there's a lot more pieces I could play with a lot less practice, but I probably still wouldn't want to perform them in any more than a very informal situation without being able to go through them a couple of times first.

Sarah Your answer interests me! Is that through choice or that the pieces would take too long to memorise etc etc. I cant think of any other reason but would be interested to know.

I don't know really, I guess it's mainly because I probably never quite learn things for long enough for them to be firmly lodged in my brain (I usually fully memorise pieces while I'm learning them, so it's not that they're not memorisable). I like to pick and choose and am more likely to spend hours perfecting new pieces and sight-reading random stuff than keeping older ones up to standard. Every now and then, I play through old pieces but, by that time, they've generally got to the point where they're not really there any more. Because piano pieces have sooo many notes, it would take me a fair while to get them all back into my head to be able to play a piece securely again.

I suppose the difference with recorder is that there's only one line of music and, given that I'm a good sight-reader and will already have got over the particular technical difficulties of a piece if I learned it before, I can pretty much play an old piece straight off, although I wouldn't really want to perform it without a good few run-throughs beforehand.

I like to have a few decent pieces polished at all times though, because there usually comes a time where there is a piano handy and someone says, "go on, play something!". I'd feel like a twonk if I couldn't play anything reasonably good at the drop of a hat...

I need to do that! Any time someone says, "Go on Rach, give us a tune!" My mind goes completely blank and I always end up playing Fur Elise because it's the only thing I can remember on the spot haha.

My teacher has mentioned learning this but it's so overplayed that I'm no longer keen on it. I'd rather learn pieces that are vaguely familiar to most people (and which they are less likely to notice mistakes in!)

I bashed out Top Cat! from the Grade 3 Syllabus last time I was in a pub with a piano and that went down well Think I'll keep that one!

I agree entirely and I only started because my youngest was trying to play a bit of it and so sat down to help and got sucked in! Mind you when I heard Valentina Lisitsa play it her version is so beautiful I thought I give it a go (the first and well known part anyway, don't think I am quite ready for the rest of it yet.) It would be a doddle for you Solari.

Playing it is probably not that hard, but playing it well requires a lot of control, which I don't have at the moment. Beethoven will already be turning in his grave from me murdering his pieces in the name of learning so I'll spare him any more torture!

I can play the first part from memory before the chords and change of theme but I just don't feel motivated enough to learn it. I'll stick to struggling with the Schubert MM3 and the other pieces for the moment

I bashed out Top Cat! from the Grade 3 Syllabus last time I was in a pub with a piano and that went down well Think I'll keep that one!
[/quote]

I was planning on learning that one for just that reason!

Piano

Planning to sit Grade 5 in session B 2010

1 hour each day, but 90 minutes before exams


Cello

Sitting Grade 2 in November

30 minutes each day

This thread needs a poll. Can anyone do that?

I only have a few pieces that I can play at the drop of a hat, without music. Always a couple that I'm learning at that time, but also a jazzy piece from the G6 syllabus, which always goes down well and two of the Bach 2-part inventions, one of my brother's G4 pieces, and the Solfegietto in C minor, though I can't play that so well.

I've also been thinking about learning the Mozart 'alla turca' (turkish march) from the Sonata in A major, because everyone knows it, but it's very hard and I can't play in octaves Think I'll stick with the Debussy, which is hard as well, but at least it's a bit slower

I'm just getting back into the oboe. I am aiming to fit in at least 30 mins a day if I possibly can. On days when I have the luxury of time I do more - but at the moment I am still limited by how long my lip lasts. On some days I can do 45-50 minutes - today only managed 35 minutes. Hopefully better tomorrow.