I am interested in how much time (genuine) people spend and how they allocate the time. I am preparing for Grade 6 and basically get in about an hour a day, Mon-Fri. Is that enough, too much? And how much will I need to do for 7 and 8? If I have an hour, I do half technique/scales and half pieces.

I try to practice every day even if it's only doing scales for 5 minutes. Your practicing time sounds pretty balanced.
I think as you start progressing to higher grades more practice will be needed.. i think its important that people dont start feeling like they HAVE to practice otherwise you just won't enjoy it.
I wish there were more hours in the day then maybe i could do more!

I used to find that i could do all my practise in about 20 mins (at about grade 1) but now i find that i need at least an hour, if not more to go through everything that i have to do. But I'm only doing grade 4/5 so i'd asume that at about grade 6 you need about an hour and a half. It all depends on how serious you are. If you're really bothered about improving quickly then you need to practise more, but otherwise i wouldn't worry.

Hope this helps

I'm hoping to do grade 5 clarinet later this year and I practice for about 1hr each day. Ideally I like to do half an hour in the morning and half an hour in the evening but this depends on my other committments. I would like to play for much longer as it's what I love doing. The theory is another matter ..... it takes me ages because I can't get my head round it , so I ignore it for a week and then have to spend a whole evening puzzling it all out.

At around grade 8 I find that an hour and a half is probably minimum needed.
Even with this I fell I am leaving out lots.. but after that length of time I am really not concentrating enough to do any 'real' practice.
I try to get in another 30 minutes to an hour later in the day if I can.

I think i did about half an hours practise every day when preparing for grade 6 but towards the xam i did alot more ie the week before when i still had lots of scales to learn but my xam was a week and half after my higher xams finished so before that i didnt hav alot of time to work on it, still managed to get 130!!

Now tht im working towards gr8 i try to do an hour to an hour and a half but lately thats been difficult with school work, family and such like but i find practise very relaxing just at the moment i find it hard to motivte myself to practise!!

I did three hours on Sunday,Monday, and Tuesday. I normally do an hour or more though on a normal day.

I try to practice at least half an hr a day, more if i have more time.

xxx

I always suggest to my students the following mimimum practise times (violin/viola) per day

grade 1 - 20 minutes
grade 2 - 25 minutes
grade 3 - 25 minutes
grade 4 - 30 minutes
grade 5 - 45 minutes
grade 6 - 1 hour
grade 7 - 1 hour 30 minutes
grade 8 - 2 hours

After that it is really up to the individual. If you are planning to go to music college to further your study then I would say get used to doing at least 2 hours practise per day before you go...as you are expected to do several hours of practise per day at degree level. I had friends at music college with me who did up to 8 hours per day, but personally I could never find quite the same number of hours!

Anyway - it's personal preference at the end of the day, but I guess the more quality practise you do, the better you'll get at your instrument!

Happy practise :-)

I feel you can never have too much practise (unless you play the same piece for an hour...) but make sure, after long practise sessions you have a relaxing session! I become completely out of it if i practise and hour for my piano, an hour for my clarinet, and hour for my guitar and an hour for my singing! and also those who are still in school/college will also need to make sure music does not get in the way of studying or homework! Heh!

I would recommend:
Grades 0-2=20 minutes at least 4 times a week.
Grades 3-4=Half an hour daily.
Grades 5-6=Three quarters of an hour practical, one quarter of an hour looking at theory (grade 5) daily (theory every other day)
Grade 7-8=An hour each day.

Not as much as I'd like to. About 30 mins a day, at the most. Plus I'm learning to play 3 instruments, so I have to take turns.

Sometimes I find I can go a week without practicing at all, if I've had a busy week or am feeling unmotivated. I find that preparing for exams are a real motivator.

I do Grade 8 piano and just begun the violin (just begun as in 3 weeks).

For the piano, I find with just doing two pieces for the piano (haven't started on the third piece yet) I do an hour at least each day for them. This is mainly because I play each piece through at least 5-8 times, while going through the trickier sections a lot more. It's because I want to get very familiar with the pieces and so that I really play, "get into" it and don't have to concentrate on every note, worrying about getting them right. On good days, I might get it all done in 45 mins, on bad days....

As for scales, with the utter mountain of them to go through, I divided them up into four groups and practice them in the morning before I leave the house (about an hour or so). Over the weekend, I do more. About 2 hours on scales and 2-3 hours on pieces, mostly due to my lesson being on Sat and I practice before it just to feel confident enough in the lesson, and after it to add extra sections or work on corrections and suggestions given during the lesson.

As for the violin, I am fitting in scales (Grade 2 syllabus) and some beginner pieces which take about an hour each weekday, and at weekends about 2 hours.

Mind you, one of the reasons why I can spend anything from 2 - 5 hours on the piano is because I stopped for 9 years and only took it up a little over a month ago so I am most likely working off the rust as well! Still, I love both instruments and can't get off them once I am on them. Time-wise, I cough it up by cutting on a lot of TV, shopping and computer time. I sometimes can't do as much as I want/need to though. But I find if you run through some scales or a piece for even ten mins on a day you are literally swamped, it helps.

Richi, its not how long you practice, but WHAT you accomplish during practice. Sometimes five minutes is more qualitatively productive that 1 hour, because of what your practice goal is. Before each session determine what you want to achieve; it may be fingering or tounging at difficult spots, chord changes, timing or whatever. The point is to make each session accomplish a definite purpose, that way its more rewarding, less pressure for time and most importantly, enjoyable. A normal session for me is usually 1 hr. even if its one line or afew bars, sometimes this hour includes theory also.

I try my best to practise 1 and a half hour per day at night as I am a very late piano starter (now Grade 4) and busy with my day job.

When I was doing exams, I tried to do at least 30 minutes practice a week (from grade 5 until 8, didn't fail any of them)... Nowadays I do about 5 minutes practice, on average, a week, but play more since I'm teaching all the time.

Hi

I practise the piano and clarinet at least 45 mins each nearly every week day,and more on weekends. I also play other instruments just for fun like flute and guitar, I usually play them for 1 hour on Saturday and Sunday. I am grade 5 on piano and 5/6 on clarinet

Nat

I donno how much I practice....
Sometimes 30 minutes-1 hour 15 minutes. Depends on my mood.

Doing Grade 7 piano.

I've got my grade 8 piano in two weeks, and for about the last three weeks have been getting up early to do an hour of practice before I go to school. (not sure what the neighbours think though).

I would have to say, there is no point forcing yourself to do, an hour, or two hours solid for example, you begin to lose concentration and get bored and dont go over little mistakes that you make.
I've also found that a good way to break up a long period of practice is to pick an old fun piece that I played years ago (i got my old grade 5 pieces out the other day...oh the memories!) and have a play through that, then go back to the scales!!

I try to do 30 mins on each instrument each day, but sometimes all the homework I get at school gets in the way of my practice. i practice for about an hour on the violin at weekends, though.

I probably averaged an hour a day practice for grade eight, which I spent on pieces and scales. During the week I'd normally do an hour at college in a free lesson, beginning with scales and then doing all three pieces once and choosing one to focus on, and then more practice when I got home which usually included sight reading as well. I usually managed to practice on one of the weekend days too.

I kept the preparation for the aural tests separate to my other practice, and all my A-level music work also benefitted these. Since I was playing my grade eight pieces for my A-level recital I carried on doing an hour a day after my grade eight, but cut down on the scales which I just did a couple of times a week, and increased the sight reading, since the A-level recital has (had?) three pieces of sight reading compared to one for grade eight. The time I spent on scales prior to grade eight went on working on the improvisation for the A-level recital instead.

Because I play the flute, part of my practice regime was dictated by the time I could spend with my accompanist. I had to be careful to make sure I devoted as much time to my unaccompanied piece, but it looks like I got the balance right.

Don't feel you have to stick to a certain regime, because of any of it doesn't work e.g. you unexpectedly have something else to do, you'll feel bad, whereas if you know how much practice you want to do in a week you know you can average that, even if the distribution isn't what you expect.

I wish I had time to do that much practice now...

i do about an hour a day but but i have to divide the time to fit in my piano, electric guitar and bass guitar

Just like to say thanks for all the replies. I had a fear everyone was going to say four hours a day, but it's interesting how most people seem to practise to a similar level. Good luck everyone.

Heya
I find it really hard to do all the practise I want to do every day - if anyone has some magic way of fitting more hours into a day I'd be so grateful!
I'm working for my gcse's aswell but I think I might have payed more attention to music than is really balanced for gcse time. Which is NOT good thing
Well it seemed like it until now!

I'm also a bit confused that I don't seem to be panicing about them >gcse's< yet. More about grade 8 recorder and 7 piano.

Anyhoo... for practising, I always mean to get up at 6 and practise clarinet until 7. usually this happens but ocasionally not
I've now done grade 8 clari and flute and soon recorders so I'm concentrating on recorder and clari atm as clari is kinda "first study" if you like.
I always do far more piano practise than planned! I don't know why but if I start I find it difficult to stop and get on with some school work or even other practising
Which would be a good thing but I really should be paying a bit more attention to coursework as next week is the deadline week.
Eep!

So I'd say on the average weekday I do 1hr minimum on clari and recs atm, 30mins fl, and could be ANYthing on piano! Weekends get what they get lol. Sometimes I have much more time but more often I'm somewhere doing something musical or slaving over coursework!

Ok, I've rambled

This probably wasn't of any use at all...
If anyone is really amazing at sorting out time please help me!

=0)

Mostly 2 hours a day.Sunday and Sat will be 3 hours.Try to practise everyday.

i usually pick my violin up everyday and get going, and as i actually enjoy it it isn't a chore at all!
because of this i find i can go 45minutes or even an hour before even stopping to look at my watch!
i plan to play for five minutes then do something else but each day it turns into a fully fledged practise!
I think this is a good way to be though.
Now im working towards grade 8 i will probably have to force myself to practise the scales etc. as i always get carried away on the pieces.
happy practising! x
ps. i know scales are very very useful (as i hav found out in orchestras!) but they dont half spoil ure enthusiasm when coming up to an exam dont they!
...sigh...

I did my Grade Eight Horn exam last March and got a distinction by doing about 3 hours a week practice, which worked out at about half an hour to 40 minutes a day, 5 or 6 days a week. I used to think that once you reached Grade Eight, you knew everything there was to know about playing your instrument, but now I've realised that I know nothing and I need to work soooo hard at my horn playing! I'm doing my diploma this June and since about September I've been trying to fit in about 12 hours a week, nearly 2 hours a day. It's difficult, but I have to do it. Whereas before I used to skip all the proper warm-up and technical exercises, now I spend about 40 minutes on them before I even go near my pieces. I agree with whoever said that it's the quality, not the quantity of practice that counts though. Particularly with brass instruments, your lips get tired quite quickly so you can't waste time messing around and playing stuff that's not necessary. I think that everyone should practise the amount that feels right for them, and not get hung up on whether they should be doing 10 hours a day at Grade 8 and 20 million hours a day if you want to go to music college!!!!

I'm doing Grade 5 voice but practice less than my piano and flute.i practice piano for about an hour a day, but not all at once.i practice flute for between 1 and 2 hours and i'm doing my grade 3 in june but i've only been playing 2 and a half months so more practice is better for that.
Naomi xxxx

Lol..you guys practice a lot!! I used to practice like 15 min a day for Grade 8 piano (30 min a day before the exam). But I managed to scratch pass, and now I don't need to do scales

i practice between an hour to two hours per day but only for piano. i almost never practice violin. hee! wellll...i should...but i still haven't found that...passionate interest for it.

for me, it's my practice conditions that affect the amount of time I practice. I like practicing in school's music rooms or just pianos around the school cos I'm not likely to be distracted by the t.v or phone or refridgerator! plus factor is of course that all music rooms are air-conditioned!!

I feel practice isn't about quantity. It's more about quality.

Of course, before your practice, you should choose only certain areas to work on, and perhaps run through the whole piece once or twice. However, it is always important to work on your ''rusty'' parts and improve them.

It's useless just repeating over and over again when you're not gonna get any part(s) fixed up first.

My teacher says even 10 minutes of practice can produce results, That is of course, if the effort and concentration is all in it.

For grade 8, I do about 1/2 to 1 hour each time. But usually, I head to my piano a few times a day. So by the end of the day, I kinda get quite a lot of time on the piano.

And for scales, split them up. Don't run through all at once, it gets kinda draggy/boring after a while.

personally, it's not about how much you practice, but more like "perfect practice" each time as a friend of mine once said.

but, generally, i practice at least 4 hrs a day. i try to get 2 hrs in the morning before i get to school (ppl here don't mind me practicing at 4 in the morning) and 2 hrs. when i get home (6 or 7-ish). most of the times, i spend more time studying scales, pieces, and such b/c it's not just about playing but incorporating the things into your mind . . .

basically, i drive my family crazy w/ all the hrs i spend practicing.

I practise for about three hours a day- i spend about fifteen minutes working through my grade 8 pieces- (never playing them all of the way through- just working on tricky sections), then i spend about ten minutes on my scales- i wrote them all on pieces of paper and put them in a box- every day i play a random ten scales + any i know need more work. I spend the rest of the time playing whatever i want (mainly debussy) because it helps with my sight reading.

QUOTE (aznxboy1228 @ Apr 14 2004, 05:57 AM)

Lol..you guys practice a lot!! I used to practice like 15 min a day for Grade 8 piano (30 min a day before the exam). But I managed to scratch pass, and now I don't need to do scales

Why don't you need to do scales anymore? Having Grade 8 at piano doesn't mean that you know all there is to know about the technical demands of the piano. Post Grade 8 shouldn't you be practicing ALL your scales in double thirds, double sixths, double octaves etc... or do you already know all of these?

I would also imagine that virtuoso pianists still practice their scales and other demanding technical exercises (that us mere mortals can only dream about) daily.

The AB "Manual of Scales, Broken Chords and Arpeggios" is very good you can probably order it from this web site.


Get practicing!!!!!

I practise as much as I can.

I always try to do at least 1/2 hour each day but I usually do about an hour.

Some days I just don't have time at all being a taxi service for 3 young children !

Fiona

hey that's a good idea about scales. all i do is write them on paper and when i practice, i just say "Eb major" or whatever scale.

hi!

i practice as much as i can. it's quite difficult really, playing trumpet it's a very loud instrument if you know what i mean!

i get alot of practise from concerts and stuff so.... that's how i sort of progress i think!

jaime xx

hi ya... i normally practise for an hour after school each day...but it's hard... as it's impossible for me to practice all instruments just in one evening, as i've got some other practices after school... therefore, i spend most of my weekend practising my instruments..

liebe_klavier

QUOTE (Fiona @ Apr 15 2004, 03:24 PM)

Some days I just don't have time at all being a taxi service for 3 young children !  :lol:

Hmmmm I know what you mean especially over the easter holidays its been "Mum's Taxis" and "Mum's Cafe" most of the time.

Still back to school on Monday.

I don't hav that much time 2 practise cause i do loads o' other stuff + I hav got a virus at the momement lyk glandular fever - it leaves me feeling exhausted all the time. I'm meant 2 b doin grade 5 + theory soon.

xxx

Eiikk!!... hmmm I'm picking pieces for grade 8 now... I passed my grade 7!! yippie!! cant say anything about grade 8 practise... but i've been trying my two pieces i've acctually said i'm doing... about 45 mins a day... pretty slack.

Grade 7... up coming to my exam i was practising 1hr a day I guess... i dunno... but 1hr's heaps to me

i practice about 1/2 an hour - 45 minutes scales take up ages! i take my pieces in bits and practice the not so good bits, then play them through