How Much Do You Practice Your Instrument?

[theBruiser500]

I just started playing the piano and am enjoying it immensly. I try to play about an hour a day, though it always seems like practicing more would be better and I never practice enough cause I have so much exciting awesome sheet music to learn. My piano teacher says she's happy to get 1/2 an hour a day from her students, none of her students (young peole) do an hour a day. She said 4 hours a day would be really good. That's a shitload of practicing.

So just curious how much do you practice your instrument, and how often? Some days I don't feel like practicing and only do it for 15 minutes but it seems like I should force myself to everyday so I get into the habit and will be happier in the long run.

[lucas9000]

"skin flute" joke in 5...4...3...

[ClaytonN]

I tried to read this thread for what it was and not crack up from all the subliminal and unintentional whacking off references, but I just couldn't.

[kipin]

The Russian exchange student I hosted junior year of highschool easily practiced the piano 6+ hours a day. He is also the best person I have ever heard play the piano.

It was fun hosting him.

[theBruiser500]

wow that is amazing. i am incredulous that somoene could do that, a highschool student nonetheless. how often did he take breaks in that 6 hours, was he really conentrating the whole time? oculd he play all of the hardest music around and just site read all moderately hard stuff?

[12ozLongneck]

You can accomplish quite a bit in 2 hours of practice per day.

[Luv2DriveTT]

[ QUOTE ]
I tried to read this thread for what it was and not crack up from all the subliminal and unintentional whacking off references, but I just couldn't.

[/ QUOTE ]

"That's a shitload of practicing."

TT /images/graemlins/club.gif

[wacki]

I used to play my guitar for as much as 20 hour stretches at a time. Those were rare, but they happened. The only songs I was never able to master were Van Halen's "Spanish Fly" (didn't have an acoustic which made it very hard) and a few by Steve Vai and Joe Satriani.

[kipin]

He probably took 10 minute breaks every hour or so, while he was here he learned one of Saint-Sains concerto's and played it from memory (like he did with all his music) at one of the high school orchestra's concerts.

He definitely could easily site read moderately hard stuff, and after practicing for a little while could play the hardest stuff.

[CrazyEyez]

[ QUOTE ]
The only songs I was never able to master were Van Halen's "Spanish Fly" (didn't have an acoustic which made it very hard) and a few by Steve Vai and Joe Satriani.

[/ QUOTE ]
Oh you couldn't get a few of Vai's and Satriani's? Jeez you suck. /images/graemlins/grin.gif Actually I'm in awe of you.
Now I have to go find my Passion and Warfare and Flying in a Blue Dream cassettes.

[astroglide]

playing a guitar for 20 hours straight just sounds queer

[theBruiser500]

[ QUOTE ]
I used to play my guitar for as much as 20 hour stretches at a time. Those were rare, but they happened. The only songs I was never able to master were Van Halen's "Spanish Fly" (didn't have an acoustic which made it very hard) and a few by Steve Vai and Joe Satriani.

[/ QUOTE ]

again, wow that is a lot. you must really love your guitar do you still keep at it? i kind of think you don't because you sound so busy...

[Eurotrash]

[ QUOTE ]
playing a guitar for 20 hours straight just sounds queer

[/ QUOTE ]


I bet he totally whales away at it like a ninja

[pearljam]

Stop playing, the opprotunity cost your losing here is to big for you.

[turnipmonster]

the key is consistency, at least for me. I've missed maybe 8-10 days of practice in the past 10 years. now I practice 3-5 hours a day, but until 2 years ago I practiced 6-8 not counting gigs. anything less than 2 hours and I don't really feel like I got anything done.

--turnipmonster

[whiskeytown]

guitar I almost never practice anymore - I've lost skills in that area -

my violin I'm pathetic - I might get an hr in over a couple days - not much - I should drop the lessons -

RB

[theBruiser500]

turnipmoster do you schedule a time for it everyday or do you just do it when you feell ike it

[wacki]

[ QUOTE ]
[again, wow that is a lot. you must really love your guitar do you still keep at it? i kind of think you don't because you sound so busy...

[/ QUOTE ]

I got burnt out so I quit for a while. Drinking and hanging out with friends became a priority when I was an undergrad. I will probably pick it up again when I have more time. Still, the only song I want to master that I haven't mastered is van halen's Spanish Fly. I need to buy an acoustic first.

[geormiet]

I just graduated with a masters degree in cello performance. Now I play poker for a living, and I practice like 20 minutes a day.

Sad.

[wacki]

[ QUOTE ]
playing a guitar for 20 hours straight just sounds queer

[/ QUOTE ]

True, but a month after I picked up my first guitar I could play all of Nirvana's songs and a good portion of the songs on Metallica's black album. I got very good very quickly. I tend to be a bit obsessive. I do things hardcore until I don't do them anymore. Sounds familiar doesn't it?

[Nick-Zack]

[ QUOTE ]

True, but a month after I picked up my first guitar I could play all of Nirvana's songs and a good portion of the songs on Metallica's black album. I got very good very quickly. I tend to be a bit obsessive. I do things hardcore until I don't do them anymore. Sounds familiar doesn't it?

[/ QUOTE ]

I should have started much earlier in life. I have been taking lessons for 6 months now am just starting to play a few chords.

[SmileyEH]

An hour is nothing danny. When I first started playing saxaphone I practiced about 5 hours a day for the first 6 months. If you really want to get good an hour a day isn't going to do much for you.

-SmileyEH

[turnipmonster]

not sure what you mean by make time. usually I get home from work and practice until midnight or so.
on days that I have a gig/rehearsal, I get up in the morning and practice before work. obviously I enjoy it alot also, but it's such a part of my life I can't imagine not doing it.

two books I think are really really really good that talk about practicing habits and strategies are "efforless mastery" by kenny werner and "the listening book" by w.a. mathieu. if you're at all interested in the theory behind modern music, I also highly recommend "the harmonic experience" by w.a. mathieu.

I think it's in general not a good idea to force yourself to spend time practicing. you should practice because you enjoy the act of playing music, not because you feel like you should have to. that said, most great musicians have put in tons of hours practicing and playing with other people, which is just as important for many styles of music.

--turnipmonster

[wacki]

Actually I take it back. It doesn't sound queer. When time allows I think I'll open up a bottle of Jack, a few 40's, crank up my Marshall to eleven, and play till I pass out.

I miss the good old days....

[theBruiser500]

just ordered the books turnip thanks. you guys that practice for many hours a day... do you spend most of your time on one piece perfecting it, working on a few pieces, maybe working on one piece and then goofing around practicing site reading many new pieces. any comments on that? a lot of ways to spend 5 or 6 hours practicing.

[astroglide]

[ QUOTE ]
Sounds familiar doesn't it?

[/ QUOTE ]

have i mentioned the pattern before? it is familiar, but 20 hours, come on.

[bernie]

I used to play guitar all the time. Now I play it to relax. Still average playing it every couple days or so. Some days I really get on a roll and wish I'd have hit record on my tape player.

Funny thing, at certain points, the more I practice the less creative I get(ruts). The less I practice the more creative, but lose some of the skill to pull some stuff off.

Make practice fun. If you're sick of doing scales or rudimentary exercises, play a song that incorporates them. Try to play something by ear. (easier on guitar than piano, but you might want to try it)

Or just say f*ck it and just play something off the cuff.

Lots of stuff you can do.

b

[wacki]

Follow your heart. Whatever you do work on something. It doesn't matter if it's finger dexterity, a song, etc. I would sit down with the sheet music and play it while listening to the music. I would always shred (very fast songs) for a while to warm up my fingers and build dexterity. Normally this took the first 10-15 minutes of practice as my normal routine was to play eruption 3-4 times before actually playing the guitar. Other times I would work on timing and listen to that damn metronome. That was my least favorite (and most neglected) thing to do. Mostly I just tried to learn how to play as many songs as possible.

My advice?

1) buy the sheet music
2) buy the CD
3) buy some aspirin
4) lock yourself in the room.

[wacki]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Sounds familiar doesn't it?

[/ QUOTE ]

have i mentioned the pattern before? it is familiar,

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, you did. I would of found the quote if the search engine didn't suck balls.

[ QUOTE ]
but 20 hours, come on.

[/ QUOTE ]

No regrets. I got good fast. I loved doing it. When I went on those binges I was having fun and was normally on a huge guitar learning hot streak. I would literally wake up and play till sunrise the next day. You play guitar. Haven't you ever just sat down, drank your ass off and played till you passed out?

P.S. On a side note, this was when I was still living at home and staying in my room was 1000x better than talking to my parents. Still, I will pull binges like this while programming. I don't see what is so hard for you to believe.

[TimM]

This thread makes me sad, since playing an instrument is something I used to want to do but never got around to it. Probably guitar would have been my choice.

[turnipmonster]

it's really dependent on the type of music you're playing. a classical musician's practice regimen will be completely different from a jazz musician's.

in general, except for classical music, I advise learning things by ear from records instead of from sheet music. sightreading is of course an important skill, but music is a game of the ear, and it's important to be able to hear something and play it back. music is first and foremost sound, the dots on the page are an attempt to approximate that sound.

I've met pianists who could read anything, but couldn't play "happy birthday" by ear. wtf?

fwiw, my practice routine is something like
scales/arpeggios warmup
sight singing
sight reading
learning a new tune (practice in all 12 keys, improvising over the changes etc)
some type of transcription (usually someone's solo)
--turnipmonster

[Jersey Nick]

[ QUOTE ]
it's really dependent on the type of music you're playing. a classical musician's practice regimen will be completely different from a jazz musician's.

[/ QUOTE ]
Usually in classical you're prepping for the next concert. If you haven't played the piece before then you are working on the tough parts and getting those down cold.
[ QUOTE ]
I've met pianists who could read anything, but couldn't play "happy birthday" by ear. wtf?

[/ QUOTE ]
I believe that playing by ear falls under the "gift" category. I taught myself to do it, but I always envied my buddies who could do it naturally.
[ QUOTE ]
fwiw, my practice routine is something like
scales/arpeggios warmup
sight singing
sight reading
learning a new tune (practice in all 12 keys, improvising over the changes etc)
some type of transcription (usually someone's solo)
--turnipmonster

[/ QUOTE ]
My classical warm-ups went
Slow scales & arpeggios
Etudes
Solos
Standard difficult orchestral passages
New orchestral passages
Etudes

When I was a music-major in college, 6 hours was routine. 5-10 minute break every hour. I gave up trying to go pro 10 years ago – it was turning very –EV. Between dad, husband, work, I’m lucky to pick it up ½ hr a month. My goal is to get back to ½ hr. a day.

[turnipmonster]

[ QUOTE ]

I believe that playing by ear falls under the "gift" category. I taught myself to do it, but I always envied my buddies who could do it naturally.

[/ QUOTE ]

it may or may not be, but it's certainly a skill that one can practice and improve on.

[Ghazban]

I got my master's in music and have been trying to win a major orchestra job for the past couple years. I play whatever worthwhile gigs come down the pipe but close to 100% of my practicing is aimed at the professional orchestral career path.

I play about 3-4 hours/day in multiple sessions and the breakdown is roughly:

--1 hour of calisthenics (high range, low range, tone, loud, soft, flexibility, agility-- nuts and bolts of playing)
--1 hour of some specific general area I'm trying to improve. Right now its endurance and sound quality in the high register so I spend about an hour a day playing standard etudes up an octave.
--The rest is usually split between orchestral excerpts and solo stuff. If I have a specific audition list to work on (I don't right now as there are no openings), its almost exclusively that list and no solo pieces. If I'm doing some sort of solo performance soon, its a lot less orchestral stuff and a lot more solo stuff.

I used to teach (high school and younger), too, but really didn't enjoy 95% of my students. Most of them were taking lessons because their parents wanted them to and never practiced or paid any attention to what I taught them. Having one that actually listened to what I said and did the things I recommended was a joy but all the ones just going through the motions was starting to kill my love of music.... my hourly rate is better playing poker anyway so I ditched the teaching.

[SmileyEH]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

I believe that playing by ear falls under the "gift" category. I taught myself to do it, but I always envied my buddies who could do it naturally.

[/ QUOTE ]

it may or may not be, but it's certainly a skill that one can practice and improve on.

[/ QUOTE ]

I thought I would get pretty serious playing jazz, but I could never really develop my ear well enough. It sucked, and I really envy anyone with that gift.

-SmileyEH

[Wintermute]

[ QUOTE ]
fwiw, my practice routine is something like
scales/arpeggios warmup
sight singing
sight reading
learning a new tune (practice in all 12 keys, improvising over the changes etc)
some type of transcription (usually someone's solo)


[/ QUOTE ]

Holy fcuk man. That is very impressive. As a trumpet player I could never come close to this type of workload because of physical limitations that you don't have as a pianist, but besides that... learning a tune in 12 keys & getting a feel for the changes in all 12? My jaw just hit the floor.

Also, a transcription of, say, a 2-chorus blues solo will take me a few hours. And there aren't any chords for a tpt solo.

Did you have to work hard to develop the skills/efficiency to get this routine packed into 5-6 hours or would you say it's an innate ability you were blessed with? I mean, I suppose over time learning a tune in all keys may become second nature for a pianist, but aren't some keys just a bitch to figure out (it's definitely that way for tpt & other instruments)?

[edtost]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
fwiw, my practice routine is something like
scales/arpeggios warmup
sight singing
sight reading
learning a new tune (practice in all 12 keys, improvising over the changes etc)
some type of transcription (usually someone's solo)


[/ QUOTE ]

Holy fcuk man. That is very impressive. As a trumpet player I could never come close to this type of workload because of physical limitations that you don't have as a pianist, but besides that... learning a tune in 12 keys & getting a feel for the changes in all 12? My jaw just hit the floor.

Also, a transcription of, say, a 2-chorus blues solo will take me a few hours. And there aren't any chords for a tpt solo.

Did you have to work hard to develop the skills/efficiency to get this routine packed into 5-6 hours or would you say it's an innate ability you were blessed with? I mean, I suppose over time learning a tune in all keys may become second nature for a pianist, but aren't some keys just a bitch to figure out (it's definitely that way for tpt & other instruments)?

[/ QUOTE ]

as a former trumpet player....the wierd keys get much easier if you practice in all of them and play lots of scales/arpeggios (since much improvisation borrows heavily from them, if you can play them all cold, the transcriptions become much easier)

[turnipmonster]

I'm not a pianist, I play guitar. since I do a fair amount of gigs accompanying singers, knowing most tunes in all 12 keys is a must. at least for melodies, I don't memorize anything so much as just hear it in my head in a different key if that makes sense. I don't have perfect pitch but do have very strong relative pitch.

as far as memorizing chords, I remember things by function, not name. so a tune like "the way you look tonight", is just a I vi ii V progression, one bar/change, then it goes to the IV chord with a ii-V, then back to the I. for the bridge it modulates up a minor 3rd. there's a 4 bar tag at the end, iii vi ii V. that's how I would remember that tune, and that information translates into any key.

--turnipmonster

[turnipmonster]

[ QUOTE ]
would you say it's an innate ability you were blessed with?

[/ QUOTE ]

I have a ton of natural drive and motivation and always have. also I really really want to be a good musician. other than a pretty good ear and compositional sense I don't feel I have any natural gifts other than the ability to work very very hard at music. I am certainly not gifted physically in any way, I have to work extremely hard every single day on my technique in general.

--turnipmonster

[bdk3clash]

[ QUOTE ]
I am certainly not gifted physically in any way...

[/ QUOTE ]
Such a lie. What about your freakishly long fingers?

[theBruiser500]

thanks for all the responses guys. i feel motivated to play a lot more piano now, i could easily lengthen my practice from 1 hour a day to 2 hours and still enjoy it (most days) i just didn't realize people practiced their instruments so much. turnipmonster too bad you didn't go to vegas recently would have been cool meeting you.

[sfer]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I am certainly not gifted physically in any way...

[/ QUOTE ]
Such a lie. What about your freakishly long fingers?

[/ QUOTE ]

I guess they reached your prostate after all.

[Phat Mack]

So much depends on what you are practicing. Are you working through a difficult problem? Are you working on mechanics or muscle memory? If you're doing something difficult, sometimes three ten-minute sessions are more effective than a three-hour stretch, but if you are just repeating exercises you can go on for hours.

Be atuned to how well you are concentrating. Once your concentration slips, after five minutes or five hours, you are just practicing bad habits and it's time to quit.

[bdk3clash]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I am certainly not gifted physically in any way...

[/ QUOTE ]
Such a lie. What about your freakishly long fingers?

[/ QUOTE ]

I guess they reached your prostate after all.

[/ QUOTE ]
Whatever stubby.