Last week, one of my high school students asked, “how long should I be practicing each day?” The students in my college class do a time sheet assignment where they track how much time they spend practicing in rehearsals, in lessons, sleeping, sitting down, and various other things. I’m interested in how much time they are playing or singing during any given day, with the understanding that rehearsals/lessons/concerts change things. The results vary from 1–2 hours up to 5–6 hours per day.
We are not machines. We are human beings and do not have unlimited repetitions available. We need to be executing mindful practice, not mindless repetition. I do not give a time when students ask me. Let’s say the student has the idea that they need to practice 3 hours every day. What happens if they mentally check out after hour 2 and are mindlessly just cranking through things? They are not making any meaningful progress and could be setting themselves up for injury. When the brain isn’t engaged, you’re not really accomplishing anything and you’re not monitoring the quality of your movement.
Instead, I ask them how much they are doing and are they getting everything done in that amount of time? Do they have a written practice plan? Do they know how much time they should be practicing scales, arpeggios, and harmonics? Do they know where the hard parts are in the music that they are working on? They all know where these spots are… they are the ones that they don’t want to play for the teacher! Do they understand that they don’t have to play the entire piece every time they practice it? If there is a written down practice plan, then they can make sure that they are getting enough time on everything during that week’s practice. Do they know that score study and listening also count as practice? Are they paying attention to their bodies? Are they looking for tension or pain and/or are they making a choice to do something to alleviate that?
Beware of sudden increases in practice or playing time! Research has shown that these can lead to injury. It’s not a surprise that injuries often pop up at the end of first semester of conservatory training, during recital season, or when students go to summer festivals which often have intense rehearsal schedules. Research has also shown that most musicians do not take enough breaks during a practice session. Twenty five minutes of practice followed by a five minute break is a great place to start.
I do give beginners a recommendation for 20 minutes of practice on 5 days of the week. They need to be taught that 20 minutes on 3 days is more effective that 60 minutes on one day. I also spend time teaching my beginners how to practice. They learn to do their warmup and then work on the rest of their assignment. They figure out where the hard parts and are able to say why it’s hard. Is it a finger problem, a note-reading problem, a rhythm problem, or a combination? They are are taught how to work out each of these issues and then put the hard parts back into the context of the piece. They learn to use chunks—one or two measures or four or five notes to work on smaller sections. They also know that they can always go back and play favorite songs, and they can also work ahead if they’ve mastered what I’ve assigned. I find that my older students don’t necessarily know how to do this, so we spend time learning how to practice efficiently.
Practicing efficiently is a skill that can and should be taught. Paying attention to the music and to the body are equally important.