There’s no shortage of internet memes about not having enough hours in the day to practice or being forced to choose between practice time or social time.
Another way you might have asked yourself this question is “am I practising enough?”
The truth is there’s no single, right answer and it’s likely that the amount of time you want, need and are able to spend practising will vary over time.
A better question to ask yourself is “am I making the progress I want to?” If the answer is “yes!” then congratulations, you are practising the perfect amount for you. If the answer is not really then here are a couple of things to think about:
Is your practice regular?
It’s quite possible you’re already putting in the hours but because they’re sporadic you’re not getting the results you could. Tweaking your practice schedule rather than your total practice time could make the difference you need.
Your body and brain need time to consolidate new skills through sleep and rest. And your memory is best with regular exposure.
Here’s an example:
If you’re spending an hour a week practising you will make faster progress if that’s 10 mins a day on six days or 15 mins a day on four days than if it’s all in one go the night before your lesson.
If you’re practising on three days a week you’ll get better results if they’re spread evenly than all together. For example: 20mins a day on Monday, Wednesday and Friday will give you faster results than Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
Are you dividing your time to cover everything you need to in your practice sessions?
One common problem I find students have is that they’re spending the time but they’re not using it well.
If this sounds like you then having a clear plan of what you want or need to get through in a practice session and then having a realistic expectation of how long you can spend on each element is going to be a game changer.
Start by looking at the notes from your last lesson. Do you understand what your teacher has asked you to do? Now make a quick list of ‘tasks’ if there isn’t one already. This might look as simple as a list of two or three pieces. Now divide the amount of time you’ve allocated for pracitce between the number of tasks, set a timer and just have a go! This will stop you from getting sucked into a single task and running out of time. It will also help turn an overwhelmingly long period into manageable, useable chunks so that you don’t have to keep clock watching.
Have you got realistic expectations?
The biggest improvement I ever made to my playing was deciding to think that I was good enough instead of wondering if someone else would ever think (or tell me) I was!
Being mean to yourself won’t make you get better quicker.
Enjoying the way you play today doesn’t mean you’ll never play any differently.
If you are comparing your progress to people who are at completely different stages of life/ playing and feeling bad about how you stack up then save yourself the hassle! I know it’s easier said than done, but trust me, if you wouldn’t say it out loud to your friend then it’s probably not constructive criticism.
If you answered ‘yes’ to all of the above but you’re still not making the progress you want to then it’s probable that you need to increase the overall amount of time that you’re practising. Start by talking to your teacher about what your goals are and what specific work you need to do to reach them; they are best placed to suggest a plan to gradually increase the length and frequency of your sessions or a completely different strategy such as joining an orchestra or ensemble.
