How much music practice (secondary school pupil) is an optimum but realistic amount?

Forgot to add my dcs practise every day and I have to sit with them for practise (a little less so now with dd), so we have to fit it in to when is best for us all, especially as I also have a little one to get ready too.

We don't practise before school.

Dd1 (y5) violin grade 6-7 (35 mins each evening after dinner).
Cello grade 4 (25 mins before or after violin)

Ds (y2) violin grade 2 (20 mins in the evening).

Ds could potentially do morning practise, but I find it all too much of a rush and I would need to be up and ready extra early.

Mine aren't at secondary yet, but:

DD1 (8) Grade 5 recorder - 20-30 mins, 2-3x a week. She also helps with one of my beginner classes, and plays in a group. She'll do much more before the exam.

Grade 2+ flute - 20 minutes, 5x a week, plus her lesson, and an hour of band.

She sings ALL the time.

DD2 (5) Initial Grade Recorder - 10-15 minutes every single day, and plays in a group.
Ukulele - 5 minutes a week!

We do most of it in the mornings, causing inevitable fights over music, stands, time and attention...

Dd1 does 15 minutes piano 5x a week (minimum idea, although sometimes it's less if she's a lot on). She's done grade 5, and needs to do theory, so she is meant to do 30 minutes theory on top of this.
Singing (same standard) depends on the week. If she's doing a lot of choir work then she usually does less practice.

DS2 is Y6 and does some morning practice but not all, but he has to fit in piano, trombone and clarinet and a busy schedule as a chorister. As far as my secondary DC go, (and I am not saying this is enough)

DS1 (Y11) (Tuba/trombone around Grade 7 - no exams this year but festival entries on tuba/trombone in March) maybe 20 mins each 3 times a week, but he plays in 6 different bands and groups during the week. This does ramp up before exams/festival when he realises its really happening. Achieved distinctions in previous exams doing this (but not piano where not enough practice resulted in a scraped pass at Grade 5).

DD (Y9) Alto/baritone sax (Grade 6 exam and festival in March) 20-30 mins 2 or 3 times a week. Again she plays in four bands/groups, and she will practice more nearer the time.

Piano started in summer and probably around Grade 3, about 20 - 30 mins a day in fits and starts.

Cello never, which is why she stopped it at Christmas.

Hi,we don't manage all 6 instruments every night, but at least 3, so each child gets a go at one instrument per night. We could never manage mornings, but good idea if you can!!

Ds2 grade 7 violin - about 15 mins 4 evenings a week. No way could he do any before school!

In contrast, dd2 (7) grade 2 does 20 mins trumpet most days because she loves it and wants to be a trumpet player when she's grown up.

To be honest mrsjavier it was mostly to get an hr and a half away from my brothers playing power rangers.

He started piano second Easter, but actually it was quite soon after he started violin, just because he asked if he could, and asked DH to teach him. He was constantly messing around on it anyway and wanted to learn, so we started him. Because DH is teaching him his piano feels a bit more informal anyway. He does about 15 minutes on each most days.

thanks Flowery. We're doing things similarly to you - so DH accompanies on piano, for eg, however he's not a fiddle player so technique isn't his realm. She's also picking her tunes out on the piano and playing that for fun when she wanders past it, tho' no lessons yet. When did you get him onto his 2nd instrument?

For those who let them get on with it, what do you expect them to do in unsupervised practice?

I remember starting piano at 8 and having to have a signed practice book of 20 minutes 5x a week. I didn't do it to start with and got told off by the very strict teacher - after that I remembered! By the time I had a new teacher, maybe a couple of years later I'd got into the routine and more importantly enjoyed practice and making improvements. My parents never prompted me as I recall. There were still weeks where I did very little - perhaps 20 minutes once or twice a week on bad weeks but in general I did 20-30 minutes around 5 days a week until about grade 4 and then gradually found I needed to increase that. I was probably doing a couple of hours a day or more in the run up to grade 8. And absolutely never in the morning!

Thanks Lancelottie I was wondering if this was going to turn into one of those MN threads where you are only allowed on if you have perfect children

Easter DS is also 6 and plays violin and piano. We wanted him to get into the habit of practicing every day with both, so that's what he does. He also pootles about on the piano sometimes for fun, because it's just there. Usually when I need him to be doing something else...

I supervise both practices, and because I'm a musician also, it means he is getting the most out of his practice and I can ensure he's practicing the right technique etc. Some of his pieces are duets so rather than waiting to do those with his teacher only, I can do them with him as well. Similarly he's just started in the junior strings group, so I can go through that music with him.

Doesn't mean you are approaching it incorrectly though, by doing it in a less structured way. As long as she's enjoying it and her teacher is happy, sounds good to me!

Hmm, here's it goes with mine, by way of contrast to Blueberry:

DD1 grade 5 cornet = 30 minutes the day before the lesson
DD1 grade 2 piano = 10 minutes at random intervals when not 'too tiiiired, and I've done LOADS of music this week already' (see cornet above)

DS2 grade 7 tuba = 30 minutes three times this week, in face of teacher's wrath (yes, he does enjoy it, he's just idle)
DS2 singing/guitar = random outburst most days

This makes me wonder if we are approaching things incorrectly... DD - aged 6 - has one lesson a week and then half hour or more of closely supervised practice with DH (who is a v talented musician) once a week. other than that, it's as and when she fancies getting her violin out and playing about with it - that happens another once or twice a week more, but that's "pure pleasure" time with the instrument. She'll do some scales, maybe do her piece(s) but will also improvise and just have fun with it.
She wants to do Grade 1 later this year; guess we need to get a little more formal / regimented on it.

BackforGood i appreciate that it's going to get harder as they hit teens (only 1 year left for DD!).

The only reason DS does piano practice in the morning is because he gets up when DD does and so ends up with an hour of free time before school.

DH used to do at least some of his before school when we were teenagers but there was no way on earth I would have managed that, because I was a normal teenager so I did mine after school.

I sometimes wonder if the people who suggest 'before school' actually have teens ???

My dd2 (Yr7) rarely practices unless nagged. She was doing both guitar and piano, but I've stopped the guitar and piano is under threat.
dd1 has always prac'd her flute for about 1/2 hr x 2 a week. The piano she used to need a lot of nagging, but now she's got better, and can play far more tunes that she likes and enjoys, she regularly does 20 - 30 mins before bed each night.

Here it goes with mine:

DD1 grade 3 violin = 30-40 minutes
DD1 grade 2 piano = 30 minutes
DS1 grade 2 violin = 20 minutes
DS1 grade 1 piano = 20 minutes
DS2 pre-grade 1 piano = 10 minutes
DS2 pre-grade 1 guitar = 5-10 minutes

Going back many years, I used to do 30mins per instrument per day, I did 3 and got up to grade 5 at that that amount of practice.

every day before school?
also, is that solo practice or supervised?

DS (Y4) - 20 mins on piano before school (working towards Grade 1)

DD (Y7) leaves for school at 7.30am so she practices both her instruments in the evening. 30 mins towards Grade 4 on the first, 20 mins towards Grade 2 on the second.