How much practice?

How old is your DS and how long has he been playing?

Up to a certain point I think you can make good progress on an instrument without a huge amount of practice (also depends on the child & the instrument). But there comes a point where you can only make significant further progress by investing the time. If there isn't enough time you may have to compromise on something else to make the time.

My DS plays two instruments, but he's a teenager and was a late comer to music - I am not involved with practice at all. His practice tends to be irregular and there are weeks when he doesn't play that much, but when he does play, he plays a lot (8 or more hours over a weekend isn't unusual). He tends to devote chunks of time to one instrument while not playing the other very much, and then swap around. My observation is that this seems to be quite an effective way of progressing.

Wow. We feel were okay if we manage 10mins 3-4 times a week....

We're fairly average in our expectations though rather than high flying. That might make a difference regarding feedback here!

DS2 also struggles to fit everything in, but we aim for 20-30 mins four times a week for each instrument.

We leave the house at 7.40am, so it has to be in the evening, and he is out at clubs/music lessons Mon, Wed and Thursday, so it is a struggle.

Piano is steady progress (could do a lot more if he had more time). He is flying on his second, orchestral, instrument.he does play in two orchestras per week, so I think that extra time is helping.

DD plays three instruments. She is meant to do 30 mins piano practice before school but that is often more like 20. On Mondays, Tuesdays & Saturdays she has orchestra and/or a cello lesson so she practises cello on Weds, Thurs, Fri for 30 minutes and then I try to get her to do an hour of piano & cello on Sundays if she doesn’t have too much school homework. She also does 30 mins of recorder on Weds, Thurs, Fri, Sat and an hour on Sundays.

DD plays 2 instruments. He does 30 mins of piano before school and an hour on Sundays. He plays a lot of sport after school so his practice of his second instrument (viola) was being seriously neglected. Have now just moved that to 30 mins before school too. He gets up at 7.15 and we leave the house at 8.45 so he has time to do both instruments in the morning.