How much practice?

[Bigginswade]

Curious to know, if your child is learning an instrument, how long do they spend on practice and regularly do the practice? We are really struggling with it. DS has two instruments. Loves both but has a preference for the first probably because he's no longer beginner on it. We often fine that we're not doing as much as we'd like. Curious to know what others do and what has maybe worked for them. In our case, DS loves music so getting him to practice isn't an issue. It's finding the time as he has school and I work full time so we're not usually home until lateish after I've picked him up from after school club.

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.

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.

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!

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.

DD practices piano for 15 mins 6 days per week. She has a 1 hour lesson on the other day.

Little and often seems to keep her motivated, and she often does more like 30 mins purely because she's enjoying herself.

I think it depends massively on how old your child is, what stage they are at and what the goal is....

DD11 is a pretty serious musician studying at JD in London. Bare minimum for her is 45 mins but we aim for 1hr plus on primary study. Second study is sporadic as it's related to first study so we only really do regular practice on that when there's something specific to work for. 3rd study, we aim for 30mins 3 times a week. In amongst all that she has ensemble rehearsals and we do some 'non playing' work, such as active listening / score study, passive listening and from time to time, bits of aural / composition.

It's pretty full on as I too work full time and she has a long school day. We always aim to get a good, focussed 30min In in the morning prior to leaving the house at 7.20 and some practice now happens in school (during what should be class music lessons and immediately after school). Top up in the evening but she's generally not great after 7pm, so the later it gets, the less useful it is. Morning practice sessions work well of her as she's an early bird, so we do all the technical stuff then.

Hard going though, and we are both pretty knackered at times!!

Not so much, dd didn't really practice much until she got to grade 5, and only really did lots for 7&8. She doesn't practice singing much even for diploma. Perhaps not a good example but I never pushed her because it was up to her if she wanted to learn

My DS ((just 14) has done grade 7 in both piano and violin. He maybe does 20 mins practice most days per Instrument with more before the exams. He seems to improve with modest practice but could be really good if he put in more effort, but hey ho.....

Maybe controversial, but interesting of nothing else...

www.instagram.com/p/Bw0aJnGpXFi/?igshid=i050w46j1lu8

In our experience until grade 4 it’s enough to practice 20-30 minutes 2-3 times a week, and then every day for 30 min in the month before the exam (if aiming for a distinction). Then after grade 4 it becomes more challenging and practice starts to matter more...

30 mins every day for 1st study (taking Grade 3), 20 mins 2-3 times a week for 2nd study (Grade 1), no practising just fun 3rd study - lessons as school and we don't have time to practice (no grade just fun). All in the evening, morning would never work for us... 7 y.o.

DD1 has just had a rude awakening from her violin teacher who informed her that unless she was prepared to do 40 minutes practice a day, she may as well 'throw that g4 syllabus in the bin and start on the new one, as you'll never be ready in time'. At the moment, she barely does 15 minutes three times a week. Argh. She's 11 and secondary is getting in the way. And although I help her where I can I am not a lot of use, and she struggles to remember what she's doing from practice to practice.

Her sister, on the other hand, has got away with 15 minutes on first study and 10 on her second, five days a week maximum for the last two and a half years. This has got her to G4 on flute and nearly G3 on cello. DD1 feels this is unfair - and it is, especially since DD2 is two years younger. Truth is, DD2 is very good at pattern and very focused - which allows her to chance it and get away with very little practice. Neither of her teachers have any idea how little she actually does. At some point she will get her comeuppance, but it hasn't come yet. Horses for courses, I guess.

Thanks all. This is useful to know. We usually do focussed 20-30min piano practice every week day before school plus a half hour lesson on weekend. 7 year old working towards grade 2.

Second instrument maybe 15-20 mins 3x a week max after school. I can see that progress is much slower and concentration not so great after school. I'm also tired. DS is frustrated with his violin progress. Really wants to make lovely sounding music but still developing his ear and technique. The above posts makes me think it may be better to swap violin in the morning when concentration levels are higher and leave piano for after school.

folk, I don't find blanket statements like that Instagram post helpful

There is a HUGE difference in what different ages/stages require, and quantity doesn't always equal quality.
20 minutes of targeted, intelligent practice will always trump 40 minutes of just playing through pieces. Too many young students don't know how to practise effectively.

I'll admit, I have a problem with young children practising for hours a day; it's fine to want to improve and play well, but technical ability isn't the same as good musicianship, and that develops naturally with time, experience and maturity.

Totally agree piccolo (there's no way we could put in the time suggested on that chart!!) the IG poster also counts 'everything' music related in that time, so score study, ensemble rehearsal etc. So it's not as bad as it looks at first glance. But still seems a lot!

Ah, that is a very different story, in that case!
I vividly remember my first day as a postgrad at RAM; we were gathered in the theatre and told that 4-6 hours every day was expected. Not only could you not get practice rooms to do that, but when you had 2x3 hours rehearsals on some days, it simply wasn't possible!
The flip side of the coin was a very respected and successful teacher/performer at GH informing us that 90 minutes a day would be enough to cover essentials ( he didn't say it was ideal, just that it was acceptable).

I watched an interview with Steven Isserlis recently, in which he said he only practises what is essential for what he is preparing to perform at that time, and gets it done with as soon as he can.

For young children that much practice might also lead to burn out and repetitive strain injury.

You do need to put in the hours to progress from "competent" (higher ABRSM grades) to professional musicianship but we are presumably talking about recreational music on this thread. I think for the averagely talented musician who is not in a tearing hurry (or whose parents are not in a tearing hurry) to get through the grades, half an hour a day is more than enough to make significant progress at least for beginner to intermediate musicians.

The main aim with young musicians should be to not to put them off! A motivated older student can progress very quickly if they put in the hours, but they won't put in the hours if music has become a chore.

My did is 6 and not doing ABRSM exams. She practises for 10 minutes about 6 times a week.

Dd*

I think establishing a routine is really helpful, then it is easier to gradually increase the time. At the start they don't have the stamina so have to develop that. My DD had just started bassoon and whilst it is a pain to get it out every day for only ten minutes, it is setting good habits. I often either get it out or put it away so she is not scunnered by that taking so long. She only has about four 8 bar pieces and one scale each week just now so there's a limit to how long you can spend on that. There's a balance between what you can ' get away with' (Not a criticism by the way) and the increased pleasure when you make more rapid progress by practising more. I'm always trying to get ds to practice smart by being efficient. He massively upped his when preparing for recent exam and saw the benefits, so reckon that even if he cuts back a bit, he will still enjoy doing more than previously. By a certain stage they need to take their own responsibility but only if they have established good habits. The original question was on length of time so ds on piano, now about 40 minutes 6 times a week, dd11, piano and oboe 40 minutes each, one before one after school 6 times a week, dd8 bassoon 10 minutes 5/6 times, piano 20 minutes 6 times. This is the ideal, some weeks it is less, sometimes they have two weeks between lessons so it's fine. Some days they tootle away for ages, which is lovely, and what it is really about, finding joy in making music.

Lordy, it's a mission to get ds to practice for 10 mins 4-6 times a week on the clarinet, he does this & taekwondo but it's hard to motivate him. He'd rather be distracted constantly or playing on phone 😬

Yes, that is one of the advantages of starting on the piano - it's just a case of DD sitting down (and switching it on as it's a digital one) which removes the first hurdle of setting everything up!

DD practises for 10-15 minutes 6 times a week - mostly before school. I don't need to sit with her now, just listen out for obvious mistakes or when she's blatantly avoiding the bits she actually needs to practise. Both her teacher and I are very pleased with her progress, but she's only Grade 1-ish at the moment.

DS is starting in September though, so we'll have to rejig things slightly, and he'll almost certainly need me to sit and practise with him for a while.

DS2 (11yo keen violinist with second study piano) does 5 minutes Alexander technique, 5 minutes piano and 20-30 minutes violin, 5 days a week. He practices from 6.30 - 7.10 Monday-Saturday with 1 or 2 days rest or catching up with homework.

He also has a 30 minute orchestra rehearsal once a week and rehearses with the piano for about an hour a week on Sunday, instead of practice. He would like to do more and does try to get started earlier sometimes. But he gets very tired because of his other commitments (he is a chorister committed to 3 hours of singing a day, 6 days a week and Saturday school). I supervise his practice and try to help him make the most of every minute he has, but it is heavy going at times.

OP - try not to worry too much about the amount of practice, but do have a chat with the teachers about strategies for getting the most value out of what time your DS has. You’d be amazed at how much you can achieve in 15-20 minutes of focused daily practice

Both my kids do 1hr practise. Grade 6 and 7. With so much to cover at this level/difficulty of pieces and so much more scales etc, not sure how it would work doing less

not sure how it would work doing less

I think it depends on their age and their prior musical experience. Older beginners or musicians who take up a second instrument can often progress quickly on much less practice. My DD started piano at 14 (third instrument) and got her (local equivalent of) grade 8 two years later - I don't think she ever practised for an hour a day except in the run up to exams or concerts.

This is why I think making practice a chore for small children is counterproductive. Keep it fun and if they are still interested in music as teenagers they will progress very quickly.

Sure there are children who will thrive on many hours of practice - there was a kid at the conservatoire DD attended who was playing at diploma level at age 9/10 and you don't get to that standard without putting in the hours. But there is a difference between kids like that, destined for a career in music, and "recreational" musicians.