How much practice for violin?

[tiredmumneedssleep]

Thanking you in advance for your advice!

My daughter is 12 and will sit her Grade 6 violin exam in November. She currently does 7 hours of practice with almost 3 hours of private lessons and another 2 hours spent playing in orchestra each week.

Her teacher has asked her to practice more.

I wanted to check how much time she should be practicing.

Her practice is currently quite targeted, with around 15 minutes of scales and exercises and then another 45 minutes focusing on specific parts of a different piece each day etc.

I do not come from a musical background, so would really appreciate advice. Thank you!

That sounds a decent amount of practise to me! DD only ever did 20/30 mins and that was a struggle to get her to do! Her friend (who went to music school) did a few hours daily 😗 She does however happily spend hours on a tennis court so it depends if it’s really their passion.

Depends on the player and what they take from their practise I guess. This schedule already sounds excessive to me though. I would look into getting a different teacher rather than upping practise - sometimes a teachers method or approach just doesn’t gel with every student.

For reference, I got to grade 5 (I had to quit as the school started charging for lessons that year) with only sporadic practice and no orchestra practice (couldn’t stay for after school clubs as my parents couldn’t transport me). Lessons were also in groups of two or three and only ten minutes long, so altogether I probably played violin for less than an hour per week. (I think it was generally advised that we should be practicing 15-20 minutes a day).

Your daughter is doing really well. I don’t know what things are like these days but I was a music scholar at school and took grade 8 in my first instrument aged 14. I can’t remember what I was doing specifically for grade 6, but by the time I was preparing for grade 7 and grade 8 I was doing an insane amount of practice, up to 7/8 hours a day but probably averaging 6 a day. I am not sure that was necessary though but it was my passion!
i used to do at least two hours before breakfast and an hour during the day over breaks (or skiving off other activities!) then the rest in the evenings.
i am not sure all that was needed though but perhaps to get a merit or distinction if that’s important to your daughter and there will be other things to practise for along the way like concerts and performances.

That sounds like more than enough. She's 12 and going for Grade 6, sounds like she's doing very well. She should be able to have time for other stuff too. I did lessons from 7-18 on less.

Thanks so much for the responses.

She's very dedicated so she's happy enough with practice, but I do want to make sure she is getting what she needs out of it and doesn't get too tired.

I'll speak with her teacher as well to ensure expectations are aligned! Thanks again for all the insights! Really appreciate it!

My DD is 15 and grade 8 oboe. She does 15-20 mins scales and technical work each day then 45 mins to an hour on excerpts and pieces. More if she has rehearsals with her accompanist or performances coming up
. She is then also in a wind symphony orchestra which rehearses just once a week for an hour but sometimes extra if there is a concert in. Lesson is an hour each week.

I'm keen for it to not take up more time to leave her room to be a teenager! She also plays piano but only practices that 20mins a day, but also runs, plays waterpolo twice/three times a week and also swims. It's exhausting! She will need to cut down a bit next year when she starts IB course but we never push her - it's her wanting to always keep busy!

She really doesn’t need to do more practice! She sounds really dedicated!

DS did Grade 6 and got a Distinction in Year 5 and did Grade 8 age 12 and did a fraction of that amount of practice. Maybe 20-30 minutes a day! He also got a Distinction in another very hard Instrument the same year on Grade 7. He is naturally really musical and a great and confident performer but technically not perfect.

It sounds to me that the teacher is a perfectionist trying to make technique and everything perfect and is actually doing this in preparation of the highest grades. You don’t even need that to do well at grade 6. I hope she is still really enjoying it and connecting with the music itself.

If she's practicing both 'lesson' pieces and orchestra pieces in that 45 minutes, then that hour of practice might not be enough. 15 minutes on scales/arpeggios for Grade 6 might be a bit on the light side too, depending on how well she knows them.

Perhaps a discussion with her teacher would clarify why the teacher thinks she needs more practice - what are the areas she needs to work on?

My son got up to grade seven on the violin. He practiced every day, about the same as your daughter. I think that’s enough really. My son is grown up now and hadn’t touched his violin for years. There’s more to life than learning the violin.

Agree with this!

That's a really good amount of practice. My 12yo is also working towards g6 on a different instrument, and does 35-40mins probably 4 days weekly. On Saturdays she does music all day, including an hour lesson, orchestra, and wind quintet, and on Fridays it's two more ensembles, so no practice those days.

I have no doubt that she'd progress faster with more practice, but it's up to her really.

“I have no doubt that she'd progress faster with more practice, but it's up to her really.”

The thing is there is progress in terms of passing exams really well, there is progress as an orchestral player and there is progress as a soloist/performer in concerts. Depending on the child, one or the other matters more. With one of my DC, it was the small chamber playing and symphony ensemble she truly excelled in, with another it was the solo performances, with the 3rd it was exams because he absolutely was never going to be happy with anything but a Distinction. Whereas another DC really just saw exams as an ancillary annoyance. Many top teachers also see the exams as a tick box thing, some of the most gifted kids don’t even do exams.

Firstly, that sounds like a good amount of practice - I did about an hour a day for grade 8 (flute).

However my question is how focussed it is - DD is learning a couple of instruments at the moment, at a much lower standard, and we do about 15 minutes practice/instrument a day together. Because we're doing it together, I ensure that she repeats the bits she can't do and corrects errors. She is making much faster progress than her peers - does your DD need to alter how she practises at all?

An hour sounds like a fine amount if it's focused. DD is grade 8 and plays a wind instrument so can't do as many hours as string/ piano or her lip goes. Targeted is good - she uses a scales pot, only doing a few each day. With pieces, she could also listen to some recordings of different players when she is travelling or doing something else, it's good to get really familiar with what the piano is doing. Three hours of lessons is very unusual but will obviously help loads. Most children only have from 30-45 minutes at that age/ stage. Hope she continues to enjoy her music.

Thanks everyone so much for your advice and guidance!

It's been really helpful to understand the different aspects of music and practice including orchestra playing versus exams etc.

Luckily she seems to really enjoy her playing and loves her ensembles. I will ask her teacher to provide more details about what he means!

Thanks again you've all been so helpful!

There is also the Abrsm violin practice partner app now where you can download the pieces in the main book at least (again some teachers insist on the pieces outside the main book because they think the examiners have overheard them) and play along at slow speed with or without the accompaniment. There is also the smart scales app now for violin - tuning on violin can be really hard without perfect pitch so playing along to the really tricky bits slowly can really help.

3 hours of private lessons? As in 3 hours of violin lesson every week? That's massive. My friend's son at conservatoire didn't get that much. Or is that including some ensemble time?
Again, for grade 6 seems like lots of practice for me. But maybe grade 6 isn't the whole story given the 3 hours of lessons.

Agree speaking to the teacher and finding out what he expects is a good idea. Is it that he told her she should be doing a bigger number of hours, or that something isn't clicking and she isn't making the progress he was hoping so he thinks she is doing less? May be a case of practising cleverer rather than practising more.

Sounds far too much to me. Half an hour of focussed practice on a good day got mine through diploma.

Sounds far too much to me. Half an hour of focussed practice on a good day got mine through diploma.

Wow, that's extreme in the other direction! Very impressive - but also can't imagine being that standard and not wanting to play more.

Depends on if you want to pass exams or be a musician! I don't doubt some people can pass quite high levels on not much practice but there's a whole load of music out there to discover. Exams are only a small part of music life for some ( mine included )kids. They want to go further and deeper. My DD was doing grade 8 pieces a couple of years ago but only did the exam this year, I don't doubt she could have passed back then but there was no need.

I don't know anyone who has 3 hours a week of private violin lessons. Are you sure about that. My son at the Menuhin School had two lessons a week, and I thought that was a lot- no one gets three, surely?

Thanks again everyone! The comments and insights and shared experiences have been very helpful.

I come from a zero musical background. This was why we ended up arranging for more than usual classes!

After a few repeats of DD making errors and continuing with them all week between lessons, we arranged for more regular lessons to ensure she stayed on track.

We're hoping to cut back down to fewer lessons soon!

Her teacher is really serious and technically focused and currently focuses on exam, and performance technique and music appreciation etc.

I will check with DD and her teacher to make sure her practice is effective and I appreciate the feedback about the split between technical exercises and pieces etc.

Thanks again so much for everyone's help. It's been amazing how much knowledge there is in this group.

More lessons a week isn’t going to get you there faster.
An hour a week is fine for grade 6-8, and an hour a day practice is plenty too.

Any teacher that suggests more practice is needed, in your situation, is asking for more efficient practice IMO, not more time - time spent isn’t necessarily equal to effort put in.

3 hours a week of lessons sounds a lot, unless of course your daughter has gone from beginner to Grade 6 in 2 years or less.

Your daughter could do more practise, and additionally I would say that 60 minutes every day sounds a good amount already. What is much more important is that the practise is focussed, mindful and planned. That way the practise is worth much much more than the 60 minutes. Extra time can be spent listening to music and watching appropriate musicians on youtube/attending concerts etc.

Just thinking about the three hours of lessons a week. You said you weren't that musical. Maybe you are comparing music to gymnastics or ballet where the child would have a few hours of lessons and less self directed time. For most people this isn't the case, the lesson is where the teacher discusses technical things, expression etc but later on often wouldn't even hear whole pieces or certainly not everything they are working on. There is a lot of onus on the child to work on things in their own time. A clear written record of what work has been set is helpful. Although in the run up to exams, extra sessions for the aural is useful.