Grade 1 violin - how long to practise every day

[Ilovesweetsandchoc]

My DD is 7 and currently practising for her grade 1 violin exam.

She tries to practise daily. How long do you all think she should practise? Her teacher mentioned 30 mins the other week, which I think is a lot on top of everything else.

Or perhaps that’s what she should do?

No idea about violin, but for piano grade 1 my son definitely didn’t practice 30 mins every day. Funnily enough he did initially for a few weeks when learning to master the pieces and as we got closer to the exam, I think we got 15-20 mins out of him max

At 7 I would have said 30 mins at least 4 times a week would be fine.

Violin is a faff to set up, so 30 mins includes getting it out and tuned.

I teach violin (and music in school). It depends on the child. Some children practise 'away' from their instruments, so they're running through the pieces in their head, humming them, rehearsing the fingers/bowing arm. These children don't need much practice at all, perhaps picking up their violin a couple of times and undoing the tricky bits. Others need more focused practice because they're not naturally musical.

Ten mins morning and night worked well for my son.

Don’t many pieces through but okay difficult sections and don’t forget the scales.

30 mins a day is excessive for grade 1. Little and often is best. Focus on tricky bits - no need to always play from start to finish.

Thank you all!

My DC got distinction in grade 1 with 3 x 10mins weekly practice plus weekly lesson (30min) and weekly ensemble playing (45min)

30min every day sounds a lot to me.

Practice sight reading and scales as much as you can. Practice aural test from youtube. Don't overplay the exam pieces or they will go stale.

Most children at that age and stage don't really know how to practice effectively. Maybe get the teacher to show them a plan of what to do otherwise 30 minutes could easily just be wasted faffing around and they might think they are doing loads. You could be effective in much less time, the actual pieces are pretty short.

We found that getting into a routine of doing practice daily, however short a time was better than fewer longer sessions when younger. Sometimes they got into the flow and did more but if you only ask for a short amount it's manageable. Now they take full responsibility themselves. 30 minutes sounds a lot at that grade but obviously if they enjoyed it and were doing really good work they would make lots of progress. It's just more than most would do.

I'd say 15-20 minutes as many days as possible. Little and often is better. The last thing you want is for it to be seen as a chore which I remember from my mother forcing me to practise my cello for at least half and hour every day.

Thank you all, it’s really helpful.