June 10, 2019

How long?

When I started to practice my piano skills I knew from the beginning that to build proper piano skills require loads of practice. However, it was difficult for me to keep playing longer than one hour. I wanted to do more, but I couldn’t. I think right now, that there were many reasons and one of them was quite simple and I think played major part that I did not practiced longer then one hour. It was lack of knowledge of what to do. I was trying many things like youtube, books with dvds but nothing was keeping me longer than one hour in front of the piano. Once my knowledge expanded a little… I am still beginner but right now I know slightly more. It helps me to understand what I am doing more then in the beginning. Of course with each hour spent practising the amount of exercises and simple music pieces grew. It was easier and it is much easier now to stop doing one thing when it becomes too boring like scales practice, to switch into playing music I can play and learn some new which brings excitement and gives loads of fun. That fun part is so important. Once it is fun it helps stay longer practising and training hands what I would like them to do.

So, this question: how long to practice many times pops up. I am more than sure professional pianists will give you different figures. I guess it is important to know what you want to achieve and why you playing. I would advice to play between 30-60 min at the beginning and later on just extend that time if possible. Of course we have different commitments and it is hard to find those minutes we would like to spend practising. But we need to, if we want to make it go forward. Even more important I think it is to practice as often as possible. I believe it is better to practice 30min a day then twice a week for 1.5h. Based on my experience it helps brain to get what we did day before and go even small step forward next day. When we do it every day our skills improve and we can experience those magical moments when we can be proud of ourselves more often. It helps to build motivation. It helps to develop a habit to practice every day. One day it may change your approach and will release this hunger to stay much longer in front of the piano playing. Not to mention when you play long enough you actually can feel this warmth in your hands and you notice that many exercises is easier to perform than when you spend shorter time. I

I think everybody has to find ones own way of time spent by the piano. Right now my is close to 2h a day with some days when I have more time and I stay longer. So, plan your days accordingly to what you can do and have fun playing. It will work for you and me if we keep practising. All right, that is it. It is time to start next session with my piano, following plan below:

30+/60+/30+

• 30 mins with my scales practice (done already) using my app PianoMarvel
• 60 mins new material learning and practising/mastering previous material <- starting once this post is finished.
• 30 mins fun session – just enjoying piano and playing what I know already… my reward for two previous sessions. <- usually evening session, FUN TIME 🙂

Take care