Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Piano World Practice Championship?

I have an idea that might motivate some of us to practice more.

I wonder if would be possible to have a place on here on PW where members could self-record their piano practice time over the course of a month. The PW member with the most minutes would be that month's practice champion.

I have no idea if that sort of thing is even possible or whether Frank would be interested, but it did occur to me, so I thought I'd toss it out there.

What do you all think?

Quality not quantity.

The other problem Cindy is the professional musicians practice hours and hours, how could you compete with that.
Jon

I like it!

What a great idea Cindy!

Count me in!

Mark

Question occurred to me -- how long do professional musicians practice per day on average? And I wonder about younger students from about 7th grade to 12th grade -- how much do they practice? Some of the high school students play piano very well. I try for an hour and half per day or at least for an hour. Two hours is my max per day because there is just too many other things to do. How much do you practice?

Looks like we would be competing neck and neck Nan!

I also try to do 2 hours per day. Most time it works out to 1 - 1.5 hours though. Some days however, it can be as many as 5 hours or more.

Mark

i sencond Mikester.

You guys would *destroy* me. I consider it extraordinary if I do one hour in a day.

Eh, maybe it would have to be for amateurs only.

I, erm, wasn't expecting to actually *win* or anything.

Cindy -- having an "off" period with the piano where she goes days at a time without touching the thing and hoping that chasing some of you would be inspiring

I am a amateur!

I just find my day is not complete unless I can sit down at the piano. Sometimes that means sitting down for most of the day!

Mark

Mark, it sounds like you are more than an amateur if some days you get in 5 hours! I am not that devoted -- maybe if I really get good at it some day. I have wondered if I could ever push it to three hours several times a week. I suspect that would really help my playing. Some of the piano teachers (where I take lessons) are from Russia and studied piano/music seriously from an early age on. Probably this means many hours a day practicing. It would be interesting to know how this affects how well you can learn -- and how much harder it can be for the older adult. I'm not very good, but am thrilled to learn piano. So, I do feel good at what I am able to do with the time I have available.

Nan,

With respect of course...

am·a·teur  Pronunciation Key  (m-tûr, -tr, -chr, -chr, -tyr)
n.
A person who engages in an art, science, study, or athletic activity as a pastime rather than as a profession.

Since I do not play piano as my profession, that makes me an amateur.

A 5 hour practice day is rare I assure you. It does happen though. Maybe once or twice a month maybe less. I never keep track of such things but know that it does happen.

When I first started to learn piano 13.5 years ago I started out by learning Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata 1st movement. I spent 5 hours a day for the first 2-3 months learning to read bass clef and developing my left hand. My wife will vouch for that by the way!

I spent the next 12 years learning other pieces all by myself. I only started lessons about 1.5 years ago.

I have a little bit of an obsessive compulsive personality and it waxes and wanes with other "hobbies" but music has been in me since I was born into this world and it will remain in me until my death.

I only wish, and used to dream about making my living with music. I still do dream about it but I am firmly planted in reality.

I have three beautiful daughters to raise. My wife and my daughters are my world and I would not trade them for anything including a dream.

I make my living designing and programming computer systems as a self-employed individual. I am one half of a stay-at-home parent team. When work gets too stressful I can simply go upstairs and play my piano for 15 minutes or more, play chess (yes chess!) with my 4 year old, or we will watch Dora The Explorer or whatever she wants to do like tea parties, Polly Pockets etc.

In the evenings I review/help out with homework for my older two and we review their scales and music they are learning for school. Currently they have chair challenges that they are preparing for next week so we are very busy!

I am living a dream.

_ _


Mark

if the amount I'd like to practice was equal to those I did... I'd be a winner.

nice dream Mark... one which I live to0... (of course sometime there is a nightmare of chaos which usually consists of possessions strewn and coming to life)... but only occasionally.

[Warning - off topic comment ahead] I've been through slumps like that. They can be due to an overcrowded schedule or just lack of interest. I've also found that just touching the piano for five minutes a day (just playing through my current pieces and a couple of scales) keeps me from losing too much ground. Not having to backtrack makes it easier to climb out of the slump.

Dale

Cindy, you have raised an interesting topic and gotten some great info here. I feel very lucky to get in the time that I can on the piano. Anyone who cannot do an hour and a half a day should not be discouraged. Even thirty to forty-five mintues is very good -- and that is what many school age kids do. What pays off it sticking with it. Mark it's great you are living your dream! I didn't grow up with music but wanted my children to have that opportunity. I am so glad that I did and now it's my turn to catch up. This forum is an inspiration to me to keep at it!

I'm with Mikester:
It's very easy if you have the time to spend 6-8 hours a day practicing. (I certainly don't have that kind of time!) But if that time is filled with mindless drills and scales or further enforcing bad habits, then the person who spent 1 hour focused on proper practice technique wins in my book

Just out of curiosity, what is stopping someone(or everyone for that matter ;-) from inflating their practice times or flat out writing ridiculous times like 40 practice hours a week, or have you figured out a system of practice verification? lol

I practice 168 hours a week!

To the extent I've done this in the past, it's the honor system.

Hey, it might have been fun, but it probably won't work under the circumstances, I think. Thanks for you input.

Cindy - I think "reporting" is a good motivator. We all got pedometers last spring at our school and it is a motivator to me to make sure I have at least 10,000 steps/day. That's without doing any real exercise. Anyway - if we just had a thread where we all reported it would be simple. You could just go in each week and post your hours for that week. That way you could compare with people whose lifestyle and abilities are similar to yours. What do you think?

kathy aka teachum