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Hi there,

We have been talking about the practice routines, especifically about how long the intervals should be.

http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1498596.html

For example, practicing for 15 minutes and resting for 5 = 4(times)x15(minutes)x5(rest) = 1 hour of practice, 1:15 minutes total.

I am doing: 3x30x10 which is 3 times, 30 minutes of practice, 10 minute rests = 1:30 practice time, 2h total

what is recommended ?, what is better ?

I suppose I'll jump in.

I think the takeaway point in this is to practice in shorter segments with breaks. FREQUENCY is better than HOW LONG.

Beyond that, the specifics should really be flexible enough so you can adjust a little day by day, depending on what your attention, schedule or goals are.

Just to throw in, I'd also consider practicing in short segments but how about a few early in the day, and a few again later in the evening (if schedules allow)?

Of interest;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_position_effect

The Primacy and Recency Effects state that you're more likely to remember things from the beginning or end, but not the middle. Shorten practice intervals and you shorten the middles, which you're least likely to retain anyway.

Short segments are something that I would concur with.

I would however be VERY wary of any mention of numbers of minutes. It's not important. Practice for minutes and that is what you get. However have specific targets you want to achieve each session and you will be rewarded with those.

I do not believe any one can get started in 15 minutes let alone achieve anything. Why such short bursts and breaks?!
I start usually with half an hour's unbroken scales/exercises practice and then move on to pieces, and I like to continue for at least an hour or hour and a half before having a break.
If you are a beginner then shorter practice periods may well be appropriate.

A few hundred years ago the British Army found that 45 minutes marching followed by 15 minutes resting meant you could march all day - a revolution in troop movements.

I'm sorry but I can't agree at all with this point. You most definitely can achieve things in short time periods:
- Learn notes for a new scale
- Memorise a few more notes
- Look up meanings if italian terms
- Do some sight reading

Or does it taken an hour to do these things

I can work on 2 measures for 15 minutes and accomplish a lot

Cathy

I think it really depends on what you are trying to accomplish and what your natural attention span is. There have been times when I've been able to make a lot of progress working on one or two tricky measures by working on them over and over during the commercial breaks of my favorite shows. I can't do the innitial memorization under these conditions, but for practicing the fingering or getting the timing down this sometimes works quite well.

In that list, the only thing that I would actually need to do while practising at the piano is the last one - pure sight reading. And yes, 15 minutes is a good time span for that. Everything else can be done away from the piano, possibly while taking a pleasant walk or driving to work, or grocery shopping.

If I'm really practising, however, then 15 minutes isn't enough to get into anything. Maybe to run through something, get the gist of something. But not practising when I am still a student learning how to play the instrument rather than getting a new piece under my fingers if I'm an accomplished musicians. (And do accomplished musicians really learn new things in 15 minute spurts?)

I can't answer for anyone else, but I use little bits of time frequently to achieve things, and sometimes shorter than 15 minutes. Examples of things I would be able to achieve in 15 minutes include:
- working out a fingering for a tricky passage
- practise said fingering. And I often find it more effective to spend 15 minutes on this tricky passage three times a day than use a 45 minute slab, always assuming I had 45 minutes available.
- practise a certain technical skill, like triplet octaves a la Erlkönig, or scales in double thirds. I wouldn't usually spend more than 15 minutes at a time on something as specific and demanding as this. I never play past the point of pain, and I'd far rather come back again a little later and start afresh.

This is what has worked for me for over 50 years of playing, and maybe it's just an individual thing. I can practise for 3 hours at a time when I need to/have the time to, but I'd always take a little break after an hour, for the sake of my back and eyes, if nothing else.

My attention span lasts only 15-20 minutes at a shot because it is intensely focused. If I go longer than that without a short break, I start losing ground, not gaining.

We're all different.

I take back my previous post.

I just found that it makes a lot of sense to just focus on the goals and (almost) forget about the time. I've found that because for me scales are always easy, I can have only 10 or 15 minutes and that will be done for the day. But when working on a new piece I will need like one hour to actually make it worth. I do write down how much I did of everything so for example yesterday I did:
10m: Scale, arpeggio, progression: Eb and Bb
40m: new piece ( on one page )
30m: review a studie

It won't make any sense to spend more time on something you feel you had it, while you need to work on something else.

my 2cents

If by any chance you don't feel like you are achieving that music pattern or song like you would like it to be, and you have practiced and practiced it...then stop practicing it for 2-3 days then return back to it, and you will be surprized with the results....like you know it now...!!!!

exactly! your brain is usually processing all of the information that you are trying to work out long after you step away from the bench.

practice routines will differ for everyone. for me (if this is the kind of thing you wanted to know):

i usually just practice until i can feel myself losing focus. this is about 2-3 hours. now, i am starting to sit away from the piano with the score more often (usually when i lose focus at the piano). it removes the physical aspect so i stop just automatically banging notes, and instead leaves me with ONLY the mental aspect of piano playing. i try and analyze very thoroughly, maybe take a break, and then head back at the piano for another few hours. i've stopped thinking about practicing in duration these days though, and am becoming much more goal oriented which is much more productive!