How Long Should You Practice?
How long should I practice? As a music school, one of the main questions our instructors get asked is the amount of time a student must practice and how regularly. How much is enough? Is there an optimal number of minutes or hours that one should practice? Here are our tips on the best practice for all professional musicians and learners.
What Do the Pros Say?
A lot of professional musicians have considered this question and many have different opinions regarding this matter. Arthur Rubinstein, an American-Polish classical pianist, once said in. an interview that no one should have to practice more than 4 hours a day; pointing out that if you do have to practice for more than 4 hours a day, you are probably not playing it right.
Other musicians have expressed similar opinions, claiming that sometimes taking a long time to perfect a piece may mean something is off. Some even stated that practicing too much is as bad as practicing too little and even suggested that musicians take a 24-hour break where they do not touch their instrument at all.
What Do Psychologists Say?
Many psychological studies have been done relating to the amount of practice it takes to master a task since it largely involves cognitive coordination. Dr. K. Anders Ericsson is a psychologists that focuses on this field and most of his research is the basis for the “10-year-rule” and “10,000-hour-rule,” which suggest that it requires at least 10 years and/or 10,000 hours of committed practice for one to become an professional or achieve an expert level of performance. However, the key is not the amount of practice, but the type of practice.
Mindless Practice
Have you ever listened to yourself practice? You will most likely see that you are practicing mindlessly, in repetition over and over again. Mindless practice can cause 3 main problems:
It is a waste of time: Mindless practicing is usually a waste of time because you would be practicing over and over again for hours and not seeing any improvement. Why? Because you are not focusing on wrongful habits and errors and just repeating them over and over again, which makes practicing pointless.
It makes you less confident: You may also feel less confident by mindlessly practicing over and over again. Since you are not focusing on points where you need to fix, making you constantly repeating your errors with no improvement. This can cause you to think that you are not able to go beyond your current skill level and think that you are just not cut-out for it.
It is boring: Repeating the same piece and over and over again without any improvement can cause you to lose interest and make playing music boring since you are not getting the results you want.
To fix these 3 main problems that come long with mindless practicing, we have to change our way of practicing to deliberate or mindful practice.
Deliberate Practice
Deliberate practice is a systematic and highly structured activity, which is, for lack of a better word, scientific. Instead of mindless trial and error, it is an active and thoughtful process of experimentation with clear goals and hypotheses. This practice is usually slow and requires repeating specific parts of the piece where you need the most improvement or fixing. Deliberate practice also involves being mindful of your wrongful habits and errors and focusing on fixing them rather than playing the whole piece in its entirety.
So How Long Should I Practice Then?
The answer is as long as you want. However, make sure to be deliberate and mindful during your practices and focus on part where you need to fix or improve until you get it right. Here at Klassik Arts, we suggest our young students to practice as little or long as they want, as long as they are practicing regularly on sections they need improving. By concentrating on smaller sections, it will be a more effective way to improve and students will see faster and better results, keeping them engaged and interested in their musical journeys.
