I am asked questions about practicing piano all the time. This post was inspired by a high school piano student who recently reached out to me about managing practice time. Here is my answer.
The main thing about practicing is being consistent and practicing on things you really need to work on. My early goals were to practice every weekday and take off on the weekends unless you need Saturday or Sunday to make up for a day you missed during the week. I suggest starting with a goal of practicing 30 minutes to an hour every weekday. Once you can do that consistently, you can increase the time. Also, once you get into practicing more than 2 hours a day, you don’t have to do it all in one sitting. You could do 1.5 hour practice time, take a break and come back later to do another 1.5 hour. My philosophy is the consistency of effective weekday practicing is more important than how long you practice.
Also, identifying what you need to work on is very important. Just playing piano pieces from beginning to end over and over is not a good way to practice. You have to identify problem areas in the piece and work on those sections. Ask yourself, “What parts of this piece are hard for me to play?” “Can I play this all the way through without stopping?” “Can I perform this song all the way through with good emotion and ease?” “If not, why not?” Asking yourself questions like this will help you identify your problem spots. Most of the practice time should be spent on practicing problem spots one measure at a time. Sometimes, it may be one hand at a time. Most of the practice time should be spent practicing at a slower tempo and only increasing tempo once you feel you have mastered it. After working problem areas, then you can play the piece through to see how your work has helped you improve the piece. If the piece is not improving on a weekly basis, then you may not be having effective practice time. If you’re unsure about your problem spots or things you should work on, ask your teacher. Your instructor should be able to help you identify things you need to work on.
Focus on technique first. What you want to achieve is effective practice time and not worry so much about length of time. Practicing the way as I described will most likely make the time seem to go by fast. Then you may find that your allotted time is not enough and you naturally need to increase it.
Sincerely, Arlington Jones
