What advice do you give your students concerning practicing?
I recently read about studies that show that with 10,000 hours of practice, most of us can become experts at almost anything including music. That equals about 20 hours a week for 10 years. I usually quote that number to my students and tell them to get started toward that goal.
As far as a practice schedule, I tell them that they should try to get some quality practice time in every day. It does less good to sit and stare at a guitar book for an hour every day than to have fifteen minutes of real practice a day.
There is a good website from Daniel Levitin, the author of "This is Your Brain On Music" where I got that 10,000 hours of practice figure. - http://www.yourbrainonmusic.com/
I would be interested in hearing your insights on this subject
As far as a practice schedule, I tell them that they should try to get some quality practice time in every day. It does less good to sit and stare at a guitar book for an hour every day than to have fifteen minutes of real practice a day.
There is a good website from Daniel Levitin, the author of "This is Your Brain On Music" where I got that 10,000 hours of practice figure. - http://www.yourbrainonmusic.com/
I would be interested in hearing your insights on this subject
Views: 3
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Isaac Callender on -
I agree with that. I would add that in addition to "practice" just having hands on with your instrument every day can do amazing things. That would not necessarily mean working on anything but just playing and developing the relationship (for lack of a better term) with your instrument.
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Permalink Reply by Jim Dungan on -
Good point Isaac. The more you have the instrument in your hands the more comfortable you feel with it and practice becomes less of a "chore" and just a natural extension of your everyday life.
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Permalink Reply by Mark Logan on -
I tell them 15 to 30 minutes a day. I tell them to try to make it the same time everyday, after school (for youngins') or work (for adults) and before dinner and homework (for youngins') or that evening cocktail (for adult students). I've seen quite a few chord charts with red wine stains in my day! Of course with very small kids maybe 10 minutes, depends on what I think the individual can handle at certain points in their development.
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Permalink Reply by Rick Banuelos on -
I tend to go minute by minute. That is, if your lesson is 40 minutes like mine are, you should practice 40 minutes every day. I also make it a point in more advanced lessons to encourage students to try to improvise during 5-10 minutes of their practice time. No sense learning a scale if you can't apply it...
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Permalink Reply by Gregan Wortman on -
I won't give advice on this subject but maybe a few guidelines: when my mother was paying for guitar lessons she mandated that I practice for 1 hour a day -- someone working or busy but wanting to stay up on their craft: 45 minutes a day -- when I was fanatically pursuing my musical goals I would rise early and exercise with scale and chord drills until lunch and then continue playing until an evening break followed by playing late into the night, often listening to the radio and playing along with whatever song came on -- total time at the instrument in those days? up to 14 hours a day. Honest Injun.
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