A common question from parents is ‘how long should my child practice for?’. This is an interesting topic and one that can spark much debate between teachers, parents and students.
Personally, I have never been a fan of clock watching while practising. The student can feel obligated to sit at the piano (or whatever instrument they play) until time is up. Obligated is the key word here. There can be an element of feeling forced to stay there and play while the clock ticks round, and where is the pleasure in that?
Piano could become a chore rather than something to enjoy.
There’s also a danger that the practice session is unproductive. Rather than focussing on the music and how to improve it, there is a possibility that attention gravitates towards the time. Students might think, “if I play this five times through the time will be up and I can go do something else”. But that might be five times with the same mistakes!
I much prefer goal or tasked based practice sessions instead. This could be to master a certain section of the music or to work on improving dynamics. Bite sized chunks of things to work on before the next lesson.
I think Yo-Yo Ma sums it up quite nicely in the following quote:
Practicing is about quality, not quantity. Some days I practice for hours; other days it will be just a few minutes
Yo-Yo Ma
What are your thoughts on this topic?
