Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Reasonable insrtumental music practice schedule?

I hear you about ensemble skills and keeping the tempo. It is so much easier for them to get away with minor imperfections when performing a solo while it becomes glaringly obvious when they have to play with someone else.

I think that practice in school does negate the need for as much practice at home. I can see the benefits of daily practice but it had always seem to me that they should get at least one day off even if they do enjoy it for the most part.

If she enjoys it that much then she should be allow to practice. I find that 5+ hours a day for elementary aged children rather astonishing unless they were musical prodigies destined for Carnegie Hall!

I can definitely see that! They have been working on their current duet for weeks and there are definitely room for improvement although mostly subtle issues of dynamics and tones, etc.

My hope is that by 15, I won't have any input on their practice schedules and that they will completely self-monitor at that stage. It's at the younger ages that sometimes it becomes necessary to provide a little nudge and a reminder that improvement/progression requires a certain minimum practice time.

That's cute. I wholeheartedly agree with the ensemble suggestion. I find it really helpful when my kids have to time their playing with others as they develop invaluable listening skills.

As long as it's enjoyable, as long as it fits with the children's goals, as long as it fits with the priorities of the children and the family... I also don't think there is a fixed answer. My kids love music and are very advanced, at times I've definitely thought about pushing them to practice more. So far I've been able to suppress the urge. :-) They need time to develop in many areas. There are a lot of things that they should do in music as well, away from the instruments. In total, my DS14 probably spends 20 hours a week on music (lessons, pratice, work away from the instruments, ensembles, etc), and my DD9 probably 15 hours. When they were starting, though, at the age of 5 or 6, they were doing 15 to 20 minutes a day.

I've heard that some teachers think that the practice time each day should be the same as the length of the lesson. For example, if the kid takes a 45-minute lesson each week, then she/he should practice 45 minutes a day. But it depends so much on other factors as well.

Also, the quality of the practice is much more important than the time. I'd rather my kids have a focused practice for 20 minutes than a half-hearted one-hour session.

When the kids are young, I personally don't think it's a priority to practice a lot. I think developing good music sense, intuition, taste, listening skills, etc. are all important and lots of these are not done through practicing the instrument.

If you look at the now famous paper on deliberate practice and expertise by Ericksson (1993, a survey of violinists, the classic paper on "10,000 hour rule"), you will see that these violinists actually didn't practice much in the first few years of study (on average, probably 20-30 minutes a day. They picked up the pace dramatically in teenage years. The vast majority of the kids won't be professional musicians anyways.

Ensemble: my kids really enjoy it since it's fun for them to interact with other musicians and they get to work on a wider range of music. They started at 8 and 6, respectively.

I completely agree about not forcing a lot of practice in the beginning. My approach has been securing an agreement for enough practice so that they will see enough improvements to encourage continued pursuit. It is a lot more fun when you can play well.

They wanted to start. Even little Dylan now will always take out his violin when I take out mine (I started after Aiden did - I always wanted to learn the violin!)

It's not so much patience as much as it is the Suzuki methodology. It fits me, us, what I believe about education and learning so it feels right for me.

Aiden hardly needs my input now - occasionally I will say something as I walk past, or yell a reminder from a distance. Nathan is starting to practice on his own, but I like to be there to ensure that no bad habits are slipping in. And for Dylan, well it's really about 4 - 5 minutes, and it's totally fun too.

And I know as they surge ahead they will need my input less and less. And that's great too

For me, the point is to get them to enjoy/choose practicing regularly in a meaningful way. This seems to be the best, and least stressful, way of achieving that.

It's great that it works so well for you and your kiddos.
For my kids at that age, while they may indicate some interest, I would have to schedule the practices and be right there with them.