Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Reasonable Practice Time & 60 Min. Music Lessons

I figure there must be plenty of parents here with kids taking music lessons. What are your thoughts regarding reasonable amounts of practice time per week? What has your experience been with transitioning to longer private lessons, from 30 minute lessons to 45 or to 60 minute lessons? Is there a big difference between 45 minute versus 60 minute lessons, sufficient to warrant the additional costs? Is it unreasonable to expect an hour of practice a day (5 or 6 times a week) once the student transitions to 60 minute lessons?

I would agree that appropriate practice and lesson time are highly dependent on the child in question. I do, however, have general rules of thumb.

A longer lesson time is valuable only if the student can absorb and remember enough of the additional instruction to productively practice it between lessons. How much a student can take away from a lesson will, of course, depend on her interest and capacity, as well as attention (which is often developmental). My personal experience is that I and my siblings started with one hour formal lessons around age 8 or 9. I notice that the standard in many places these days is 30 minute lessons well into high school. Our children's regular lessons are 30 minutes, but they do throw in some 60 minute lessons here and there, which they appear able to absorb equally well.

For practice time, again, it depends on the attention, interest, and capacity of the learner. I've taken the same general guideline recommended for homework, which is 10 minutes per year-of-age-minus-five. (Or ten minutes per year of grade.) Obviously, if a child wants to practice more than that, and it doesn't have negative impacts on other aspects of development or family life, then I see no reason to stop him. With my very young or inattentive children, I sit with them for the whole (very brief) practice session. All of our kids like music, so they're on their instruments quite a bit--though not always in the form of focused practicing.

I want my children's experience of music to be both enjoyable and instructional, so as much as committing to taking lessons means committing to daily practice, it ought not to be at the expense of music as a delight and a vehicle for emotional/artistic expression.

I agree with everything above, and especially this:


I don't know anything about your child Quantum, but I think your children are going into high school this year? If they are really into music, one thing that happened for my ds (who is really into music) is that he has enjoyed the opportunities to perform offered both at his high school and in our community for kids once they reach high school age. He's still taking 30 minute piano lessons, but has expanded his music ability through other avenues. A lot of our children's friends also expand to learning additional instruments or giving vocal music a try etc when in high school.

One other note - I would want to be certain that expanding lesson time is truly meaningful in expanding what's learned vs just giving more to practice. Hope that makes sense!

Best wishes,

polarbear

ps - yet another note - if your kids are entering high school this fall for the first year (I'm not 100% sure that's where they are at)... I'd consider that if you move to a 60 minute lesson now, leave an open mind to moving back to a shorter lesson or shorter required practice time after school starts if your instructor is open to it. Both of my kids who are now in high school found they had many other new interests they were interested in pursuing once they actually attended high school, and they also found that homework time went up astronomically. This might not be the case at all in your area or with your students, but it would have been a difficult time for us to have made the decision to increase time spent on music lessons and practice for one specific instrument.

The amount of practice time depends on the child's musical goals.

In my area, there are teachers who teach music to students whose goal is to learn a particular instrument because of interest, explore their musical talents and have fun with it. These teachers allow the students to set their own practice times and provide guidelines on how a practice session would look like.

There are some other teachers who only take on "serious music students" - these teachers move the students to 1 hour classes very early (sometimes 2-3 times a week) and then require a certain amount of practice time every single day. These students are bound for competitions (at the very high levels) or to pre collegiate music programs at prestigious music conservatories. They are also required to take Musicianship examinations annually, learn music theory, sight reading, ear training etc and perform in recitals as assigned by the teachers. These kids practice from 3-6 hours a day and though they enjoy it a lot, it is really hard work.

Where your child lies in this spectrum is something only a parent can know. As a general rule of thumb, when my child started lessons at a young age, the teacher told us to practice for a length of time that was same as the length of the lesson with the teacher (e.g. practice 45 mins a day for a 45 min lesson with the teacher). As my son advanced, the teacher told us to practice for as long as it took to cover the material that was assigned for homework - at that stage, a concept that took the teacher 10 minutes to teach in a private lesson took much longer than 10 minutes of practice per day to master it.

It reeeeeally depends.

My DS10 is musically talented, but due to his ADHD I've held back on music because he didn't have the EF to practice.

He had a regular teacher for 6 weeks. 30 minute lessons. It was usually too much time and he did poorly (behaviorally) in the lessons. The teacher was soooo impressed by him and praised him heavily. He was practicing 3 hours a day for a while. Then he figured out he didn't have to practice and she would still gush just the same so he stopped practicing, maybe 1 hour over a whole week. He surpassed what this teacher was able to teach in 6 weeks.

He's currently taking 45 minute lessons from a university professor who is meticulous, demanding, AND a really nice guy who sees a lot of his childhood self in DS10. 45 minutes is not enough. They run over into my lesson time each week. DS10 is practicing something like 30 minutes on 3 days and 2 hours on another day. He is practicing less and making more progress. It's a better balance.

If it wasn't for limitations of ADHD, DS10 would be in the "serious music student" category. I'd add trumpet lessons with a university professor, as trumpet is his primary instrument, and he'd be taking music classes at the local community college. The EF just isn't there, not enough hours in the day after dealing with his slow processing speed and everything else that needs to be done.

I see what you mean. The considerations and "payoffs" also are a bit different when you are using music lessons/practice partly as extended therapy.

I think in our area, the duration of lessons is tied to skill level or so I have been led to believe. I have been searching for new teachers for DS/DD and prospective teachers indicate a minimum of 45 minutes with a preference for 60 minutes. Age-wise, DS/DD are ready for 60-minute lessons and 60-minute practices.

That is a great point regarding competing interests at the high school level and dialing back if the situation warrants it. I have no intention of acting as a practice "Nazi" as I believe the choice should lie with them at that age. However, music lessons are expensive ($60 to $100+) where we live so I am not willing to expend that much weekly (times 2 for 2 kids) if they are not committed to improving. It is not that I would withhold lessons, just not provide 60-minute lessons with a distinguished musician. If they wanted to play for fun, 30 or 45 minutes with a teacher with a typical background is a reasonable compromise so that money can be used for something else.

Thank you - you have laid it out very clearly and succinctly. DS/DD are not talented or committed enough to follow the conservatory route nor do I want or expect that of them. They just want to be/remain competitive enough for All-County and All-State bands/orchestras. In my mind, I see 60 minutes of practice five days a week as a reasonable average to try to keep pace with weekly 60-minute lessons. I would even be okay if they aren't always ready for the next lesson if being ready would have required more than five hours of practice a week. It's also the issue of the financial sacrifice to pay for those lessons.

Actually, your DS' three and a half hours of practice time per week for 45-minute lessons seems appropriate to me. For 45-minute lessons, I would expect a minimum of three to three and a half hours of practice weekly.

What do your kids want - the "distinguished musician" or the "typical teacher?" What do they have now? Some distinguished musicians are terrible teachers and vice versa. My more serious musician has a less distinguished teacher than my less serious musician because of teacher-student chemistry. Serious musician daughter has had the same teacher since she started her instrument in fifth grade. They have wonderful chemistry and this teacher has been a fabulous mentor. Even though this teacher does not play in any of the "big name" symphonies or orchestras around here, she regularly has students receive scholarships to play in college. Less serious musician daughter recently switched teachers. She is now studying with a teacher who plays in the symphony and teaches at the university. This daughter had stagnated with her previous teacher and felt like she wasn't achieving her modest goals. She found the new teacher herself by talking to upperclassmen she respected and asking for recommendations. I wanted to support this rare bit of self-advocacy. It is costing me more but my daughter is more engaged and motivated than ever. Maybe she will become a more serious musician, maybe not.

Five hours of practice time would be difficult for either of my girls to commit to on a regular basis. Some weeks they have the time, some weeks they don't. They are both in an IB program that sometimes has a heavy homework load. Also, once they got to high school, they seemed to gravitate to a couple longer sessions every week instead of daily sessions. They have both made all-county and various university honor bands, though not all-state. They are on a block schedule at school so they have 3-4.5 hours of band at school plus 2 hours of an extra-curricular band every week, not to mention the extreme time commitment of the musical every spring. Even though they love their instruments, sometimes practice is the things that has to give.

LOL - my kids of course want the distinguished musician. I hear what you are saying regarding accomplished musicians not always being the best teachers. We of course look for both qualities. DS's teacher has both. We are still looking for a better qualified teacher for DD. Part of the issue is that you need a teacher who is significantly more advanced than your student. The practice time can become an issue. They may not always be able to practice five to seven days a week and that would be okay but I think they do need at least about five hours a week if they want to "keep up" with an hour of lesson time and be competitive in our state. Of course, their goals are in flux so we will see as the year unfolds.