How Long Should I Practice Every Day?
That depends on what your goals are! To answer this question, I will be referring to certain milestones in Suzuki Violin Book 1.
Generally, for my beginning students, those who are not yet through the Twinkle Variations, (the first tune in Book 1) I require that they spend 20 minutes per day, 6 days per week.
Once they can play Twinkle Variation ‘A’ very well, then the requirement goes up to about 25 minutes every day through the entire Twinkle Variations.
After the Twinkle Variations, you need about 30 minutes per day until you get to the Minuets. (Song number 13 and beyond) At that point, between 30 and 40 minutes per day is sufficient.
As you get more advanced, you have more mental tasks to practice, more pieces to review, and more techniques to practice, so your practice requirement will go up.
These are only rough guidelines. Depending on your goals and your natural ability, you might need much more practice time.
For instance, if you intend to make music a career, not just a hobby, then you will want to put in much more time. Just be cautious that your input is being matched by the OUTPUT, or by PROGRESS. If you are practicing your fingers off and you aren’t progressing rapidly, then you are either practicing wrong, or possibly you learn slowly. Either way, you need to know what is going on so that you can make realistic decisions concerning your musical goals.
I will give you myself as an example. I told you my musical story in “About Your Guide”. But in a nutshell, I was bound and determined to become a professional violinist. I loved music and never envisioned myself doing anything else. I practiced an INSANE amount, and got very little return for all my time and effort.
I have now decided (painfully) that this is a combination of misguided, unfocused practice habits, and an average natural ability. I was not endowed with a ton of inherent musical ability. Everything I learned to do, I worked for it. But, even with those strikes against me, I was still able to make it in the professional world, making my living playing the instrument I love! I probably paid a higher price for this than most, but here I am, just the same.
The general rule of thumb to make sure you are practicing correctly is: What did you get for the time you just spent? If you can answer that question with a real accomplishment, then you probably practiced properly. Ask yourself if the time spent was worth the accomplishment. If it was, then you are on the right track!
Some other tips for smart practicing
Learn to FIND THE PROBLEM. ISOLATE the problem from everything else. This takes work, but these questions will help you to find the problem:
- Where EXACTLY does the problem occur in the music? If you can answer this question, you are halfway there. Determine whether it’s just a difficult spot, or if you need to dig further to correct a problem with your technique.
- Is it your left hand? If it is, you need to determine if it’s just a wrong note, or if it’s just out of tune.
- Is it your right hand? Sometimes students miss notes just because the bow isn’t crossing strings in time. Check your string crossings, and where your bow is at on the string. Make sure your bow is straight! Make sure your bow weight, bow speed, and bow placement are all correct. (see article on Tone Production Simplified)
- Is it bad tone? This is mostly a BOW problem, but if your left hand isn’t pressing the string down firmly enough, that can create bad, squeaky tone. If it’s not your left hand, then see the tip above. If it IS your left hand, practice slowly and re-teach your left hand to properly nail the string down.
- Is it just a wrong note? This is a left hand problem.
- Is it out of tune? Left hand problem. Check your tapes if you use tapes. Play SLOWLY and figure out where the right spot is. FEEL that spot, and teach your hand to recognize that spot. Try to nail the right spot COLD TURKEY.
Retain what you practice
If you work hard on fixing a problem, you want it to STAY fixed. You don’t want to have to re-learn that spot every day, and forget it the next time. Here is how you can RETAIN what you practice.
Once you fix a problem, you need to leave it alone for 5 minutes, then RETURN to the problem and see if you can still do it right. If you can’t, re-work it. It will come more quickly this time. Then, leave it alone for another 5 minutes, play something else to “erase the muscle memory”. When 5 minutes is up, try it again, until you can nail the problem FIRST TRY. The next practice day, try the problem spot again, and so on, until you can consistently play the problem spot correctly on the first try.
The real test comes when you put the problem spot IN CONTEXT, like when you are playing through the WHOLE PIECE. Too many people are in the habit of nailing the problem spots on the second try. They are playing along, they hit the wrong note, they immediately fix it and they move on.
NO! You think this isn’t going to happen in performance? It will! That’s how you practiced it! You have to be able to play it correctly, IN CONTEXT, the first try, COLD TURKEY. If you can’t, then work on it the way I described until you can. This is TIME WELL SPENT, and a good investment.
hi i m20 year old and i m on suzuki book volume4 practising at own coz we cant find a advance instructor in nepal…i am stucked on vivaldis a minor concerto..how can i take forward my musical career without a teacher…will it be possible..i am now confused about wht to practice everyday…i often practice scales and arpegios and some etudes frm wolfarht…..plz give some ideas about wht other pieces should be practice to grow technically..
The Vivaldi is a WONDERFUL piece! Congrats on making it that far.
Suggestions: if possible, it would be good for you to take a “web-cam” lesson at least 1x per month with a good teacher. Even 3 lessons total would set you on the right path.
Some of my favorite supplemental materials for Book 4 are:
Harvey Whistler Introducing the Positions Volume 1 and 2
Wohlfahrt Opus 45 is great
Josephine Trott Melodious Double Stops, volume 1 and 2
Scales: make sure you can do 3 octaves on G Major, G Minor, A Major, A Minor…..if you can do Bb Major and minor, that is awesome.
Otherwise, do 2 octaves.
Make sure you can do the Major and minor arpeggios too. Don’t worry about doing the whole chord progression from the Flesch scale book yet. Just major and minor is fine.
If you can work through that material, you will be in great shape!
Good luck.
HOpefully you can find a web-cam teacher to teach you once in awhile!
Hi Rabindra
I forgot to tell you:
My Suzuki Book 2 class is extremely good…..and it talks about fundamental techniques that I am CERTAIN you would benefit from. It includes in depth vibrato, in depth scales/arpeggios, bow techniques, note reading, ear training, left hand builders, and much much more.
You can find out more here
Ha yes! I also have very double jointed fingers and I am still working at strengthening them better. I had about 8 versions of vibrato unto I figured it out cause my fingers can wiggle any which way almost. However, I am still having a very hard time with my arm vibrato though, as the motion is very strong and tugs a lot on the finger while it’s pivoting back and forth. My fourth finger will just not stand up and do vibrato the way the other fingers do instead it collapses into an “L” shape. When I do curve my fourth finger the tone is faster and quite different from the vibrato on the other fingers. What do I do? More Schradieck and Kreutzer #9?
It sounds to me like you have a weakness in your pinky (due to double-jointedness).
I’m almost sure that your problem will be solved by doing clothes pin exercises.
Watch and do the exercises for a month. You should notice your pinky starting to act like your other fingers, because that middle joint won’t collapse and lock.
Another trick (Zukerman tip) is to allow your pinky to play in a lowered position, utilizing the flat pad of your finger, not so much your finger tip. This also allows you to recruit the HEEL muscle of your hand to assist your pinky with a nice fat vibrato.
Good luck!
Hi
I practise a LOT but one huge issue I’m having is my double-jointed pinky! I’ve researched online but I cant find a suitable way to counter this. At the moment, when I play a 4th finger, my pinky kind of goes into an L shape, instead of a nice curve!
This – I think – has been mainly to do with the teacher I had for 9 years who didn’t bother at all with technique. Now I’m with a much more experienced teacher and I’m finding it hard to break all these bad habbits! If you could give any advice that’d be great!
Thanks
Hey Aden!
You asked the right person! I’m so double-jointed kids used to pay me on the playground to see the contortions I could make my fingers go into! LOL! Don’t worry–you can defeat this problem. It’s just a matter of strengthening the joints that tend to “cave in” and go “L-shaped”. For most violinists, this is the pinky and the thumb, and it happens on BOTH our bow hand and on the left hand. The cure I used is I bought a clothes pin. (look at the dollar store, near the laundry items, or in any grocery store near laundry and cleaning supplies) Use the clothes pin as an “Olympus Gym” for your pinky and thumb. You will try to pinch the clothes pin between your thumb and pinky.
VERY IMPORTANT: DO NOT ALLOW the joints to cave in! If that means you have to let your ring finger help, LET IT HELP while your pinky gets stronger. Or if you need to help with your other hand, ASSIST THE WEAK HAND! If you do this exercise while allowing your joints to cave in, you are only making the problem worse. THUMB must be round, and PINKY must be round. This will build all the right muscle and tendons. GO SLOWLY and GRADUALLY. If you get in a hurry, you can hurt your hand, and then you have to wait to heal. If you do this for 2-3 minutes each day, by the end of a month you should be able to do this with just your pinky versus your thumb, and both will be nice and curved! Please let me know how you do, and if you need a photo example of the clothes pin exercise, let me know, because this is a common problem that I’m sure affects more than just you and me. (by the way, I’d do this exercise with both hands…it will help you to strengthen both)
Check back frequently, because I’m going to start a whole category on “physical roadblocks to violin playing”….including sweaty hands, cold hands, bow-legged pinky, double-jointed fingers, tall people, short people, long fingernail beds, etc!
Thanks for your question.
Lora