Hi everybody,

I have been playing the violin for 5 years now and I hear about how alot of violinists(and other musicians) practicing for 3-6 hours per day:unsure: . I have a hard time with 2 just being that I run out of things to play. I absolutly love playing but what am I supposed to do for 3 hours?(I realize that you probably wouldn't do it all in 1 practice but still...)(this camp that I am going to suggests 3-4 hours of practice per day) heh.... SO anyways how long does everybody else practice a day and how long should I really be practicing?

Thankyou
Lightning Gem
BMW

For every practice, u have to set a goal u want to achieve. It can be "I want to memorize till line no. 10 or bar 'whatever' of kabalevsky concerto" or "I want to master this difficult section of rode caprice no. 2". Therefore to me, it is not about the no. of hrs u had practiced which is important, but is whether u had achieved something during the practice. The harder the goal, the longer time it will take. But that is what i personally think, because no matter what i'm not a professional violinist but just a DipABRSM passer.

ok well that helps.
Anybody else?

Lightning Gem

I practice about 2hours and 50 minutes a day. I usually spend ah hour on scales trying to play them perfectly in tune. With harder pieces, it takes a long time to get perfect and i can find myself playing 2+ hours wqorking on a section getting everything like tonality, dynamics, intonation, etc... if you practice trying to get everything perfect, you should be able to spend 3+ hours playing the violin.

Thanks T1P That does help me figure out what everyone does in those many hours. LoL.

I am learning Sarabande in G minor. it's so fun. It is definaltly the kind of song that needs to have perfect shifting ,dynamics and intonation.

Does anyone else have any more tips for practicing ?

Lightning Gem
BMW

Erm... I personally can't sit down and say "okay, I will do 3 hours practice starting from now". I usually set myself a goal for each practising session and take however long it takes to achieve that.

What I also do, which you might want to consider, is I leave my instrument out all day ^^ Then if I feel like playing for a bit, I just pick it up and start. I dunno, I feel less inclined to practise if it's stuck in the case and I have to take it out and put it together, lol.

^Same here, because my instrument is a piano. XD
That's really how I practice too though; whenever I walk by my piano, I just feel inclined to sit down and practice for a good 15 minutes. I think I rack up a few hours a day doing this, not that I've timed myself. Anyway, I'm steadily learning songs and improving, so it seems to be working. ^_^

Of course, sometimes I just sit down and say "I'm not getting up until I learn these 8 measures." That works too. I never time myself though; I either sit down with a certain goal in mind, or I just sit down and have some fun.

you can do that too i personally don't because i can't get anything done in fifteen minutes. but it is all personal prefference.

Yeah I hate being rushed to practice in a few minutes because I waste way too much time looking at the clock and not concentrating on what I am doing.
But anyways this is really helping me to try to get everything perfect while I am practicing, just going over and over 1 piece of a song at a time.

Thanks everyone and keep the suggestions coming!

Lightning Gem

I personally don't recommend going at it for three straight hours, lol. It can be quite taxing, and your "efficiency" or "production", if you will, spirals down as you get tired and lose focus.


That's really how I practice too though; whenever
I walk by my piano, I just feel inclined to sit down and practice for a good 15 minutes. I think I rack up a few hours a day doing this, not that I've timed myself. Lol, I used to do that before realizing that it eats time. I actually have to refrain myself from touching my instruments. Zomg.

And yeah, I leave my instrument(s) out all day also. (Watch out for the sun!)
What I do nowdays is when I get an urge to play and I have time, I just pick it up and go. I've built up a repertoire over the years that I can draw from, and I can always make them sound better so I can go on playing forever. This is especially true for violin. There are songs that sound extremely simple (e.g. "Tema II" from Gunslinger Girl soundtrack) but are nightmarish to master. And by master... I mean being able to get on stage and seduce the audience (yes, the audience should be watching and listening, and see you as one beautiful piece of art :P ).

As you get better you'll start to see how you can take pieces you've played to a completely new level. There are pieces I've played for YEARS and still leave room for improvement. There are always ways to make your music more impressive.

Or I'll just think of a song I heard that I like, and go.
I don't do any "intense" practise sessions anymore. I just play and let my instrument sing. That's my practise, and I love it.

If I had all the time in the world I'd play alot longer, but I usually amount to 15-30 mins a day nowdays.

Well that makes me feel better about not having been practicing
for hours on end. lol. I have been practicing an hour each morning though
and I have time a little bit in the afternoon.

Lightning Gem

It depends today i practiced alot... but not all at once. Its hard for me to practice 3-4 straight hours, too. expecially if i do not like the songs that i have to practice. It also depends on you schedule, on weekdays i dont have time to practice that much. Also some days i really wanna practice and others I just wanna sleep or watch tv. So basically its you progative.
As i said earlier practicing 3-4 hours for me is hard, but there was a rumor going around that this one violinist at my school practices 8 hours a day... talk about crazy.

Wow 8 hours! That is insane!! You should go find them and ask what they are doing for 8 hours...and how?

8 hours?? That's impossible...
Let's say: 6 hours at school, 8 hours practising, 8 hours sleep... that leaves 2 hours for travel, eating, washing, household chores, other hobbies and the fragments of his/her social life.

i know it sounds fake, I'll have to ask him myself maybe it is on the weekends, who knows

Me, im a self taught violinist so i clearly have alot of room for improvements (but hey, atleast i saved myself like 500$) but since i got all these school related issues coming up *coughibexamscough* im just too busy to play anymore, last i played was like a month ago, usually i just print out a sheet music, take a look at it, take it slow, and progressively get faster until i match the speed it should be at, which takes a couple hours right there. Good way to practice, since my reading music sucks

i know it sounds fake, I'll have to ask him myself maybe it is on the weekends, who knows


Yeah let us know! and ask him what he does for that long!?

Lightning Gem

I usually practise between 20 to 80 minutes the days I practise. *coughschoolgivestoomuchhomeworkcough**coughandiam stupidwhenitcomestopsychologyhistoryandsocialstudi escough*
I can only play 40 minutes in straight (well, since my instrument is flute, I would faint if I tried to play more than that) but I usually take 10 minutes long pauses halftime (after 20 minutes) to get some fresh air. I do that mostly because I need to fill my lungs with better air the the air in our apartment (my mother's smoking inside and she's the cause I might have asthma) but also to clear my head.
I think going out to get some fresh air when having pauses (maybe not after 20 minutes, but after 40-60 minutes or so) in practise might make you more motivated, right? It's like doing homework, you need some rest even if what you do is fun homework, 'cause otherwise you won't learn anything from your homework. As long as you don't have too many pauses, right?
I can tell you that since I started to take a pause after 20 minutes I've improved alot. Recently I've been able to get new homework from my teacher every week (before it always was the same homework for about 4-7 weeks and I didn't improve alot in many years) and she's suprised that I, (one of her slowest, but most determined students and the only one left from the first "6-year old children's group" in our town) in only a week, could manage to start practising the real hard (since I haven't played other variation but simple ones when I was like 8 years old and it was on twinkle twinkle little star) variation on the song i'm trying to learn.
Also, if possible you could record yourself practising. (i know this has nothing with the topic) If you can you could listen to it and hear if you hear any mistakes or bad parts or if you unconsciously hesitate somewhere and other stuff like that. I did that some years ago (then my microphone broke and I haven't had money to buy a new one) and that's also a time I improved faster than my average improvement-pace is.
And... Ehm... Go through old song. Both to improve them, but also you might find something that might help you in what you're currently practising. I've done that alot (tough that doesn't seem to do me any other good, but to get confused)

I hope that might help a little.
Oh yeah... Don't try too hard, okay? Trying to much usually ends up in failiures (personal expirience) and you won't improve. An just a short period of time (like 40 minutes with a 10 minute break ate leats once a week, for me that is) might let you improve alot more than 3 hours of practise everyday.
But obviously I'm not saying that this is the best for everyone else with no talent at all. It's mostly more like you need to find what is suited for your personallity than finding out what's everybody else's way to practise.

(I don't count piano in this, since I'm not really serious about it and I sometimes don't play for weeks)

*coughibexamscough*


*coughschoolgivestoomuchhomeworkcough*
*coughandiamstupidwhenitcomestopsychologyhistoryan dsocialstudiescough*
These new members had better not start some epidemic on this forum. :mellow:

It's physical to play violin. I have to make little pause every hours lol . then 3 hours it definitively not for me....

8 hours?? That's impossible...
Let's say: 6 hours at school, 8 hours practising, 8 hours sleep... that leaves 2 hours for travel, eating, washing, household chores, other hobbies and the fragments of his/her social life.

actually, you can practice 8 hours+! Just means not getting a lot of sleep (3-4 hours) Over the summer i plan on doing at least 4 or 5 a day. I prefer playing 3-4 hours at once so i can keep my mind focused. (sometimes i take a 5 minute break) All next week i plan to practice like 2 sessions of 4 hours a day because i have a competition on June 2 and i haven't learned all of my solo yet:heh: :heh: :heh: . Luckily, my school is off this thursday.