What If I Only Have 30 Minutes to Practice?

Piano Foundations series now enrolling at Improv Planet:
I. The Four Pillars of Piano Technique
II. Tone Production at the Piano
III. How to Practice

[cedarvillemusic]

New courses on piano technique and historical improvisation now enrolling at Improv Planet:

[suntzu]

Another protip is: SLEEP! Sleep is where your neuroplasticity occurs, locking in your progress / learning. There might actually be something to be said for taking a nap after practice if you want to learn faster.

Another thing that helps is doing nothing / taking breaks while keeping it fresh in your mind.

[pianopressofficial]

You are the first person on YouTube to say 30 minutes is not enough. I feel the same way. Its a good start. To get to great, invest the time.

[cjcidaho]

I am "cranky and old, " too. Not so cranky, really, but I know I will probably never get beyond about level two, being self-taught at this point (age 80). I like your videos because of your humanity and sense of realism. My human nature struggles with self-discipline, and this video particularly helps me focus. Many thanks, and please keep it up a long time!

[southpark]

0:31 - true! 30 mins is infinitely better than 0 minutes.

[amotinyabongo]

Getting back on the piano after 40 plus years, being prepared to utilize unscheduled available time means we must travel with our backpacks. (Smile) The wife wonders why I always have a bag of stuff where ever or when ever I head out. It's not a lot of stuff I carry with me but time is the one resource we can't get back once gone. If I know I may get a chance to practice...I have my main back pack. If I know I'm not going to get a chance to practice...say going to the dentist/food shopping. I have a different bag...with reading or listening material. Thanks for the post.

[MWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWM]

I listen to your lectures with pleasure. Thank you.

[cisium]

5 minutes at a time is pretty much my standard practice increment, although the total time spent practicing per day is much more than 30 minutes. My brain learns better in little “bites” with breaks in between.

[RolandHuettmann]

Most people have the time setting priorities. Since when I quit watching nonsense TV I had plenty of time. We just waste so much time for things we do not really need to grow in our perception and abilities. I guarantee, it is rewarding in many ways to set priorities.

[DavidMiller-bpet]

Great wisdom, fun, practical, real.

[drmichaelshea]

If I didn’t live in the middle of nowhere - Yuma, AZ - and had talent - most of which dissipated with age - I’d love to take piano lessons from you. You’re the kind of teacher I never knew.

[trghtGuy]

As a 60 year old student who has been playing for 7 months, this video reinforces and clarifies things I have been intuitively groping towards myself. Even though I practice a bunch (3 -5 hrs most days), at my age I am striving to be as efficient as possible with the time I have remaining. Thank you!

[komoru]

I would also say if someone only has 30 minutes a day to practice, and piano is a top priority for you, then you need to find other areas in your life to cut back on to gain more time to practice. I'd also say that you'll need more time to practice in Less phone time, less travel time, and possibly even less time with friends/family. Really great musicians are often loners and eccentric and socially awkward....and also poor because they spend more time playing music than focusing on things like making money (!)

[RobinJWheeler]

For technical stuff I like to practise 8 keys a day. E.g. C major, A minor, Eb major, C minor, Gb major, Eb minor, A major and F# minor. They are keys following the diminished chord. If you like Barry Harris..

[velcroman]

I use a kitchen timer. The timer stops me from taking time from another practise activity.

[DavidMiller-bpet]

A few folks mentioned rest and breaks in practice and performance, applies to 30 minute or less practice-r. I find that often the best rest is NOT to do nothing, impossible for me, but do something else, change the focus of what you're working on, could be musical, playing the kazoo or non-musical to the roar of a lawnmower while chasing it.

[paulpisano]

Your comment about continually being asked to do more with fewer resources gave me this great idea: college administrators should ask their football and basketball coaches to just teach the players in a lecture hall setting! That way they wouldn't have to build state-of-the-art, multi-hundred-million-dollar stadiums (with major renovations every 15-20 years) for them to practice in.

[estakass]

I enjoyed this for 2 reasons. First because I learned the BacH Brahms Chaconne shortly after I started playing with only my left hand. I think it took me 4 or 5 months but I liked the piece and my teacher said I could learn it. This is probably my greatest achievement on piano. Obviously I am very familiar with the Chaconne. I never practiced anything that slowly. Great idea. I wonder if I should play slowly for my teacher or I should try to play at tempo for lessons. Going to look at the Chaconne again and see if slow practice makes perfect.

I have recently managed to increase my time at the piano from 15 minutes to 40. I just stop when the arthritis pain starts in my thumb. In 15 minutes I accomplished nothing. But 40 minutes is okay.

[erikhauganaaslandpianist]

If I'm overwhelmed with work (even with lots of time to spare), I tend to divide the music into very small chunks. I set a timer for, say, 3 minutes, and learn a particularly difficult passage - only something very small, like a few bars of nasty stuff. And then I move on to something different and do the same. Then after a few cycles, I return and repeat, but this time with a tiny bit more overlap before and after, thus avoiding "cuts" in the music. This allows my brain to stay fresh and the practicing won't become mechanical and thoughtless. I don't have to have a plan per se, but I do need to know beforehand what parts of the music can be learned after playing through once or twice, and which parts need deep dives.

Time wasted on being happily and musically playing the easy parts is time I always regret, even though I enjoy it at the time. There will come a time later when I'd kill for that time just to polish a difficult passage.

If a passage won't stick, I make sure that the last few times I play it is at least slow and correct. This is to not let my brain remember that passage as being a horrific mess. Then I SLEEP ON IT. Yes! This works. When you return after a good sleep - where the brain has had time to do it's house cleaning work, you will find that it has at least somewhat improved said passage. It might not be solved, but the path forward is clearer and more plausible.

Also, as my teacher, Hamish Milne, said: "Indecision is the root of all evil." Don't spend time being indecisive if practice time is short. Go straight for the throat, and don't let go.

[MarianoPerez]

I practice about 40 minutes a day due to back issues and chronic cubital tunnel not related to piano. However, what has worked best for me is to break that practice time into a few sessions. Most days, I practice two 20-minute sessions. Each session is composed of 5 minutes of scales and arpeggios, followed by 15 minutes of pieces. Also, I play songs from my repertoire through out the day when i have a few minutes here and there and i dont count this towards my practice. If i did, id probably be in the 50 to 60 minutes range.

I always have a plan for each session. For example, I spend 6 minutes learning a new measure, 6 minutes ironings out passages and phrases out, and 3 minutes reviewing what I've already learned.

I have to devote time specially to sight reading though. I only read as I'm learning the song for now. And anything else that I can do where I'm not sitting at the piano, namely planning, researching, etc, I don't count towards my practice time.

I feel so lucky that I can practice despite my cubital tunnel and lower back pain. That's why I make sure I make my practice sessions count.