[SOLVED!] How Much Time to Practice a Music Instrument Daily

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When it comes to practicing musical instruments, it becomes hard to determine the exact timing. You can’t learn to play instruments within a day. Learning musical instruments requires patience, persistence, time, and more practice. But, exactly how much time to practice a music instrument daily? Well, from this guide, you will find the answer.

The exact timing of practicing a musical instrument depends on your goal and experience. It is a pleasurable process, and when you see the progress, you will feel encouraged to practice more. You should make the practice session a part of your life and do it on a consistent basis.

How Much Time to Practice a Music Instrument Daily

Pianist Lang Lang said that when it comes to learning an instrument, 90% is practice, and 10% is talent. Studies show that practicing more than 4 hours every day offers many benefits. According to the wind of music, if you put energy into learning and practice slowly, you can tune in a few days.

Beginners can start their instrument practicing for 20 minutes per day. For intermediate, the minimum duration of practice should be 40 minutes to 1 hour.  Lastly, advanced level musicians should play their instruments for at least 1.5 to 2 hours.

Make sure; whatever the duration is, you should practice with your full concentration. Otherwise, the whole time of practicing will go in vain. Deliberate practice can be draining for you, and you can’t stay focused for a longer time.

Therefore, you can divide your practice duration into several sessions. It is essential to play instruments with full attention. So, whenever your mind starts to get distracted, take breaks.

The following tangible chart will provide you a clear view of how much time to practice a music instrument daily.

How Much Time to Practice
Hours/Week Min/Day Goal
1 – 2 10 – 20 They are not likely to stick with the music.
3 – 4 20 – 40 Starting phase of musicians. However, they won’t get much time to accomplish anything after warming up.
7 1 It is the minimum time that every musician should spend to see growth in their ability.
10 – 15 1.5 – 2 This time is recommended for all musicians. In this time, you can warm up and get enough time to practice.
20 – 30 3 – 4 Musicians who are dedicated to becoming a virtuosic player.
30+ 5+ Top-tier musicians take this time for their practice sessions and look to leave a legacy.
a group of musical instruments including a guitar, drum, keyboard, tambourine.

Tips for Having an Effective Practice Session

The following tips will help your practice session be more effective and productive. So make sure before starting practicing to follow these tips.

Duration and Timing

Keep your practice session as much as you can stay focused. Track the time when you feel more energetic during the day. This may be in the morning, after lunch, evening, or any other time. Try to keep your practice session during this natural productive time. It will make you more able to focus on the instruments and can learn better.

Goals

Ideally, for beginners, the teacher provides a goal and weekly assignment. Learning instruments requires reputation, which becomes tedious for beginners. In this case, these goals help them not to feel overwhelmed. Also, use a notebook for your practice. Whenever you figure out something new, just note them down.

You can track the practice goals and the new things you discover in the session. While practicing, you have to be consistent enough to get into the zone. Your idea and intention should be clear about the music.

Practice Smartly Not Hardly

It’s natural that sometimes you can’t find any particular passage as you want. It means that you need more practice but not harder. Do not get frustrated and keep trying harder as it is not a smart thing to do. Apply different techniques and strategies instead of practicing harder.

Start playing slowly, as you can play at a faster tempo only if you can play slowly. Practicing accurately is more important for learning; therefore, you have to play slowly. After that, the faster tempo will come automatically. Whenever you see that you are making the same mistakes, stop right there.

Instead of stubbornly practicing, find out a way that will work for you. Brainstorm is most important in this stage. Write down different ideas and start experimenting. You can easily come up with a solution. Having the patience to learn something is necessary while practicing instruments.

Problem Solving

For every musician learning how to identify and solve the problem is essential. Consider the following problem-solving model for better convenience. We are summarizing them with an example of specific notes sound.

  1. At first, you should define your problems, for example, why a specific note or phrase sounds like this.
  2. Then analyze what is causing this note to sound like this.
  3. Research, brainstorm and identify a potential solution. Find out what tweak can make the note sound as you want.
  4. Try different tweaks so that you can find out the best-suited one. Test all those potential solutions.
  5. After that, implement your best solution and, if needed, make some changes.
  6. Last but not the list, monitor your implementation. Keep making changes to produce the best possible result you are looking for.

Also, do not forget to expose yourself to live music. Go for the genre of music you love the most. Listening to music also influences and establishes a great connection between motivation and practice instruments.

Conclusion

You should play as much you feel the fun and make a bond with your instrument. If you can’t focus on playing, the duration actually doesn’t matter. Therefore, it is necessary to utilize the practice sessions by staying focused and dedicated. Do experiment for yourself so that you can progress faster.

Learning to play instruments is kind of learning new languages. So, you should prepare yourself for repetitive practice sessions. Here, we share how much time required to practice a musical instrument daily. So, be persistent, dedicated, and keep practicing more and more, we assure you the reward will be great.