How much practice do you put in daily?

[PaulBills]

I have myself a set routine of practicing scales (so my fingers have a muscle memory of what frets are where) and then 4 or 5 songs to play through, although I'm starting to add more and more songs to the list. Daily practice works out at about an hour and a half, tootling on some scales and learning songs. Incidentally, Bohemian Rhapsody has a nice sound to it on the mandolin...

So, how long do you practice, and how?

[fatt-dad]

I pretty much play every day. I practice less than I play. I rarely do scales or chord practice (not good). I'm happy on my plateau. So, when I practice it's to learn a new tune. I learn several new tunes each month. Eventually, I forget them and have to be "reminded" in a jam. Usually though when I can get to the point I can whistle a tune, I can play it.

I was driving home and Bonepart's Retreat came on the iPod. There's a tune I need to relearn! And, my duet buddy wants to add King of the Fairies to a medley with Morning Dew. So, I want to learn that "Fairies" tune too.

That's good for tonight, well and get more fluent on Bach's Invention #13! (That Bach's a journey!)

f-d

[Denny Gies]

I pick about a half hour every day.

[Tobin]

If I can't get in at least an hour to an hour-and-a-half, it's a very bad day.

[PaulBills]

If I can't get in at least an hour to an hour-and-a-half, it's a very bad day.

Same here

[Ivan Kelsall]

Before i retired,i'd try to get in an hour or so after work. Since i retired,i used to get 4 to 5 hours a day in,playing along with I/net radio Bluegrass stations,but i've cut back to around 2 hours a day at the moment. Like f-d,mine's mostly learning new tunes or practicing impro.on the ones i already know,
Ivan

[Carl Robin]

About an hour and a half per day split between early morning, and after work, longer on free days. I'm usually working on 3-4 tunes that are new, or that I haven't been able to really learn yet, and dozens to perfect and stay familiar with. Practicing scales isn't on the agenda. I practice at full or nearly full tempo until my hand and forearm get tense and stiff, stretch out, and then go right back to it. I also improvise along with recorded music. There isn't much self-discipline involved, for some reason, I just feel like practicing.

[mandoritz]

I have been working nights the last few weeks and have been able to put in a four hours + every day for about 6 weeks before i go to work. Started practicing scales and arpeggio's daily until I became accustomed to the mandolin fret board. Now I am concentrating on right hand technique. I practice tunes such as polkas , jigs and reels...that have an element of finger dexterity in them. It also brings on sight reading skill as well. Must say that my better half has been very patient also.

[farmerjones]

Usually between ten and twenty minutes in the morning, and about an hour in the evening. Has anyone else noticed how bad TV is after 9:00 p.m., or is it just me?
Basically, I play/practice tunes that are much more difficult than I would play at a gig or jam. So far this has enabled me to coast in the aforementioned performance arenas.

[Amanda Gregg]

Practice is the residual of my graduate studies, i.e., I get it in when I can, which means much to my disappointment, I practice erratically. Sometimes I pick a weekend day and practice 4 or 5 hours. I try to at least get my hands on the instrument every single day, even if only for fifteen minutes. Band practice, standing up for 4 hours playing, has been a great boost to my playing.

My father, a serious chess hobbyist who used to work as a high-powered cardiologist, used to say, "Gee, this doctor thing is really getting in the way of my chess game."

[TwoByFour]

About 90 minutes per day; when on vacation, longer, but time is variable depending on spousal glares of disapproval.

I spend a fair bit practicing technique and theory, work on a few songs from the repertoire to keep them fresh, work on a new piece. Every other day or so I try to add in some sight reading standard notation (I'm not super fast, but I'm working on it) and improv work from a fakebook sheet (again, not super fast). I always try to keep in mind that the point of practicing is to have a good practice session and feel some improvement; if I focus too much on learning one particular thing in a certain time frame, negativity creeps in and then practice is drudgery.

[Randi Gormley]

So am I the only one who is ducking down right now? Although I actually play more than I think I do.

I have specific hand issues that keep me from practicing every day (or have kept me from it in the past) so I'll play my mandolin every other day or, if I'm feeling lazy, two or three times a week. That doesn't count actually playing out at sessions or gigs, but gigs are sporadic and sessions run from one to three days a week depending. Our usual Monday session runs from about 8 to about 11 p.m. but there's a lot of talking going on at the same time ... other sessions can last three or four hours, but I won't know every tune so I'm not continually playing. All that is a way of saying that playing and practicing are different things. Practicing is more like me sitting down with my husband and going over new or old music for an hour or 90 minutes with occasionally jumping up to check on dinner or to answer the phone. I don't do actual technique-building on a regular basis but I'll run scales instead of noodling while waiting for something to happen at a session ... I do take lessons, so I get in a bit of sight-reading at that time and will occasionally have a piece I work on; once a year I do a four-day classical workshop and I'll spend time working on that music, about an hour at a time until it becomes relatively familiar, but that's not what you'd call a practice routine.

[lorrainehornig]

I practice 15 - 45 minutes in the morning before I go to work, then about 1 1/2 hours at night. On weekends I do an hour in the morning and 1 1/2 hours in the afternoon. One Sunday I did 3 - 2 hour sessions...I don't recommend it...my hand was stiff for days. I usually start by working on a new tune. Then I work on tunes I don't want to forget. I end my practice with chord practice. I have been considering adding some scales studies in different keys because my instructor just gave me a couple of tunes in keys I've never played before so I'm thinking I should put more time into that aspect of my playing.

[Colin Lindsay]

So, how long do you practice, and how?

I don’t practice, not consciously, but I play all the time. I’ve always done this, from my earliest days of guitar playing where I watched television and played along to all the tunes, even the adverts. While surfing I usually have some instrument or other within reach; even while sunbathing today I had my lute guitar with me and was lying on a lounger playing the theme to Captain Corelli’s Mandolin…
So technically I don’t practice, I never actually stop playing….

[Bill McCall]

Since I'm a newbie (only 18 months) I do an hour and half daily during the week, longer on weekends. Mornings I'm not at the gym I add another hour. I do scales in all positions, some tremolo work (only 11 months to go) and then work on reading new tunes, finishing by playing some 'repetoire' tunes for fun. I take weekly lessons so I try to be as prepared as my 'talent' lets me. Don't jam much because I think I should be home practicing.

[Mike Floorstand]

Maybe average 1 hour per day but:
- (usually) more at weekends than weekdays
- less when work is busy (getting home later)
- for some reason less while on holiday than while working

Try to include some practice of technique, learning new tunes, and revisiting tunes already learned with each practice session.

I read some advice once about doing "gymnastics (=technique) in the morning, new friends (=tunes) in the afternoon, old friends in the evening". I don't suppose the time of day really matters, but a little bit of each in every practice session?

[Mark Wilson]

1.5 to 2 hours. I've learned enough songs after 14 months that old song maintenance is starting to take up more time. I should create a list and be more structured.

Lately for fun I spend a small bit of my practice working on intervals(?). I think of a simple song and strike a random note to start and then see if I can play the melody without missing a note. It ain't no part of nothing but I get a kick out of it

[yankees1]

About one to two hours per day . More playing than practice however.

[darrylicshon]

I try to get an hour a day atleast , but i play guitar , violin ,sometimes drums so its hard to make time everyday

[Michael Weaver]

Anymore, not near as much as I used to. I "practice" just as much as I always have but play less. I practice about 20 minutes a day but play for hours. I think some people might be confusing the two. Your brain stops accepting new material pretty quickly.

[bratsche]

I spend between 1 and 2 hours a day on the instrument (not all at once - it may be broken up into as many as 4 or 5 sittings). Whether it's spent in practicing or playing varies a lot, according to my whims.

bratsche

[Jon Hall]

From 45 minutes to a couple of hours depending the rigors of the day.

[David Lewis]

I try to do at least an hour a day. Most days I get some in. And that's practice I try to get in: scales, chords, difficult phrases, chops, new songs. Playing? that's everyday, from 10 mins to ...

[bart mcneil]

I play between an hour per day to 3 hours.. Practice bores me silly, but playing I love... so I "play" those tunes requiring those techniques I want to become comfortable with. If my goal is to play the tune I do fine, but if my goal is simply to improve technique I become bored.... Matter of priorities I guess but it works for me.

I tell people I never "practice", and in some ways that is true. Were I to think of it as practice I likely wouldn't do it.

[Richard J]

I practice at least 1 to 1 1/2 hours each day. To me it's heaven. Starting playing a mandolin as self-help therapy for short-term memory after my TBI, and it's more then I could have asked for. First I start with songs I know, and can REMEMBER, then on to a new song. I don't play with anyone except for a jam session with a uke player a couple of times a month during lunch at work. So to me, practice is really re-wiring my brain and true bliss.