how long should i practice?

[1213brett]

hi I have been playing the mandolin for about 3 months. I practice about a hour a day is this enough to get good.

[TheOne-N-OnlyHomer]

You'll probably get a lot of varying answers to this but I'd say practice as much as you can as long as you feel like it and enjoy it. Practice every day but only as long as it's enjoyable, if you begrudgingly force yourself to play you'll grow to resent your practice time and play less and less. As far as getting good well that's all personal perspective.I, by no means am good but I've gotten to a point in my playing where I don't irk myself to listen to myself and that in turn inspires me to pick up my mandolin whenever I get a chance which makes me happy and causes me to play/practice more. I'd also encourage you to find some simple songs that you enjoy playing. There's nothing more irksome than playing a tune over and over that you can't stand, no matter how simple and "helpful" it is.

[Paul Busman]

Yeah, what Homer said. Remember, we call it "playing" the mandolin, not working it.
I've rarely done any actual practicing but I've gotten good enough to play mandolin in a working Irish band. Just about the only time I practice in the usual sense is if I'm learning a new tune and there is a difficult passage. I'll spend time working on that passage really slowly and gradually bring it up to speed. Even then I don't do it for very long at one sitting. Mostly though, I just pick up the instrument when the mood strikes me and play tunes of all sorts.

[Purdy Bear]

I would say yes, not from a Mandolin point of view but from flute playing. With the later I began to practice for an hour a day and made very good progress, as soon as I went along with my tutors nagging to reduce it to 10 minutes it went down hill.

For me with the Mandolin, only playing for a month, I do at least 10 minutes a day, with the usual being 20/30 minutes in the morning and another 20/30 minutes in the afternoon. I can't do much more then that as my finger tips have yet to build up calluses, I also don't work at present so can easily fit it in to my day.

I also think playing scales, and arpeggios will help build up muscle memory, however I do know it's a hard one to find descent sheet music showing these. For my other instrument the Ukulele I have ended up doing my own. It is vital of course (depending on the type of music you wish to play) that you do read sheet music.

[UsuallyPickin]

It is a question of how you define good. What level of accomplishment , how complex a piece of music do you want to be able to play? One hour a day is three hundred and sixty five hours a year. If ten thousand hours of study produces an accomplished master level professional level player you will reach that goal in a little more than twenty-seven years......... your call ..... because it's all about what you expect from yourself..... R/

[mvlh]

Practice until you get bored. Then try again the next day.

[Denny Gies]

You should practice as long as you are improving, learning something new or until you are just bored. As said above, it really depends on the individual and on how fast you want to progress. Good luck

[Mark Wilson]

Practice more than once a day if you can - in addition to your main practice session.
I have the opportunity to keep a mandolin at work and that 30 min lunch session is very effective. I have a friend with small kids who practices early in the morning.

Also - I put out a notice for other pickers who might also be practicing at home but might want to have a once a week practice session with others. And I found just that. We learn the same songs and there's just nothing better motivating you to practice that playing in front of peers.

Practice with a plan - play but don't just play

[Hendrik Ahrend]

hi I have been playing the mandolin for about 3 months. I practice about a hour a day is this enough to get good.

How talented are you?

[Jim]

In a word Yes, How long it will take depends on you. I play most days , sometimes for an hour, sometimes 3 to 6. At a certain point you don't measure it. An hour a day is good and will hopefully lead to playing with others, Lessons (live, skype, youtube or DVD) and a life style change from " I need to practice" to "I want to Play".

[DavidKOS]

It isn't only about how much time you practice - the focus and quality of that practice time makes a big difference.

[Robert B]

I pick up the mandolin every chance I get and spend a lot of time exploring new chords, usually 3 finger combos and 2 finger progressions. I pay special attention to playing notes and chords cleanly. I also listen to a lot of mandolin music in order to find material that I love enough to spend time learning.

Consistency is the key, and set out to discover and learn something new. Make your notes just a little clearer and your chord changes just a little smoother each time.

Most importantly, enjoy the time you spend with your instrument in your hands.

[journeybear]

This is your neighbor. Enough is enough. Knock it off!

[mandroid]

An hour a day for 50 years.

[sblock]

If you have to ask how long you need to practice, you're probably coming at this from the wrong perspective. Practice no longer than it captures your interest! That time may well vary from day to day. It might become an obsession. It might be just a dalliance. No matter. Play to have fun!

As for how long it takes to "get good," I don't see how one defines "good." Your personal idea of "good" and mine (and Chris Thile's!) probably differ. I think that being just a little displeased with one's own playing is natural, and it can a helpful source of the motivation needed to get just a bit better. On the other hand, if you define "good" by a set of (usually moving) goals, for example, being able to play some standard tunes in a jam setting at full tempo with other local musicians, than "getting good" can translate in a useful way into practice goals. So hold on tight to that desire to "get good," but realize that you may well change your definition of what's "good" as you get better and better!

But always, enjoy your own music. Everything else flows organically from that.

[Kevin Stueve]

remember practice doesn't make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect. So play, enjoy, noodle. But if you are "practicing", trying to change a bad playing habit or trying to perfect that difficult passage, then indeed you can practice too long.

[9lbShellhamer]

I can't recommend enough the Matt Flinner BG101 online classes. NFI and all that... I started a year ago and I couldn't be more impressed with the classes or with my progress since starting. I've taken 3 different online classes now and can't wait for the new year to sign up for the next round. I am much better at improvising, and my tone, form, and speed are much more fluid. I play in a band here locally and with the knowledge I've gained I'm able to build my own breaks to songs we do and I feel comfortably improvising a song in the set if I haven't done it before. I'm sure results can vary, but I think it's much much better than self practice. I am REALLY self motivated and self taught in most things, but without the guidance from these classes no way I'd be where I am now. Don't get me wrong, I have a long way to go and I am working hard to keep improving, I am just thankful for the classes and recommend them.

[dwc]

To me, this is where the somewhat nebulous concept we call "talent" injects itself into the discussion. I prefer to think of it as "return on investment." Someone with musical "talent," some combination of physical manual dexterity and a musically wired brain, will progress at a much faster rate than someone with average talent.

I noticed this phenomenon in middle school band. Some band students progressed week after week and some had their progress creep along and eventually stagnate. Those who stagnated became frustrated and most of them dropped dropped out. There did not seem to be meaningful correlation between practice time and progress. Most of the band students were very serious even at that age, and almost all of us put in at least an hour a day, in addition to daily rehearsal practice and individual lessons.

The experiment I would like to see run is, take someone with average or even below average "talent" and see what happens if they practice efficiently and diligently for thousands of hours. How good could they become?

To circle back to your question and answering it a slightly different way, there is a certain level of diminishing returns involved in practice, particularly as a beginner. A good rule of thumb is that if you continue to make progress on a weekly basis, then you are a reaping the rewards of your practice. If you feel like your playing could improve if you devote additional time, and if you have that time, then do so and see if your playing improves.

Even after having played for a while now, I still tape my practices at least once a week so I can monitor my progression. In addition, many of my gigs are likewise recorded, so I have a good record of my progress. This has been invaluable in locating weaknesses that need to be eradicated. I know a lot of musicians, most have a tendency to practice what they do well and ignore their weaknesses. Good practice does the opposite. It focuses on weak areas and seeks to improve those.

This is, IMO why you see people who have been playing 10+ years and they are nowhere near as good as they "should be." They have not utilized their time in the most efficient way. They have spent hours/years on the things they do well, ignoring their weaknesses, and their progress stagnates.

So ultimately, stagnation can be attributed to either lack of ability or lack of efficient practice. Of the two, you can only control the latter.

[Beardog]

I am new to the mandolin, but certainly not to stringed intstruments and music. Practice what you can't do well, and never move on until you have a good grasp of each "problem". If you can't play it perfectly at a very slow tempo, you will never play it well at performance speed. I sometimes practice 3-4 hours on a weekend day, but usually get at least an hour in daily. Sometimes it helps to break it up into short segments of just a few minutes each.

[sblock]

I hope this thread will not devolve into the tired old discussion about whether a comparative lack of "talent" -- assuming that a propensity for being able to play music exists -- can be overcome by "diligence."

There is overwhelming evidence that folks have very different innate abilities, and the phenomenon of the musical child prodigy has long been known. Of course, that musical talent (or whatever you prefer to call it) is eventually wasted unless the child prodigy is able to devote a huge amount of time & energy towards perfecting his or her skill set. A great many classical virtuosos exhibited their talents early on, but then trained extremely hard to get to where they are today. It's not just talent, and it's not just practice, either. Stated another way, it's not nature OR nurture: it's nature AND nurture.

There are those who would claim that nearly anyone could achieve musical greatness with sufficient practice, and if they don't, it only means that they're not practicing efficiently enough, or correctly enough, or long enough, etc. Hogwash, I say! That claim is naive and bogus, and it has been proven wrong, time and again. The truth is that there is no "10,000 hour" rule. There is no panacea, and that is wishful thinking. Malcolm Gladwell made a lot of money off this populist fiction, but it's utter nonsense. See here to learn more.

We're all a bit different, and different people will benefit to different degrees with the practice that they do. Some will need more, and some will need less, to progress to a given level. This should not come as a surprise to most of you, since it very likely coincides with your own personal experience.

Not all of us will ever get as good as, say, Chris Thile, no matter how much we practice going forward, or whatever "efficient" routines we choose to adopt for that practice. But that doesn't mean we can't all get individually better. Or they we can't make great music. Or that we can't enjoy ourselves. Or that we can't play for the enjoyment of others.

We all work under different constraints. It does no good to ignore these. On the other hand, it does no good to give up prematurely either, just because we may never become a world-class virtuoso. There is great honor and joy in striving to live up to one's full potential -- in music or in anything else.

So, I say, practice however much you want. It all depends on your time available, your personal drive, what satisfaction you get from it, and so on. And adopt whatever practice regimen you choose. Practice the unfamiliar stuff, the familiar stuff, old stuff, new stuff, in any order that you choose, and in any admixture you choose. First and foremost, keep your love affair with your instrument alive. That's all.

[Timbofood]

As long as it's fun. When it becomes work, you should re think it

[dwc]

I hope this thread will not devolve into the tired old discussion about whether a comparative lack of "talent" -- assuming that a propensity for being able to play music exists -- can be overcome by "diligence."

There is overwhelming evidence that folks have very different innate abilities, and the phenomenon of the musical child prodigy has long been known. Of course, that musical talent (or whatever you prefer to call it) is eventually wasted unless the child prodigy is able to devote a huge amount of time & energy towards perfecting his or her skill set. A great many classical virtuosos exhibited their talents early on, but then trained extremely hard to get to where they are today. It's not just talent, and it's not just practice, either. Stated another way, it's not nature OR nurture: it's nature AND nurture.

There are those who would claim that nearly anyone could achieve musical greatness with sufficient practice, and if they don't, it only means that they're not practicing efficiently enough, or correctly enough, or long enough, etc. Hogwash, I say! That claim is naive and bogus, and it has been proven wrong, time and again. The truth is that there is no "10,000 hour" rule. There is no panacea, and that is wishful thinking. Malcolm Gladwell made a lot of money off this populist fiction, but it's utter nonsense. See here to learn more.

We're all a bit different, and different people will benefit to different degrees with the practice that they do. Some will need more, and some will need less, to progress to a given level. This should not come as a surprise to most of you, since it very likely coincides with your own personal experience.

Not all of us will ever get as good as, say, Chris Thile, no matter how much we practice going forward, or whatever "efficient" routines we choose to adopt for that practice. But that doesn't mean we can't all get individually better. Or they we can't make great music. Or that we can't enjoy ourselves. Or that we can't play for the enjoyment of others.

We all work under different constraints. It does no good to ignore these. On the other hand, it does no good to give up prematurely either, just because we may never become a world-class virtuoso. There is great honor and joy in striving to live up to one's full potential -- in music or in anything else.

So, I say, practice however much you want. It all depends on your time available, your personal drive, what satisfaction you get from it, and so on. And adopt whatever practice regimen you choose. Practice the unfamiliar stuff, the familiar stuff, old stuff, new stuff, in any order that you choose, and in any admixture you choose. First and foremost, keep your love affair with your instrument alive. That's all.

Emphasis added above is mine.

Has it been "proven" that enough practice cannot overcome deficiencies in talent? I would be very interested in such a study (or studies).

In practice, this is almost certainly true. No one who is terrible and has no aptitude for something will continue to work on it year in and year out with minimal improvement until finally they are proficient. I could probably spend an eternity learning to paint and still be terrible, I'm color blind and have no aptitude in visual arts. I could never be a pro basketball player, I'm 5'10" and have small hands.

But what about someone with a modicum of ability? Is such a person destined to mediocrity?

[journeybear]

Who cares? It seems to me sblock was quite clear about his wish to see this thread take a more productive tack than usual. I don't see what is to be gained by quoting his post and then doing quite the contrary to what he asked. And quoting his entire post is also unnecessary - quoting just the part you wish to address is sufficient. (And I sure hope this thread doesn't devolve into a discussion about that! )

I think a slight adjustment to the original post would help steer this thread aright. If we change the last word in this sentence "I practice about a hour a day is this enough to get good" to "better," I believe it would be more in the spirit of what the OP is looking to find. And avoid an esoteric discussion that the OP might find off-putting. And we don't want that, do we, but rather want to be encouraging as possible.

[Mark Wilson]

How much practice is too much?

[Teak]

How much practice is too much?

When the repossession people know the route to your house by memory.