Loaded question if ever there was one. Usually teacher throw a fake card to evade the subject, something like “It depends”, or ‘What do you want to achieve?”. I’ll give you the skinny, I won’t try to avoid to answer: “You give me a half-hour 6 times a week and we’ll be good friends”. There! That’s an answer.
Too simple, you reply. All right, let’s go into the particulars.
Let’s say you just started with a drum or piano teacher, let’s say you chose Sol Garnier as your instructor (good choice, by the way!), you’re now about to discover the joys of an instrument and how to approach it. For this situation, you do 20 minutes three times a week and the weather doesn’t get stormy. Yes, about an hour per week on the horse will be sufficient to cover the assignments. I am very nice to beginners. They are, after all, trying to see if they’re going to like it.
Now, if you’re one of those that have already been playing, already had a taste, so to speak, and you’re determined to break through whatever ceiling has been holding you down, well now, you’re going to need a little more time playing. I’d say half an hour per day, 5 days a week. Add to that that during the weekend, at least one day, you get an hour or two under your belt. It doesn’t guarantee that you’ll reach your goals quickly, but, at the very least, you won’t be stagnant.
Moving forward, we now arrive towards the intermediate to advanced players. How much should you practice? you ask. My answer: You should know, because if you’ve been able to reach the level you’ve got, it means you’ve already built a pretty good hygiene of practice. But, as far as those players are concerned, I recommend not letting go. We are now almost into professional territories and, like most pros describe, including someone like Paul McCartney, “Music is 0.5 % talent and 99.5 % hard work.” Which entails that you practice until your veins pump battery acid, then you practice some more (I stole that last phrase to “Fight club”, please do not practice when it hurts). In all seriousness, most people I know at that level are truly dedicated and have already proven it. So, we do talk about practice, but not much.
I’ll serve up a metaphor now to illustrate the different feelings that people experience according to their level on the instrument. You’re about to go swim into a lake somewhere into our beautiful upper Midwest, be it Michigan, Wisconsin, Northern Illinois or even Minnesota. A beginner is one that ask questions before she/he even has one toe into the water. An early intermediate took a swim, found it cold but very nice once you’re in the drink and wants to do the experience again, just is not sure her/his memory is accurate. An advanced player doesn’t care about the water temperature, she/he’s going for the record of the fastest swim across the lake in the history of mankind.
