Article written by Nicholas - Your Ukulele Teacher What is the ideal amount of time to practice my music instrument?
- Teens/adults VS kids - How much time to practice my music instrument when I am a teen or an adult or a kid?
- How much time to practice an instrument as a kid?
- You are beginning your music journey?
- Keeping your level VS improving
- Play regularly
- Should I practice everyday? Or 2 times a week is OK?
- How to be more efficient during your music study time?
- Be passionate
- Music is like sport
- "I don't have motivation to practice everyday"
- Conclusion
Teens/adults VS kids - How much time to practice my music instrument when I am a teen or an adult or a kid?
Max focus time vary with age. Kids will have much less focus than adults doing a task.
How much time to practice an instrument as a kid?
When starting music, practice for kids should not get boring, it shouldn't be a chore. Hence starting with 15 minutes is good. The most important thing is regularity. It's important to tease their interest and enthusiasm.
At 7 years old, starting learning an instrument by practicing 6-10 minutes is a great start. A few months later, they can increase their practicing time to 15 minutes. Then maybe 30.
At 12 years old, teens can practice much more and their focus time will be much higher: 30 minutes a day is a minimum.
When they grew up, they have more and more focus time span. They can concentrate on a task much longer. At 16, interest and passion could drive them to spend hours practicing. Don't be worried your kid spend "too much time" on their instrument: the more they practice, the better they'll be. Music is for many a way to evacuate tension and exteriorate their feelings. Music has helped many people - a kind of therapy in a way.
Anyway, don't put your ukulele away once you've finished your lesson, only to dig it up the day of your next lesson. This is true for adults, and also for kids.
You are beginning your music journey?
Have you just acquired a new instrument and are trying to get started? Are you "a new musician"? Are you new to playing music?
The most important is to build up a habit. Play at least 5 days a week. Every day if possible.
Months after months, you will slowly increase your time spent on your music instrument. Soon enough you'll play 30 minutes daily, or even an hour for the most savvy of us.
But first, start small, as long as you play regularly.
As a side note, did you know that I give ukulele courses ?
Keeping your level VS improving
If you want to "just" maintain your level, play 30 minutes every other day will do the trick. You won't really improve, but you will have fun learning some bits and pieces now and then.
You know what? It does not matter if you become the next Ed Sheran, the next the Weeknd or the next Imagine Dragons (or: insert your favourite artist)! What really matters is having a great time, having fun with you and music.
If you are the kind of person who wants to improve and get better at ukulele (or at another instrument), I can only encourage you to do so :)
After all, the more you learn, the more you improve. The more you improve, and the more you will be able to do, to play - the more tricks you will have out of your hat to enjoy. I find it much more pleasant to play something hard in a great way that an easy music in a great way.
But it does not mean you can't have fun as a beginner. Au contraire! It's so much fun to be able to discover, to learn and see your progress!
I could help you achieve that.
Play regularly
You don't have time? Nobody have time these days. In today's world, we are overwhelmed by our (pre)occupations: our job, our kids,... There's a saying in France: "Metro, boulot, dodo" (subway, work, sleep) - life is a rat race.
Life is hard. But you can insert some happiness in it. You can have your own time, your own great time with your ukulele session.
In life, it's much more fulfilling to create something as a hobby than to consume something. It's easy to watch a TV show, your favorite youtuber or a movie. But it's tremendously better to create: paint some abstract sci-fi landscape, sculpt a bust of Mickey, play your own interpretation of Daft Punk One More Time. Create entertainment
"Create. Don't consume." Don't be a consumer, but an actor.
Change your habit slightly. Insert a daily session of ukulele.
Should I practice everyday? Or 2 times a week is OK?
Playing 6 times a week 15 minutes is much better than two times 45 minutes.
Practicing regularly will help your muscles and your brain to forge good muscle memories. It will help you progress much faster.
How to be more efficient during your music study time?
Work in burst to not get bored.
Work on very specific things for a set period of time, but be super focus on it. The period of time could range from 10 minutes to 30 minutes. Avoid all distractions, just do one thing, and do it very well: practice a specific topic, a specific technique or a specific part of a music sheet.
Try to set a timer. Or use a "pomodoro" app ("pomodoro" here refers to a similar method that have been developed for high focus working time in the programming world).
You can do multiple super focused music practice a day. You can play once in the morning, and once in the evening for instance.
If you have much time, you can do a set of super focus practice. Do a 5-10 minutes break between each. Each set should be on another topic. After 3-4 sets you'll have covered most if not all of what you wanted to practice during the day. You'll achieve stellar results in the long term.
If you wish to practice more, go on a 20-25 minutes break, then practice 4 sets again.
After 3-4 groups of sets, you can be happy about your music practice, and proud of the habit of playing almost daily this intensely.
To recap:
- play 10-30 minutes set
- 5-10 minutes break
- play 10-30 minutes
- break
- play 10-30 minutes
- break
- play 10-30 minutes
- 20-25 minutes break
Repeat this group of sets 3 to 4 times.
Try it for a week. See what work best for you.
You can do smaller or longer set, fewer or more sets, and one or several group of sets.
Have fun trying and finding what's best for you.
During small breaks, I like to stand up, drink some water, pet my cat.
During big breaks, I enjoy going out for a walk, get some fresh air, or tiding up/cleaning up my desk or the living room, dancing to music I like, or even go on a 15 minutes sport groove, like do some jump rope.
And you? What do you like doing during your breaks? Don't hesitate to let me know in the comment section below.
Work the hard things to improve
Of course you can practice a scale. Or a music you can already play well. But don't overdo the things you can already play well. Focus on the hard things, focus on the techniques that you don't yet master, focus on one or two bars that you cannot play to tempo in a music.
For instance, in a sheet music, after some time playing it, you will easily master most of it. But there could be on or two bars more difficult than others. So, when practicing, instead of playing the whole music from start each time, just play the two harder bars. Again. And again. First slowly, then increasing the speed as your fingers get used to the move. Until you master them. And that you can play them in tempo, and even faster than the tempo of the music.
That way you will progress quicker, and more efficiently.
Enjoy the easy parts and have fun
Practicing music shouldn't bet a chore. So play the fun, easy part. Something that you'll have much pleasure playing. It could be a music that you really love and that you can already play (it should stay the icing of the cake). Or it could be a music that you are still learning, but a music that is easier to learn and practice than others.
Keep the fun part for the end of the practice.
Enjoying the easy parts will keep you motivated to play again, because you'd have much fun playing it!
Taking the most of your practice time?
Be passionate
Of course, the better you want to be, the more you should practice. I would much rather recommend being passionate and practice, than practice to just practice.
I hear you say: "OK, I like my instrument, but I am not passionate". For me, it was more about a couple of tweaks in my life. Always have an instrument available near me. That means getting my ukulele unpack close by the place I was spending the most of my time at home (for me, it's in the living room). Beside, I took the habit to play every morning to start each day fresh.
All in all, every time I have some spare time, I have my ukulele more available and more accessible than for instance a gaming console or my computer.
Music is like sport
John likes football (soccer). He plays a match once a week in the town's club. He often comes to the training session. It's fun to play, and training session gives him structure and helps him to improve on specific points. But all in all, John doesn't progress month to month, and he improves slightly year to year.
What if he would train more regularly? You can be sure that John would be much better months to month. He would be happier on the field, as he would score more/defend better/do better passes, and be able to run longer and faster. His team mates would notice his progress, and will start to call him "Super John".
Music is a like that. The more you play, the better you will be. And the more fun you will have playing music. But good news: it's much more fun to practice music alone than to practice football alone.
Be like Super John. Practice more.
"I don't have motivation to practice everyday"
You can of course contact us I could help you achieve that. - we can help you getting motivated all year long to progress and not give up. Music is more a marathon than a sprint: you become better on the long run, but you won't achieve much if you just run 100 meters and give up.
Conclusion
Playing music is really fun. There are hundred of good things about that. If you just want to have fun, practicing 30 minutes a day is a good way to keep a steady level while improving slightly. Playing more will help you improving faster. But regularity is the key. It's much better to play 30 minutes 6 days a week for years than to play 3 hours for a months, and getting your motivation used up.
Whatever you do, have fun!
I hope this article has helped you :)
I hope you have a fantastic day.
And you?
- How much do you practice on average weekly?
- Do you practice everyday, or just once or twice a week?
- Do you want to practice more? Or just more efficiently?
Let me know in the comment section below!
Hey there! Looking for a fun way to strum your way into the world of music?
Well, look no further! I'm Nicholas, your friendly ukulele teacher extraordinaire! With my expertise and a sprinkle of laughter, I'll have you strumming those strings like a pro in no time.
Get ready to unleash your inner musician and embark on a musical journey.