How Much Practice Makes You a Great Musician

This post begins with a disclaimer. Having studied the 10,000 hours rule and also have seen people with barely any practice blow people’s minds, there is no golden number to this. However, here we have tried breaking it down to logic, more than numbers.
All said and done, the more you practice the better you’ll be (well, mostly). But this post is about how to be “good” in public. Read on and play on!

Duration

Keep practice sessions limited to a duration that allows you to stay focused. This may be as short as 10-20 minutes for younger students, and as long as 45-60 minutes for older individuals.

Timing

Keep track of times during the day when you tend to have the most energy. This may be first thing in the morning, or right before lunch, etc. Try to do your practicing during these naturally productive periods as these are the times at which you will be able to focus and think most clearly.

Smarter, not harder

Sometimes if a particular passage is not coming out the way we want it to, it just means we need to practice more. There are also times, however, when we don’t need to practice harder, but need an altogether different strategy or technique.

Here’s a quote for some perspective – “Practice with your fingers and you need all day. Practice with your mind and you will do as much in 1 1/2 hours.”