Hi, I'm curious about how long and how people do (or think they should) practice. I'm a beginning (struggling with G3 right now) but wannabe serious amateur, with a job and a family, and I average about 45 mins per day (in a good week). Sometimes I'll spend most of my time practicing long high notes, scales and arpegios, sometimes I'll just have a blast playing easy tunes, or bits which are too difficult but fun to try.
I've looked on the net, and I've come up with some deadly serious articles by people who say you should practice at LEAST 2.5 hours a day, with an hour of scales, another hour of etudes, etc. I'm pretty sure my wife would divorce me if I did that! How much does everyone else practice in the real world?
Also, how do people cope with those "bleagh" days? I tend to get them when I'm tired or stressed, and as a result I can't carry a tune or hit C3. Any tips?
Thanks!

I just practice when I can or feel like it. I do try to pick it up everyday even if it is only for 1/2 hour just to keep in shape. It really depends on what I have going on or what I have coming up to play for. If I have a serious audition, then I will practice at least 2 hours a day, anything more is a waste for me. I don't sit down everyday for 4 hours and practice. (Well maybe when I was in school.) I love the flute, but I do have a life besides it.

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"Also, how do people cope with those "bleagh" days?"

Oh, I hate those days! I just try to practice and if isn't working for me, I put it away and try again later. I notice a lot of it depends on my mood, how much sleep I got the night before and if my sugar is low. If I am tired, then forget it. I just can't focus then. I have a short enough attention span as it is.

I practice about 2.5-3.5 hours a day now that im in College and have a ton of repertoire, etudes to memorize, and taffanel exercises (and my grade depending on it ) . But when I first learned the flute and even throughout most of highschool, I think the most I practiced in a day was an hour.

Oh, practicing that long every day is a sure way to a burn out, personally. Like Kara said, just play because you feel like it and not because you feel like you have to. I know this sounds a little cheesy, but if you love playing, you'll know when to practice! Might I suggest a good book for practice? The Rubank Advanced Method for Flute, Book One. I got my copy from my director years and years ago, but I still find that it is the best book for practice. There are scales and arpeggios, articulation excercises, finger excercises, solos and duets... perhaps starting out with the beginner and intermediate volumes would be the best, but if you already have the basic knowlege of fingerings and stuff, the advanced book isn't too intimidating! Any little solo books, too, that you can find in music stores are great because, if you get sick of scales, you can always work on the music you've found for extra practice, too (that, and it's just fun to go music shopping sometimes!) Just find your favorite song!
For the days when you don't feel like playing, just give it a shot and within a few minutes, you'll know if you are really up to playing or not! I don't like those days where you want to practice, but don't have your flute with you, or when you are practicing, but don't know what to play! It's so frusterating to be distracted. My little trick is that I sit in a room with distracting things and, sooner or later, I get bored and come back and play some more. It tells me that I would much rather practice than mess around!

SURE, I practice..uhh..yeah..right. I'M KIDDING:D i practice until i get something right. Like i'll have a goal for that day to get something in a music i want to be perfect at, and when i reach that goal then i'm done! or sometimes i like to look at other stuff too after my goal thingy..just for fun. Sightread some music. i LOVE sightreading!
My practicing time could go on for a LONG time..or it could be short. Time goes by really fast for me..when i'm practicing..YUP.

Sometimes if i don't have time to take out my flute to play...or my family is sleeping. I would just look at the music..and sing it in my head. i find it fun..singing the stlye. that helps me look more closly at the music and look for things..i guess. And that could take a while too!..ehhh..yea.
i dunno..to me, practicing needs to be good and useful to me. I take advantage of my time..i'm a busy person at times!

According to Trevor Wye (Omnibus ed books 1-5), You should practice only because you want to. If you don't want to - don't. And having decided to practice, always practice what you can't play. Avoid self-flattery by playing what you can already play well.

Personally, I have a limited practice time during the weekdays (about 45 minutes) so I would try to compensate during the weekends by having a broken 5-hour practice. But this do not work out well for all the time. ' Don't know why but I still find my weekday practice more fruitful.

I try to practise 2 hours daily, one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening.

I notice than playing no stop longer than one hour is too tiring and I loose tone quality and make more errors.

However, some time ago this happened after only 30 or 40 minutes, so I believe that more practise also gives more resistance as it does in almost anything.

That remark (Trevor Wye's?) about self flattering should not apply to everybody; I learn (and have to practise) the instrument just for the pleasure of being able to play the music I like.

I have no grade to pass neither is it my profession nor can it become.

So I practise new pieces and those lessons and scales from the book, but I also play those parts I have already learnt and of course I enjoy that the most!.

A goal I have set for myself is to play duets because I like so much the harmony and slight dissonances of different instruments.

I practise with a recording of my teacher playing the other part. Simple things like Stamitz duets I, II and II (this last for the near future).

She was reluctant to do this at the beginning, but the results were great. It was a jump forward for me. It's true that it helps me with rhythmic problems, something in which I do really not excel, but I may get too much used to a certain speed and style.

But for now it is a very good system and I recommend it to those that may be at my level and have a teacher or someone willing to help!.

I am now also working on Haendel's Hallenser Sonate I, I expect to play in a month or two with a recording from a professional Basson friend.

We have agreed to develop a kind of virtual two parts concerto, this time 12,000 Kmts across the Atlantic.

I could even imagine that this kind of things would be a nice service from the part of those more skilled in helping us beginners who dare with duets (or more complex arrangements).

Something like posting (somewhere else, probably not here) the second parts, or the Basso continuo (if we get the help form bassoon or piano colleagues), for example.

Or it could be a special section in this same Forum, if the idea pleases the moderators.

It could be a good initiative and could give still more life and interest to this already wonderful Forum.

If the List finds this idea interesting, we could request this new service to the Forum moderator and see if we get contributions...

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Sorry, Stamitz Duets I, II and III (this last for the near future)

several years ago during a Q and A after giving a master class and lecture in Asia, one parent asked me how much her beginner son should practice flute, his teacher recommended 8 hours a day!

I had the translator translate, "quality, not quantity"

8 hours!!! Oh, dear! I could never recommend that for a starting musician! That just shocks me; some of the best players in the world would say, I think, that they would never practice 8 hours a day just for a normal practice! The longest I have ever practiced was in a 14 hour rehersal for an honor band, breaking for lunch, dinner and two 5 min. breaks. That was awful and I had been playing for years when that happened.
I wonder if teachers could do the same things they tell their students to do... always try for yourself before giving others the same task, I say.

I AGREE with you Tessa!! ..YEA!

Jose Luis. I guess the logic behind Trevor Wye’s advise is for systematic improvement. I also play most of the pieces that I find pleasing on the weekends. My ears may not be expert but I am detecting a slight improvement when I play my favorite pieces after following his advise on the weekdays. With the aid of a tape recorder, I notice that my tone is better and some notes are getting more and more pronounced and controllable each week. Therefore, I derive more enjoyment in playing my favorite pieces as I feel like I can express myself more.

If my memory serves me right, I also read from Foundations in Flute Playing (E.F. Wagner) that a 30-minute dedicated practice is better than hours of non-stop practice. It has something to do with the amount of tension that lip muscles may be able to take and its effect on over-all tone.

Yes, you are right. We should never take every assessment so literally. It's one of my defects.

I suppose that even professionals play better one day than the other and probably they can go on perfecting a complex piece for ever.

For a student like me, this is of course the basis of learning. The first reading of a new piece is such a disaster that I say to myself "I will never do this"!

Then, working on the difficult parts more than on the others I improve, little by little until the whole reaches an acceptable level.

Normally, one or a few bars will still resist, sometimes for weeks (or more). I learn to go through them as elegantly as I can (that is, dissimulating the persistent error(s) the most I am capable). Finally, one blessed day, the last remaining difficulty vanishes.

One thing I practise most is "recovering" from errors, without stopping. This is mandatory for me in duets, otherwise it can lead to catastrophic crumbling!

Finally I have to work lots on the tone quality and after that, expression.

That is for fair and deep enjoyment of everybody forced to listen to the performance, but I start to enjoy the piece well before I attain that level. (but not my teacher, poor girl, she must suffer my bad playing while I think it's not so bad)

I may try the recording of my own playing to check for improvements.

The problem is that I do not like hearing myself (not even my voice). I'm frightened that it will sound so bad that might discourage me to continue.

Do you, students, suffer from this same syndrome?

Last night I as working on Taffanel and Gaubert E.P. 4 that Sir James has on his members audio section. I had been trying to record it all day. Finally, after coming home from dinner at 7pm I sat down and played almost constantly until 1 am, and still didn't have a suitable recording. So every once in a while I have a 6-8 hour practice, but mostly I practice about 2-3 hours a day throughout the day. I don't do it all at one time. I have a life, but not much of one.

-Dennis

I didn't mind the 14 hours too much. It was a beautiful auditorium and the people, although they were stand-offish, were just amazing to work with. Honestly, though, it was a 6 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. practice with 4 hours the next morning. That afternoon, we gave an hour and 15 min. performance, mostly Sousa and Copland stuff. By the end of this weekend, everyone had made up names for everything, like the Headache Song and the Impossible Cut-Time Song.
Now, I just practice at least an hour and a half a day (for my music classes) and I usually get a half an hour practice in every other day, just to work on scales and out of lesson books. Rubank books are my favorite because you can just sit down with them and flip though, practicing anything you want, but then you also have a lesson plan you can set for yourself... I have all my favorite scales bookmarked and one of my Rubank volumes is just full of post-it notes.

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Like you said, Dennis, about having a personal life: musicians don't have personal lives, they have practice sessions with interuptions thrown in! (Sorry about the spelling... gah.)