How Long Should Adults Practise Piano Each Day?

Adults rarely have an hour a day, and they do not need one. For most people who return to the piano, ten to twenty minutes of focused playing, most days of the week, brings more progress than one long session that never gets scheduled. Here is how to think about how long adults should practise piano each day.

Short and regular beats long and rare

The hands and the memory learn between sessions. Ten minutes every day gives them more chances to settle than an hour on Sunday. The most useful habit is not the length of the session but sitting down at the same time every day.

Playing is the practice

Practice does not have to feel like homework. If you play a piece you enjoy, slowly and with attention, that is the practice. The time passes without you noticing, and that is a good sign.

A simple twelve-minute session

1. Two minutes: warm up with a slow scale or a few chords you know.
2. Six minutes: one piece you are learning, in the hardest two or three bars, slowly.
3. Three minutes: play through something you already like, with no stopping.
4. One minute: write down where you stopped, so tomorrow you start there.

Choose the time of day

The best time is the one you will keep. Some people play before work, when the house is quiet. Others play after dinner, as a way to wind down. Try each for a week and keep the one that survives a busy day.

On busy days

Two minutes at the piano still counts. Play one line, or just touch the keys. The point is to keep the habit alive, and a very short session is better than none.

When to stop

• If your hands, wrists or shoulders hurt, stop and rest.
• If you feel tired, finish while you still enjoy it.
• If a bar keeps failing, slow down or play it one hand at a time.

Take away the slow part of reading

Many of the minutes we call practice are spent decoding sharps and flats. In iCanPiano Style the note shows the black key itself, so more of your ten minutes goes to playing music.

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