Practice: hours per day, how hours should be spent --insights for sport derived from music
When it comes to sports practice, there is a mental and also a physical element involved. Even if there exists the physical ability to practice for say, eight hours a day, which is the typical amount of time workers spend on the job, there could still exist mental constraints that render practice-time beyond a certain number of hours per day unproductive, or not worth the time invested.
Therefore, I was excited to find a superior blog-post ( http://www.bulletproofmusician.com/how-many-hours-a-day-should-you-practice/ ) by Dr. Noa Kageyama, which explores the amount of time per day that musicians should practice. Sitting on a chair and practicing a musical instrument does not tire the body the way practicing soccer or basketball does, but it tires the mind. Thus answers to the question of how many hours per day should music be practiced, give insight into how mental limitations effect the question of how many hours per day a sport should be practiced.
I have been (before I read Dr. Kageyama's article) practicing sports in a manner that resembles the manner in which Dr. Kageyama recommends that musical instruments should be practiced. In my sports log I made statements similar to the ones made by Dr. Kageyama in his article, though at the time I had never read Dr. Kageyama's article.
The roots of my Kageyama-like approach lay in my application of common-sense and thoughtfulness to the goal of maximizing improvement per hour of time invested.
I created an edited abridged concise subtitled version of his article which allows me to focus on the key points in his arguments:
METHODOLOGY AND HOURS PER DAY IN PRACTICING MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
by Dr. Noa Kageyama
(abridged version created by D Hobbs)
GREAT MUSICIANS ADVISE 2-4 HOURS A DAY OF PRACTICE
(Rubinstein) stated that nobody should have to practice more than four hours a day, explaining that if you needed to practice more than four hours a day, you probably weren’t doing it right.
“If you practice with your fingers, no amount is enough,” was (Leopold) Auer’s response. “If you practice with your head, two hours is plenty.”
Heifetz also indicated that he never believed in practicing too much, and that excessive practice is “just as bad as practicing too little!” He claimed that he practiced no more than three hours per day on average, and that he didn’t practice at all on Sundays...Donald Weilerstein, once suggested that I establish a 24-hour period of time every week where I was not allowed to pick up my instrument.
the “ten-year rule” and “10,000-hour rule”... suggest that it requires...10,000 hours of deliberate practice to achieve an expert level of performance in any given domain – and in the case of musicians, often closer to 25 years in order to attain an elite international level.
MINDLESS TYPE OF PRACTICE
Mindless practice: engaging in mere repetition (“practice this passage 10 times” or “practice this piece for 30 minutes”) or practicing on autopilot (that’s when we play through the piece until we hear something we don’t like, stop, repeat the passage again until it sounds better, and resume playing through the piece until we hear the next thing we aren’t satisfied with, at which point we begin this whole process over again).
PROBLEMS WITH MINDLESS REPETITION AND AUTOPILOT (REPLAY BAD PASSAGES) TYPES OF PRACTICE:
little productive learning takes place...what this model of practicing does do is strengthen undesirable habits and errors... This makes it more difficult to correct these habits in the future... “Practice doesn’t make perfect, practice makes permanent.”
practicing this way actually hurts your confidence...you that realizes you don’t really know how to consistently produce the results... Even if you...find that you can nail it 3 or 4 out of every 5 attempts, your confidence won’t grow much from this. Real on-stage confidence comes from...most importantly...you know precisely why you nail it or miss it – i.e. you know exactly what you need to do from a technique standpoint in order to play the passage perfectly every time.
We tend to practice unconsciously, and then end up trying to perform consciously – not a great formula for success..you have a tendency to shift over into hyper-analytical left brain mode when you walk out on stage. Well, if you have done most of your practicing unconsciously...When your brain suddenly goes into full-conscious mode, you end up freaking out...
Practicing mindlessly is a chore. Music may be one of the only skill-based activities where practice goals are measured in units of time...What we really need are more specific outcome goals – such as...or practice this passage until you can figure out how to make it sound like _____.
DELIBERATE, CLOSELY OBSERVED & RECORDED, SCIENTIFIC, EXPERIMENTS ORIENTED, ANALYZED PRACTICE
...the practice room should be like a laboratory, where one can freely tinker with different ideas, both musical and technical, to see what combination of ingredients produces the result you are looking for.
Deliberate practice is often slow, and involves repetition of small and very specific sections of your repertoire instead of just playing through...
Deliberate practice involves monitoring one’s performance...continually looking for new ways to improve...so that you can tell yourself exactly what went wrong. For instance, was the first note note sharp? Flat? Too loud? Too soft? Too harsh? Too short? Too long?
Let’s say that the note was too sharp and too long with not enough of an attack to begin the note. Well, how sharp was it? A little? A lot? How much longer was the note than you wanted it to be? How much more of an attack did you want?
...So, why was the note sharp? What did you do? What do you need to do to make sure the note is perfectly in tune every time? How do you ensure that the length is just as you want it to be, and how do you get a consistently clean and clear attack to begin the note so it begins in the right character?
Now, let’s imagine you recorded all of this and could listen to how this last attempt sounded. Does that combination of ingredients give you the desired result?...
Few musicians take the time to stop, analyze what went wrong, why it happened, and how they can correct the error permanently.
DELIBERATE THOUGHTFUL SCIENTIFIC PRACTICE SHOULD BE DONE 2-4 HOURS PER DAY, IN SESSIONS LASTING NO LONGER THAN ONE HOUR...HOW SUCH PRACTICES SHOULD BE DONE
How Many Hours a Day Should I Practice?
You will find that deliberate practice is very draining...Practicing more than one hour at a time is likely to be unproductive...Even the most dedicated individuals will find it difficult to practice more than four hours a day.
...there is essentially no benefit from practicing more than 4 hours per day, and that gains actually begin to decline after the 2-hour mark.
Keep practice sessions limited to a duration that allows you to stay focused. This may be... 10...minutes...and as long as...60 minutes.
Keep track of times during the day when you tend to have the most energy...Try to do your practicing during these naturally productive periods
Keep track of your practice goals and what you discover during your practice sessions...have a clear idea of the sound you want to produce...that you’d like to be able to execute consistently.
When you figure something out, write it down. As I practiced more mindfully, I began learning so much during practice sessions that if I didn’t write everything down, I’d forget.
There are...times...when we don’t need to practice harder, but need an altogether different strategy or technique.
I remember struggling with the left-hand pizzicato variation in Paganini’s 24th Caprice...I realized that there had to be a smarter, more effective way to accomplish my goal.
I tried to brainstorm different solutions to the problem...When I felt that I came up with some promising solutions, I just started experimenting. I eventually came up with a solution...
1.Define the problem (identify and articulate the specific issue)
2.Analyze the problem (identify root causes of the issue)
3.Identify potential solutions
4.Test the potential solutions to select the most effective one
5.Develop an action plan to implement the best solution
6.Monitor implementation (is it working as planned?)
...Any model which encourages smarter, more systematic, active thought, and clearly articulated goals will help cut down on wasted, ineffective practice time.
Therefore, I was excited to find a superior blog-post ( http://www.bulletproofmusician.com/how-many-hours-a-day-should-you-practice/ ) by Dr. Noa Kageyama, which explores the amount of time per day that musicians should practice. Sitting on a chair and practicing a musical instrument does not tire the body the way practicing soccer or basketball does, but it tires the mind. Thus answers to the question of how many hours per day should music be practiced, give insight into how mental limitations effect the question of how many hours per day a sport should be practiced.
I have been (before I read Dr. Kageyama's article) practicing sports in a manner that resembles the manner in which Dr. Kageyama recommends that musical instruments should be practiced. In my sports log I made statements similar to the ones made by Dr. Kageyama in his article, though at the time I had never read Dr. Kageyama's article.
The roots of my Kageyama-like approach lay in my application of common-sense and thoughtfulness to the goal of maximizing improvement per hour of time invested.
I created an edited abridged concise subtitled version of his article which allows me to focus on the key points in his arguments:
METHODOLOGY AND HOURS PER DAY IN PRACTICING MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
by Dr. Noa Kageyama
(abridged version created by D Hobbs)
GREAT MUSICIANS ADVISE 2-4 HOURS A DAY OF PRACTICE
(Rubinstein) stated that nobody should have to practice more than four hours a day, explaining that if you needed to practice more than four hours a day, you probably weren’t doing it right.
“If you practice with your fingers, no amount is enough,” was (Leopold) Auer’s response. “If you practice with your head, two hours is plenty.”
Heifetz also indicated that he never believed in practicing too much, and that excessive practice is “just as bad as practicing too little!” He claimed that he practiced no more than three hours per day on average, and that he didn’t practice at all on Sundays...Donald Weilerstein, once suggested that I establish a 24-hour period of time every week where I was not allowed to pick up my instrument.
the “ten-year rule” and “10,000-hour rule”... suggest that it requires...10,000 hours of deliberate practice to achieve an expert level of performance in any given domain – and in the case of musicians, often closer to 25 years in order to attain an elite international level.
MINDLESS TYPE OF PRACTICE
Mindless practice: engaging in mere repetition (“practice this passage 10 times” or “practice this piece for 30 minutes”) or practicing on autopilot (that’s when we play through the piece until we hear something we don’t like, stop, repeat the passage again until it sounds better, and resume playing through the piece until we hear the next thing we aren’t satisfied with, at which point we begin this whole process over again).
PROBLEMS WITH MINDLESS REPETITION AND AUTOPILOT (REPLAY BAD PASSAGES) TYPES OF PRACTICE:
little productive learning takes place...what this model of practicing does do is strengthen undesirable habits and errors... This makes it more difficult to correct these habits in the future... “Practice doesn’t make perfect, practice makes permanent.”
practicing this way actually hurts your confidence...you that realizes you don’t really know how to consistently produce the results... Even if you...find that you can nail it 3 or 4 out of every 5 attempts, your confidence won’t grow much from this. Real on-stage confidence comes from...most importantly...you know precisely why you nail it or miss it – i.e. you know exactly what you need to do from a technique standpoint in order to play the passage perfectly every time.
We tend to practice unconsciously, and then end up trying to perform consciously – not a great formula for success..you have a tendency to shift over into hyper-analytical left brain mode when you walk out on stage. Well, if you have done most of your practicing unconsciously...When your brain suddenly goes into full-conscious mode, you end up freaking out...
Practicing mindlessly is a chore. Music may be one of the only skill-based activities where practice goals are measured in units of time...What we really need are more specific outcome goals – such as...or practice this passage until you can figure out how to make it sound like _____.
DELIBERATE, CLOSELY OBSERVED & RECORDED, SCIENTIFIC, EXPERIMENTS ORIENTED, ANALYZED PRACTICE
...the practice room should be like a laboratory, where one can freely tinker with different ideas, both musical and technical, to see what combination of ingredients produces the result you are looking for.
Deliberate practice is often slow, and involves repetition of small and very specific sections of your repertoire instead of just playing through...
Deliberate practice involves monitoring one’s performance...continually looking for new ways to improve...so that you can tell yourself exactly what went wrong. For instance, was the first note note sharp? Flat? Too loud? Too soft? Too harsh? Too short? Too long?
Let’s say that the note was too sharp and too long with not enough of an attack to begin the note. Well, how sharp was it? A little? A lot? How much longer was the note than you wanted it to be? How much more of an attack did you want?
...So, why was the note sharp? What did you do? What do you need to do to make sure the note is perfectly in tune every time? How do you ensure that the length is just as you want it to be, and how do you get a consistently clean and clear attack to begin the note so it begins in the right character?
Now, let’s imagine you recorded all of this and could listen to how this last attempt sounded. Does that combination of ingredients give you the desired result?...
Few musicians take the time to stop, analyze what went wrong, why it happened, and how they can correct the error permanently.
DELIBERATE THOUGHTFUL SCIENTIFIC PRACTICE SHOULD BE DONE 2-4 HOURS PER DAY, IN SESSIONS LASTING NO LONGER THAN ONE HOUR...HOW SUCH PRACTICES SHOULD BE DONE
How Many Hours a Day Should I Practice?
You will find that deliberate practice is very draining...Practicing more than one hour at a time is likely to be unproductive...Even the most dedicated individuals will find it difficult to practice more than four hours a day.
...there is essentially no benefit from practicing more than 4 hours per day, and that gains actually begin to decline after the 2-hour mark.
Keep practice sessions limited to a duration that allows you to stay focused. This may be... 10...minutes...and as long as...60 minutes.
Keep track of times during the day when you tend to have the most energy...Try to do your practicing during these naturally productive periods
Keep track of your practice goals and what you discover during your practice sessions...have a clear idea of the sound you want to produce...that you’d like to be able to execute consistently.
When you figure something out, write it down. As I practiced more mindfully, I began learning so much during practice sessions that if I didn’t write everything down, I’d forget.
There are...times...when we don’t need to practice harder, but need an altogether different strategy or technique.
I remember struggling with the left-hand pizzicato variation in Paganini’s 24th Caprice...I realized that there had to be a smarter, more effective way to accomplish my goal.
I tried to brainstorm different solutions to the problem...When I felt that I came up with some promising solutions, I just started experimenting. I eventually came up with a solution...
1.Define the problem (identify and articulate the specific issue)
2.Analyze the problem (identify root causes of the issue)
3.Identify potential solutions
4.Test the potential solutions to select the most effective one
5.Develop an action plan to implement the best solution
6.Monitor implementation (is it working as planned?)
...Any model which encourages smarter, more systematic, active thought, and clearly articulated goals will help cut down on wasted, ineffective practice time.
Labels: sports practice time, time management
posted by David Virgil at 7:56 AM
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