One of the most common questions students ask is – how much should I practice? I always flip that around and ask, how much time can you set aside to practice?
Whether you have a little or whole lot of practice time, the more important question is – how do you budget the time that you do have. What percentage of your available practice time should you spend on each thing you want to practice.
First, each item you practice has sort of a lifespan. In the beginning of learning something, you need to budget a lot of time. Once you’ve got it under your fingers, the next phase is refinement and committing to muscle memory, and that can require less time, if you’re practicing regularly. And finally, perfecting. In this phase, you’re working on the finer points of touch, time and feel.
But overall, with the time you do have, prioritize and plan how you’re going to invest your time. It’s precious. Budget percentages of your time to topics based on how high a priority they are, and then work your way down. Then trust the plan you make. You’re in control of it and can always change it. Learning to build a practice schedule takes some time, but it’s worth it.
