hey

just wondering how long people practise or recommend you should practise when doing grade 7 violin........at the moment i'm doing about 1/2 an hour at most per day and i'm getting on pretty well........is that long enough!!??

love emy xox

Well, if you are getting on 'well enough' it 'might be enough'? If you are in no hurry to improve very quickly then surely it does not matter much how long you practice so long that you do it consistently and in a well structured way? (it sounds like you structure your practice well otherwise you would not get on that well at grade 7 with half hour daily practice if you did not 'practice wisely').
It is very good you practice daily.
Now I'll await patiently the rest of the responses from other members

As I've said before, and will no doubt say again:

Quality, not quantity!

Absolutely cellocase!

I tell my pupils that I would rather them do 10 minutes of focussed practice than 30mins of unfocussed work!

Do you find that you can actually do everything you need to for grade 7 in half an hour a day?
At that level on piano to achieve anything I needed at least 20 minutes each on scales and each piece.

One hr twice a day.

D

1 and a half to 2 and a half hours when I'm on holiday- sadly some of it isn't very effective... like today...

I need at least 30 mins for my scales and spent between 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hour(max) during weekdays. More on weekend. I am preparing for my grade 8 violin exam this year.

Ah well, I'll just throw in here since we're still talking about practise times and everyone's seem to be fairly high - I did 30 minutes a day for cello and piano right up to grade 8 on both instruments, and it did me no harm whatsoever. The important thing is to do what works for YOU. Studying two instruments to a high standard makes it difficult to do that much, especially factoring in school, homework (though I didn't have too much at the age I took my grade 8s) and other extra-curricular activities. So instead, I did my 30 mins a day every single day, with more if I felt like it, and tried to make it as focussed as possible. Worked absolutely fine for me.

Again - quality not quantity, and don't get put off by people saying "oh, I did 3.5 hours a day when I was grade 2" As long as you're progressing at a rate you're happy at and getting a secure base to build on, I don't see a problem.

I did about half an hour a WEEK, in a good week, right up to grade 8. No I don't recommend it!!

I practise for an hour a day on guitar (I'm about to take grade 5), half an hour, sometimes an hour, on violin(I enjoy playing and the time goes without me knowing), and a hour or slightly more on theory a day (taking my exam on the 1st of march, so I need all the practise I can get!)

I think how long someone practises depends on how the go about their practise time, and what level they're at.
And in the words of cellocase, quality, not quantity -I couldn't agree more.

Gosh this takes me back...

When I was at school I would do an hour or so of scales and finger exercises on the piano before school (sometimes with a towel behind the hammers if it was very early.) Then I'd do an hour or two at school where they let me use a music room at lunchtimes etc. Then I'd do another hour or two after school although I would tire quickly then and the practice wouldn't be so effective.

To begin with, the clarinet barely got an hour a week but after I left school and was in the middle of auditions etc I would practice 3 hours when I had orchestral rehearsals and more if I didn't have other rehearsals. My lip would only last 5hours max!!

Now though I can play as much as I have time for That usually works out about an hour a day, five days a week, sometimes only four. and only rarely at the weekends.

All I can advise is, don't rest on your laurels. You might think half an hour a day is enough and you're getting on ok, but at Grade 7 an hour of focussed practice a day is really considered the minimum.

right up to my grade 8 i did rougly on average half an hour a day - everyday. Okay so sometimes its not possible so i'd practice for longer the next day. In the lead up to an exam i practice at least an hour a day. But if you get tired - as I very often do because I'm not used to it, I go away and come back to it later on in the day.

Basically I am lazy and I've always found I can progress with my music quite easily without putting much practice in. However, now I'm working for grade 8 violin and piano this year so I am trying to do half an hour of each a day at home and some at school if I have time. Definately going to have to do more working up to exams but I'm getting significantly more schoolwork now as well

Basically, whatever works for you and so that your teacher thinks you are progressing at a decent rate.

I'll second that. It's one thing to learn three Grade 7 pieces and the rest of the stuff you need to do for the exam, but another thing altogether to be a player who genuinely operates at that level. Look at the bigger picture and decide: do I just want to be able to say I've got Grade 7 (probably followed by Grade 8), or do I want to be a really, really good player? If it's the second, then that doesn't come without more than half an hour's practice a day, sorry to say!

Violinia

Well if you want to spend months and months playing the same exam pieces, grinding through scales, never really having time to practice sight-reading, never mind any ensemble playing, then there's no reason to do much practice at all. But I would say that someone at grade 7 who is serious about their music should be doing around an hour a day, to stop themselves from getting bogged down with all the exam stuff for too long. Or don't take the exams, so you can have more freedom in how you use that 30 minutes.
Grade 7 doesn't really say much. I got to grade 7 doing a lot less than 30 minutes daily. I went whole weeks without touching the thing. And for a while that suited me fine. But since you've found this forum, you probably want a bit more than to get 100 in an exam just so you can say you've done it, and use it for UCAS forms. Only you can really decide how good you want to be, and that's how you decide how much practice to do, regardless of how good you are now, or how easily you can get through exams.

Had similar conversation with OH today! Am doing about half an hour, about 5 times a week, for grade 7. I've devised a practise schedule for the scales, which breaks them into bite sized chunks, and then wack through the pieces, focusing on different problem areas each time. So far so good ....

I think the secret is to be broad with what you do - are the exam pieces and scales the ONLY thing you do? Or do you play with an orchestra/quartet or the like? Duets with a friend, maybe??? All playing is practise. Just some playing is far more fun than 'official' practise. So I reckon (but praps I'm biased as I'm doing 1/2 hr 5X a week) that if you're doing OK, and you're also enjoying other playing too, then go with it. But be prepared for a bit of a shock at grade 8 - have you SEEN how many scales you have to do?

Well, I'm only a beginner and I can easily do half an hour now after less than 3 weeks, so I can quite see why far more advanced players need a lot more! Someone said 10 minutes per grade per day, so that would put you at 70 minutes per day and me at overdoing it somewhat!

It's been interesting to read the thoughts of those who differentiate between passing the exams style practice and being a darned good instrumentalist. For me, I'm happy to take the exams, yes, I like the achievement and even the status, if you like. However, I want to play with friends just as soon as I can and be really quite good, not just good enough to pass exams. This has been good food for thought, methinks.

I rarely practised the violin as a teenager thinking that a 2 hour orchestra rehearsal was enough for one week and had to give up at grade 7 because I was never going to be a good player. I don't think I ever played anything apart from exam pieces so although I could get through the exams without difficulty, I was actually a terrible player.

In contrast, my 7 year old daughter practises happily for at least half an hour each day after school, sometimes more at weekends and in holidays and I can see the difference in the way she plays and the way I used to play. She will be really good whereas for me it was not going anywhere. So I would recommend that you up your practise time to an hour if at all possible as I now regret not having practised enough.

thanks! i seem to be progressing nicely.......well at least my teacher hasn't been telling me to practise more.......and she would if she thought i needed to........i salute all those who manage to find an hour or 2 every day!!!!! i play in every orchestra and group i possibly can........my regional youth orchestra, my county y.o., my school o. and trad group and operas and charity things during the year.........did the national youth orchestra for a year and loved every minute........(there was a lot of minutes!!!!!-8 1/2 hours a day for 2 week long camps per year)

Not nearly enough

Totally agree that practise needs to be focussed - if i start playing when i can't concentrate, i only frustrate myself.