How Much Practice Does it Take to Get Good at Violin?

[@henrituhola]

I started playing at 35. It's 2 months with about 20 minutes of practice every day so far and I feel like I'm going to master this instrument.

[@runescapeescape4102]

trolling

[@henrituhola]

@@runescapeescape4102 I've since increased the time spent to three times a day and still feel like I'm going to master this instrument some day.

[@jdsarfo610]

this is a good joke

[@DieChipper]

Even though the majority of the video doesn't apply to me yet, being a total beginner at the violin, I very much enjoyed this overview. I have been playing the piano for 10 years and still practice about 2 - 2 1/2 hours everyday even though it is just for myself and my family to enjoy. With the violin I manage about 60 - 75 min split into two sessions currently. I am a perfectionist and quite determined once I found something I enjoy so I expect myself to be rather at the top of these practice hour recommendations. I have my first lesson in the upcoming week, excited to see how far I'll get in the next months and years.

[@MurphyMusicAcademy]

That is awesome! Glad you are getting lessons. Best of luck!

[@PavalonTech]

I am curious, how did you go with those lessons?

[@foxjacket]

Everyone knows it's 40 hrs/day (that's a TwoSet Violin joke...)

[@jdxtube68]

It is 40 hours in one hour 40 hours per day as per Chloe Chua...

[@LovelyWinter7]

Absolutely!!!

[@dianal.1279]

When I saw the title of the video, I've clicked on it ready to make this comment!😂

[@sirspongadoodle]

two set jokes arent funny

[@TJ87-o4b]

I'm 36 just starting out with Violin. Even though I know I absolutely have no chance of being a professional, and don't really have any ambition to be one, hearing someone actually say "You're too old" still hits hard :(.

[@violinist86]

40 hours, EVERYDAY!! 😆

[@MurphyMusicAcademy]

EVERY DAY!!!!

[@justanotherflute1632]

The only right answer 😂

[@Lou_-xj9ms]

2Set🥺🙏🏻😉🤔

[@chrischin5454]

Ling ling approve..

[@tskgroup5791]

what for somebody like me that started violin when I was 25 and I am 50 now and still want to get better and better. I have achieved to make a living out of it

[@kcald9891]

I have literally zero aspirations to become a professional musician, but somehow hearing that I've already missed the boat if I'm not moving on to advanced music by age 12 made me so sad hahaha. I didn't even start playing 'til age 12, womp womp... I do have to thank you though; your channel has put me into obsessive practice mode for the last several weeks. Mostly I feel like I'm just demolishing bad foundational habits so I can rebuild the correct way, but I was literally about to sell my instrument in despair and frustration when I stumbled upon this channel. This is the first time in years (or maybe ever) that I feel like things are clicking into place and my hours of practice are actually yielding improved results... I've found almost every other KZbin instructor's explanations to be either absurdly convoluted or obnoxiously under-explained, I don't understand how their exercises translate to playing, and well... a lot of them sound pretty mediocre themselves lol. These videos are always clear, applicable, logical, and thorough. I fully plan to contact for proper lessons as soon as I'm able, but in the meantime thanks for giving me hope that playing beautifully and painlessly are achievable goals.

[@deadmanswife3625]

Yay

[@luizabrito1522]

Hey, it's more difficult and hence more uncommon to become a professional after a certain age, but I`ve seen it done quite a few times. The concertmaster in my Uni orchestra started at 13. He plays beautifuly and surely will place in a professional orchestra. If you want a more famous example, there's amazing Esther Abrami, that started at 10.

[@athan4752]

Daniel Kurganov started at 16

[@road2acoustic99]

Damnnn, I want a teacher with this energy and enthousiasm in my city : - D

[@MurphyMusicAcademy]

I promise I don't yell this much in lessons

[@road2acoustic99]

@@MurphyMusicAcademy haha I guess 😂

[@deltafour1212]

As a lot of self taught beginners out there what starting beginner exercises would you recommend and how do you know when your good enough to move on to the next one?

[@hunterblakely87]

I had a lot of time over the past year. Obsession and fatigue are correct. 8+hours a day for a while was nice to focus on posture, bow control, scales, and intonation. I started knowing nothing, now I'm working on accurate octave double stops + shifting at the same time up and down the entire neck. It's been 11 months of solid practice from nothing to where I am now. Maybe a bit overkill ;)

[@danmyname]

Hi Murph, glad I've come across your video. You are the most realistic person I have come across so far. You don't have to apologise to anyone but it is just the reality full stop. I am currently nursing my 9 year old daughter to play violin and she is in her third year and just starting Vol 4 on Suzuki. Whilst she can play any of the songs from vol 1-3, none of them would be perfect and she practices at least 1 hour and 30 minutes a day. Any less and she wouldn't be where she is today. Thanks for being an eye-opener. edit: Frankly, it is not easy to get a nine year old to spend so many hours practising, especially when myself is music illiterate which makes it twice as hard. However, I am determined to encourage and support her all the way.

[@jasminhacker7243]

Longes time I tried to practice was 3 hours🥴😳 I was so exhausted so I went back to 90-120 mins a day😅 I am a Hobby violin player on Suzuki book 5 with 3 years experience so far🥲

[@MurphyMusicAcademy]

Well, no point in practicing more than what you have to practice. At that level 90 minutes is fine. Heck, I wished more of my book 5 students would practice that much, haha. Once you get to more advance rep then the extra hours start to become a little easier to do.

[@vetzrah4437]

really looking forward to that video about how to practice. I started violin when I was 9 with the suzuki method, with my teacher going painfully slow, and after 5 years was still on book two, and I didn't really like violin all that much after that. Then we moved away from my town and stopped taking lessons for 2 years, where my technique further declined. Then, a year ago (at the start of 10th grade) I realized I needed to become a violinist, and got a teacher who had never taught before and never explained anything well and was too nice or shy to tell me exactly what to practice (he just hinted at playing certain scales or double stops, and I hadn't learned shifting before, and learned it completely wrong) this led to anxiety and obsession about my inability to improve, and I would come home from school every day and pretty much practice until bed, not improving. Now, I'm taking lessons with a college professor who is an excellent teacher, and I'm passionate and focused, but I still haven't completely figured out the art of practicing. I'm currently learning the Accolay concerto and it's going okay, but every time I go to bed, I know I could have done better. How much repetition is it? What problems do I choose to fix in the 4 pages of notes I've learned? Should I spend the 2 hours I practice on the concerto for only a line or two? Because I end up moving throughout the first 4 pages in the 2 hours, never settling on anything for more then 15 minutes, but when I do, I don't know if I'm really practicing it as hardcore as I could, and I always feel unsatisfied and sometimes that makes it harder to practice. Also, I want to be a violinist, but I'm 16 and playing Accolay, practicing 3-4 hours a day. I do about 2 hours of piece, then 30 minutes of Sevcik and 1-2 hours of scales (Im not sure I'm practicing the scales the best as well) I'm upping my practice currently, hopefully to 5-6 hours in a week or two, and I would love to know how to tackle those hours to maximize the progress I can make, or if it's possible for me to drag myself to the level that I need to be at to become a professional. Anyways, sorry for rambling on- thanks for the video.

[@MurphyMusicAcademy]

Wow, that is quite the experience! It's rather unfortunate many of us get stuck with some rather less than dependable teachers, or often teacher who have no idea about what they are doing. I can tell by what you wrote that you are a hard worker and want to play the violin as well as possible. If it took 5 years to get to book two, then that is your teacher's fault, not yours. The art of practicing take a lot of time to learn, as it is a very personal art. That is why that "exploratory" aspect of what I mentioned in the video is so important. You have to learn about yourself to find what works best. This is especially true if you didn't have the best foundation from an early age. And this will take some time to figure out. In the meantime, your teacher can and should be able to give you advice on how to structure your practicing. As far as what to focus on in the 4 pages of the Accolay each day, that has to be balanced between fine detail work and being able to play through the piece as a whole. I suggest you try to get to playing through the whole thing from memory (imperfectly) as soon as possible, so you have the work in your fingers and head as a whole. Then, throughout the week, different days you might be focusing on different problems in specific areas. One day you might decided to throw and hour of work at the triplet section and the coda, another day you decided to focus on the melodic sections. However, it is a good idea to also to check on the sections you focused on the day before, but not spend a whole lot of time on them. Then, no matter what you focused on on that day, practice playing through the whole piece, come what may. This way you can avoid the common trap of the student who learns the first page really well, plays the middle pages ok, and then can barely play the last page. The other side of this is the sharpening of your ear and understanding what "good" really means. Something I'm working with one of my students is raising her standard of intonation, to not only considering the general intonation of the note, but hearing when the intonation fluctuates during the note. A lack of consistency of pitch is one of the main things that contributes to a "unfocused" sound. There are other things like this, that you could try and figure out as much as you are able. Practicing 3-4 hours a day should be plenty for you at this level. The fact remains that you will never like you are practicing anything as well as you possibly could, which I think is a good thing, as it means you can always improve! 5-6 aren't bad either, you will learn a lot from practicing that much. Unfortunately, you have a lot of overcoming to do from having bad teaching in the past. I was much the same way. The reason I know so much about violin technique is because I had to figure so much out on my own. When you do that, you understand it at a much higher and deeper level. As for being a professional, that depends on what you mean. If you mean a professional classical performer, I have to be honest and say it is unlikely. I'll never say never, but that is still the case. If you are interested in gigging or teaching, then you definitely etch out a career in that, especially given your dedication.

[@vetzrah4437]

​@@MurphyMusicAcademy Thanks for the reply, it was very helpful!

[@vetzrah4437]

@@zarathustra2563 I’ve improved a lot since I made this comment and now feel that anything is really possible for me. I recently ran into Daniel Kurganov on KZbin who plays like a soloist, and realized he STARTED violin when he was 16. So now I don’t really think age is much of a barrier when you are passionate and try very hard

[@zarathustra2563]

Hi! I would be curious where are you know. Could you give me an update?:)

[@vetzrah4437]

@@zarathustra2563 sure! In the last year I applied to 5 music schools and got accepted to 3 of them. I’m also spending the summer at the Interlochen arts camp. I’ve improved a lot and am excited about a future in music.

[@cigarnationwarriors3981]

I’m 74 and my teacher asked me to practice two 30 minute practice sessions. Seems to work for me. I also spend 10 minutes with warm-up exercises, i.e., Schradieck, Scales, Open String Bowing without a shoulder rest. Should I just go w/o the rest totally?

[@MurphyMusicAcademy]

That is all very excellent advice. You're teacher is giving you almost what I would give you as a teacher. I suggest easing into no shoulder rest and using a pad.

[@cearuilinjayne745]

Consistency wins out, Always.

[@Thingsyourollup]

So I just started learning 4 weeks ago as an adult, and for the first two weeks, how long to practice was answered for me via back and body pain and/or sore fingers. 20-30 minutes. Now I can go about an hour but I sure would love to be able to practice more. This week I started doing two sessions a day instead of one.

[@srinitaaigaura]

Do some strength training and stretches AFTER every practice session. It will help fix muscular issues and imbalances. Take breaks between practice sessions.

[@joshablatzheim9075]

Wonderful Video 👌 thank you 🙏🇪🇺🇩🇪 to the US 🇺🇲🎼🎶🎻🍀🍀🍀= for you

[@RhizonXXVII]

Hey! Where is that clip from at 5:59 if you please? Awesome video!

[@dianal.1279]

Yes, I'd also love to find it! Loved the tone! Wow!

[@MD-ct9bm]

I love your video's! They are so helpfull! Still I don't know how to spend 2 hours or more on the violin. I have a 11 year old who is currently in about book 8. She loves to play, but that is something different then really studying. So how do you spend 2 hours studying? Or how do you study 1 hour on 1 concerto? Of how do you fill 30 minutes with scales?

[@angelicacantu3382]

Subscribed! Awesome Content

[@kareammostafa3168]

Look Iam 19 y o now and I started playing violin 2 y ago And now iam working on bruch violin concerto Maybe you think I am practicing a lot But actually I am not And I didn't have a teacher in my first year But I know iam talented I hop you try to contact with or something

[@MD-zm6sn]

Oh man what a monumental improvement the new hair is haha. With respect.

[@MurphyMusicAcademy]

My wife agrees 😆

[@MD-zm6sn]

@@MurphyMusicAcademy What consistencies do you see with the mistakes people make who have played guitar their whole life and are switching to violin? My left hand is cemented into guitar mode.

[@MurphyMusicAcademy]

@@MD-zm6sn Sorry to say I don't have any experience with this. I would imagine that playing guitar might help due to the fact that your left thumb would be more active, but as for the comparison to general finger action I can't say. None of my current and prior students are former guitarists

[@MD-zm6sn]

@@MurphyMusicAcademy Ok you said in a video that someone starting later like 16+ isn't likely to get good enough to have a profession doing it. Not that I'm trying to but what exactly is it that creates the barrier there? Is it just time spent? Like if I aim to get like really good eventually, and I've got the 6 to 8+ hours to throw at it daily when that starts to make sense and I'm driven AND I have a natural ability for music and limitless musical memory, is getting to that level still unattainable? And how much of that process would need to be under the eye of a teacher? Thanks if you get to this.

[@MurphyMusicAcademy]

@@MD-zm6sn It's not technically impossible, per se, but it is so unlikely that it might as well be. The only person I know that started at 16 that become a concert violinist is Daniel Kurganov, and he is the ONLY one. So yes, I guess it is possible, but not likely. Time, flexibility and neural plasticity are the main issues with starting later, I think. Time is the biggest one. A lot of adult students move at the same rate as a 5 year old, or even a little quicker, at the beginning, but after a little while they slow down because they just don't have the necessary time to put into it. Talent is also a major factor. Some people have a knack for music and the physical coordination of playing violin, and some just don't. Not that they can't learn, but it will be a lot harder

[@ghostblade500]

i dont have 2-3 years to get through books 1-3. i need to be better yesterday

[@ghostblade500]

im in my mid 20's. I dont have extra time or money for a teacher so ive been on and off for the last couple of years with the violin because ive always wanted to learn to play since i was about 7. and its a struuuugle bus

[@gallagher4226]

I think you are wrong about your comment “the 16 years olds violinist cant be a professional” you know that Tartini start seriously at 18 years old?

[@MurphyMusicAcademy]

Not absolutely impossible (someone told me that Daniel Kurganov started at 16. I’ll have to ask him about that), but beyond extremely rare.

[@pleaseexcusemydeeplyawkwar4972]

you're amazing. also, i love your sound.

[@grassblock6964]

40 hours a day

[@blakeguillory3379]

Laughing as a 35 year old in book 4

[@marcopilati7464]

ma vaff...

[@AC5SH]

:)

[@maf.268]

I am actually learning Vivaldi Concerto in A Minor 3rd Movement and struggling with the same section right now, buuut it's getting better with a looot of time and patience (think positively...)🥲✨😂

[@deadmanswife3625]

Vivaldi is awesome. I should have known about Vivaldi when I was a lot younger. everyone else did but not me

[@angelicacantu3382]

Subscribed! Awesome Content