Practice: Quantity Before Quality!?

Practice days: Quantity before quality? Yes. In this video I list 4 reasons why it is important to practice as many hours as you possibly can.
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[@lillianhusbymelien5471]

For those who are studying at the university, and are going to be professionals, this video must be extremely helpful. Being an amateur, though, and not having more than one hour per day to practice, it was perhaps a bit discouraging to hear that only one hour per day, one does not improve, or even go backwards. Do you have any advice to what is the best way for us to practice, so that we, with our modest goals, can be better with that short time to practice?

[@fabianhuegli]

@@lillianhusbymelien5471 of course for beginners and amateurs 1 hour a day leads to great great progress and is plenty of time to dedicate to a hobby. For me practicing 1 hour a day led backwards if I just came from a period of practicing 6 hours every day. I lost stamina, and lip muscles, in comparison to the 6 hours. So thats what i meant.

[@lillianhusbymelien5471]

@@fabianhuegli I see. Thank you for your answer.

[@alisoninchausti1080]

On this subject, while I agree with you (that the more the better, practice makes perfection, etc), as someone who’s just been playing for five months I find that even though I want to keep going, after a couple of hours I reach a point of diminishing returns in which I put more effort and get less out of it. I wonder whether it’s a matter of not having yet hardened/conditioned my embouchure muscles enough or maybe I should take little breaks every now and then instead of a continuous non stop practice? Other than that, I have found some of your tips (on staccato, crossing the break, and fingering for some of the awkward notes that tend to sound a little flat) very helpful and I thank you for them.

[@fabianhuegli]

@@alisoninchausti1080 hi alison. Yes of course. During my studies the 6 hour practice days were not all in one go. I practice 2 hours in the morning - long lunch break - 2 hours in the afternoon - and 2 hours after dinner. :)

[@CypherX_13]

Excellent content as always! Thanks for answering my question!

[@fabianhuegli]

@@CypherX_13 you‘re very welcome! Thanks for watching

[@martatessi]

Yes. I study one hour when I want not to lost embochure when I can't study for any reason.

[@fabianhuegli]

@@martatessi thanks for your comment marta! Glad to have you on.

[@someoneelse361]

If you are not improving by practising 2 hours a day, you are definitely not practising well. The optimum amount to practice a day is 4 hours. “A lot of my students feel that if you practise more, it’s going to be better,” Perlman told us (watch below). “But the answer to this is, that’s wrong. Don’t practise for more than four to five hours. Afterwards, it’s not useful anymore. The body doesn’t absorb any more stuff... and you can cause yourself physical problems.” - Itzhak Perlman. Practicing 6 hours a day without using the mind, will give no more progress than 1 hour 30 minutes of mindful practice. I split my practice into 1 hour sessions throughput the day. Hour 1 is warm up (scales, long tones, vade mecum), hour 2 is studies, hour 3 is solo rep, hour 4 is ensembles rep/excerpts.

[@fabianhuegli]

@@someoneelse361 i would say with these 4 hours you are adding a great amount of quantity and also quality! Which is probably the perfect combination.

[@d4rw897]

Good video, but the title is a little misleading, since you still need the quality. Of course, the more time you get with quality practice, the better. Although I definitely don't agree that practicing for an hour will make it worse. That doesn't make any sense, and it's definitely better than not practicing at all. I know a clarinetist that practices precisely for that one or two hours a day. Every time I hear him play, his playing is better and better.

[@fabianhuegli]

@@d4rw897 thanks for your comment :) glad to have you on the channel. I agree that the title is a bit clickbaity haha. So tge more quality practice the better.