I've been serious about learning the piano (for music basics) and ultimately the organ for over a year now. I've been on it an hour a day without fail. I've learned some basic sight-reading and am just getting started with four-part hymns, including the pedals. In a few weeks, I suspect I'll be able to play my first couple of hymns on an organ, pedals and all.
I found the most insightful essay that said that the best practice routine does not drill endlessly on one passage. Instead, the article suggested to have a number of items to work on, and cycle through them all, investing no more than ten minutes or so on each one. I assume a guy could cycle through his routine several times in one sitting ... but the point was not to spend more than 10 minutes at a time on something before moving onto the next module. That advice seems to be working very well for me. It's really helped move the sight-reading along.
But now I'm ready to move from an hour or so to as much as three hours. I do get some basic coaching from a friend who plays organ very well, but who is not a professional teacher and hasn't gotten me into the kinds of stuff you might encounter if you were getting a degree ... ie, fancy theory or "discipline" exercises. I'm just learning how to play the hymns I like, albeit properly - like a good organist would.
One hour a day is plenty to go through my "ten minutes per item" routine every day. Working on memorizing pedal lines ... then working on right hand ... then left hand ... then both hands ... and finally both hands with pedals.
That's about it for me every day.
But if a guy wants to get serious and move to three hours a day ... what does he work on for that much time? I could just work on, say, six or eight hymns concurrently instead of two or three. I could start breaking up a basic Bach piece into pieces and learn it. Those all seem somewhat arbitrary choices ... but if that's what up-and-coming pros do, then that's what I'll do.
I did recently ask a world-renowned organist how much she practiced when she was coming up. She said her routine was five hours a day. It didn't occur to me in the moment I was getting to speak with her what she actually did for five hours.
Can anyone give me insight into what an aggressive, organized, and intelligent intermediate practice routine might look like?
-N
I found the most insightful essay that said that the best practice routine does not drill endlessly on one passage. Instead, the article suggested to have a number of items to work on, and cycle through them all, investing no more than ten minutes or so on each one. I assume a guy could cycle through his routine several times in one sitting ... but the point was not to spend more than 10 minutes at a time on something before moving onto the next module. That advice seems to be working very well for me. It's really helped move the sight-reading along.
But now I'm ready to move from an hour or so to as much as three hours. I do get some basic coaching from a friend who plays organ very well, but who is not a professional teacher and hasn't gotten me into the kinds of stuff you might encounter if you were getting a degree ... ie, fancy theory or "discipline" exercises. I'm just learning how to play the hymns I like, albeit properly - like a good organist would.
One hour a day is plenty to go through my "ten minutes per item" routine every day. Working on memorizing pedal lines ... then working on right hand ... then left hand ... then both hands ... and finally both hands with pedals.
That's about it for me every day.
But if a guy wants to get serious and move to three hours a day ... what does he work on for that much time? I could just work on, say, six or eight hymns concurrently instead of two or three. I could start breaking up a basic Bach piece into pieces and learn it. Those all seem somewhat arbitrary choices ... but if that's what up-and-coming pros do, then that's what I'll do.
I did recently ask a world-renowned organist how much she practiced when she was coming up. She said her routine was five hours a day. It didn't occur to me in the moment I was getting to speak with her what she actually did for five hours.
Can anyone give me insight into what an aggressive, organized, and intelligent intermediate practice routine might look like?
-N