Advice on Piano Practice Times Based on Level and Age

For all students of all ages, beginners and above:

 A small amount of mindful, attentive, and creative piano practice is far more effective than many hours of repetitive, mindless drills.

 They are uncreative to play and simply reinforce bad habits and mistakes Practise should be creative and fun!

Piano teachers base practice recommendations on age, on level, on motivation, or a combination of those three factors.

For four-and- five year old beginners, 10 minutes of practice time is recommended. The goal for the very young piano students is to establish practice as a routine, daily responsibility and to make it fun! All the while laying down the core foundations of music .

For six-to- ten year old beginners, a half an hour a day is a good starting point. At first 10 mins may be all they can manage, but work on increasing this day by day as concentration improves with the routine. More motivated children may practice more but please make sure they take regular breaks.

Once students reach the intermediate level or are over 12 years of age, progress requires closer to 45 minutes a day of working on repertoire, because the material is more complex and more difficult to master. At this stage, piano students also need to make time in their practice schedules for more technical drills, including etudes, scales, and arpeggios, technical exercises which at the intermediate level will require 15 minutes or so a day also. 

More advanced students' progress will very much depend on their goals. An hour a day would be recommended. Recreational pianists will find that a practice routine of 45 minutes to an hour a day is more than enough to maintain current technique level, learn new material, and develop skills but this is with daily practise and progress is slower then if you did 2hrs.

Students who wish to enrol in adjudications and competitions often find themselves practicing two or more hours a day. 

Those planning to audition for musical college programs may practice three hours a day.

Advanced Piano Students and Practice:

At the college performance level, where students are majoring in music and practicing to be professional musicians, many piano majors practice between three and 5 hours a day.  They divide their practice time into smaller units, perhaps an hour or two in the morning and in the evening. Or they should take frequent breaks of 5-15min for every 45mins of playing. Breaking up practice helps prevent carpal tunnel syndrome and tendinitis and other repetitive stress injuries that can occur with over-use or incorrect technique at this level of practice.