It's a personal thing and I can only speak for myself. The duration of my practice seems to find natural limits. No more than 10 or 15 minutes at the very beginning (I experienced hand discomfort) and then lengthening to typically around 30 minutes (without discomfort) by the end of my first year. I have practiced daily from Day 1. Now I'll play in shortish bursts throughout the day, though very rarely for more than 20 minutes in one go. That may be more to do with fitting flute around my daily routine. I don't know? I find that I don't get any more achieved if I play in fewer but longer bursts.Bcoopmando wrote:Length of time practicing?
There is a direct contrast with the stringed instrument I play which I tend to practice for longer at one sitting. I'm interested to read how others structure their practice time.
When trying to memorise a tune, the same time-gap technique works for me on flute and stringed instrument. A very short run-through of the tune, maybe twice and then put the flute down. Go do something else. About an hour or two later do the same again and continue throughout the day with that same gap. The gap between putting down the flute and picking it up again needs to be sufficient so that you engage and exercise longer-term memory and not just rely on short-term memory and immediate recall. This is the most efficient way I have found to quickly commit a tune to long-term memory. If the playing gap is too short we don't exercise longer term memory. If the playing gap is too long we're likely to forget the tune and disrupt the process that way. The ideal playing gap will vary from person to person and sometimes from day to day.