We recently read an article in Bulletproof Musician by performance psychologist and Juilliard alumnus & faculty member Noa Kageyama. It breaks down the different perspectives between musicians, coaches, and psychologists on the topic of practicing classical music.

What Do Performers Say?

Hungarian violinist Leopold Auer once said to his pupil Nathan Milstein, “Practice with your fingers and you need all day. Practice with your mind and you will do as much in one and a half hours.”

Russian violinist Jascha Heifetz also said that practicing too much was just as detrimental as practicing too little. He claimed to practice about three hours per day and never on Sundays.

Kageyama’s own teacher Donald Weilerstein suggested that he “establish a 24-hour period of time every week where I was not allowed to pick up my instrument,” according to the article.

So, if music education teachers say no more than four hours of practice a day is acceptable, why do psychologists slightly disagree?

What Does A Renowned Psychologist Say?

Psychologist Dr. K. Anders Ericsson, a world-leading authority in performance study, coined the ten-year rule and 10,000-hour rules, “which suggest that it requires at least ten years and/or 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to achieve an expert level of performance in any given domain.”

In the case of musicians, it can often take closer to 25 years to achieve an elite international level. The difference between Ericsson’s method and the traditional “practice makes perfect” mantra is the type of practice. Playing classical music requires deliberate, purposeful repetition.

Autopilot doesn’t cut it anymore. If you hear a music education professional say, “Practice this piece for 10 minutes,” or “Play this passage 20 times,” it’s time to leave. Here’s why:

• You reinforce bad habits. Very little (if any) productive learning comes from this method. According to Kageyama’s article, “You are actually adding to the amount of future practice time you’ll need in order to eliminate these bad habits and tendencies.”
  
  A saxophone professor and former colleague of Kageyama once said, “Practice doesn’t make perfect, practice makes permanent.”
  

• It kills your confidence. Mindless practice can establish a high ratio of success in playing even the most difficult passages, but unwavering confidence on a concert stage comes from being able to play the piece consistently without a mistake.
  
  This sounds like a lot to comprehend, but this kind of on-stage confidence also comes from knowing that you can perform a composition on demand, not because you mindlessly practiced for weeks. You also know why you’re messing up, which perfects your technique in the long run.
  
  The author states, “We tend to practice unconsciously, and then end up trying to perform consciously — not a great formula for success. Recall from this article that you have a tendency to shift over into hyper-analytical left brain mode when you walk out on stage.
  
  If you’ve done most of your practicing unconsciously, you really don’t know how to play your piece perfectly on demand. When your brain suddenly goes into full-conscious mode, you end up freaking out, because you don’t know what instructions to give your brain.”
  

• It’s tedious, which kills a love for music. Instead of numerical goals, it should be more specific, such as practicing a composition until it sounds like fill-in-the-blank.
  
  “It doesn’t really matter how much time we spend practicing something — only that we know how to produce the results we want, and can do so consistently, on demand.”

In conclusion, deliberate practice should be the goal of musicians in all genres. It should be systematic, highly structured, active, thoughtful, and slow. Feel free to experiment and monitor your progress through video or a small audience.

While we can’t conclude the number of hours that will make you the best musician, we can tell you that concentration can be sustained for an average of two hours. The key is to keep tabs on your level of focus and go from there.

For tips on how to deliberately practice and perform better, check out Kageyama’s article, How Many Hours A Day Should You Practice? You can also subscribe to our blog for more tricks: