How long do you practice, and how?

To answer this question on how long I practice I thought it might be best to describe my evolution over a lifetime to today.  By the way, I just picked up the book, Learn Faster, Perform Better by Molly Gebrian.  I just started it so I expect that everything I will say here will be the words of a professional amateur but this is life.

I really only was able to restart my musical dreams about two years ago.  Prior to this it has been essentially a life deferred.  Picking up on what someone else said, my teenage years were characterized by my talent of practising once per week - at the lesson!  You might say I was very good at sight reading and was probably my teacher's best student who mainly restricted his practice to the one hour lesson per week.  Imagine if I would have practised!  Also, for the record, it wasn't that I didn't want to practice - I did - but I always wished for a 96 hour day instead of only 24 hours.

Most of my adult life was even worse.  Sometimes months could go by without even 1 minute found to practice.  Mostly, ten minutes here or there in a week.  If I was lucky, once in a while it might have been an hour in month.

The bottom line is that it was virtually impossible to become even a below average amateur with this limited keyboard time.  The only saving grace for me was my desire to one day make up for this lack of practice time and that I always listened to and thought about music constantly.

About two years ago, I stepped up to the plate and probably managed about 30 - 60 minutes per day.  Starting in early 2026, this time increased to about two hours per day, semi-regularly.  As of about two months ago I have occasionally (maybe twice per week) managed four hours per day (including today, for instance).

And yes, this is mainly in one session.  This is my new found favourite way to practice.  Three to fours straight.

My method is to sight-read or work on something newer for most of the first hour.  I rarely do scales or technique.  After about an hour I am starting to feel warmed up.  Then I just get more and more into it working at the more challenging pieces.  It is at this point I am the most focused and often am not aware anymore of the natural world around me including any constraint such as time.

It is for this reason that I can only do this maybe a couple times a week because it doesn't work if say I have to go somewhere else in a hour.  Then I can't focus as I always have to remember some thing that I can't ignore and then my mind is split.  I approach it only in that once I sit down I play without constraints for as long as I want or need.  

I think this euphoria that I experience is somewhat like a distance runner or athlete.  In the first 30-60 minutes it is hard.  You feel the pain and have to push on until the adrenaline or serotonin kicks in.  Then you experience a warmth and feeling of goodness that isn't possible in the normal world. 

This is just not possible when playing only 10 minutes or even 30 or 45 minutes.  I wish it weren't so because it means I can't just sit down and perform cold.  It took me a lifetime to figure this out and what works for me.  This is very new for me so I don't know if this will continue on in this way but I imagine I will strive for longer and longer sessions as time goes on.

Also, I should say that mood has something to do with everything as well.  If I'm just not in the mood or am trying to practice but my mind is elsewhere, I just think it's best to walk away and not come back until I am more in the mood to get lost in the music.  Again, for me this almost always happens if I try to practice before some other appointment or scheduled event.

The last point in defence of this style of practice is that I would reason that you will never run a marathon if you only practice 10 minutes at a time.   You may have 12 x ten minutes practice sessions throughout a day but this isn't going to give you the stamina to play a two hour recital or concert?