How long you practice (compose) for is not what matters

How long should I be writing music for? That is my daily question. Even now after a while doing this, I still ask myself if I am doing it enough. Every time I heard my performance friends talking about their —10+hours— daily practice a day I felt that I was doing something wrong for not spending an insanely amount of time writing music.

I quickly learned that it was different for me and that the length of my session is not the most important thing.

My current goal

I am working towards writing music –almost– every day for around 2 hours, maybe a little less. I am not there yet but I do not give myself a hard time for that. Near the end of the composition session, I can see my focus drifting away.

I can’t write for two hours without being distracted here and there (who can do that!?). During this time, however, I combine several “techniques” to keep working on the piece.

How long should the composition/practice session be then?

There is not really a prescribed duration for the session, but I say it can be as little as 25 minutes (or even less) or as long as 4 hours (if you are still functioning and proactively creating or revising).

No matter how long, try to schedule time ahead so you can concentrate and get the best out of your session. It is important to know how much time you have available so you don’t just wander. Set a timer for the time that you’ll be working and have a goal in mind to try to accomplish in that given time.

Here are some tasks you can do (or that I can read later and do myself… aha!):

• 5 minutes: Edit a part of your piece or write a fast brainstorm of what the section will look like.
• 10 minutes: Proofread a finished piece or write music without stopping so you can edit later.
• 25 minutes: Set a goal of getting a part of the piece as close as the way you want it. 20 minutes gives you time enough to ponder about things but not that much that you don’t keep yourself in motion.
• 1 hour or more: You can separate this session into several different tasks, or decide to make it a long composition/brainstorm project.

Bulletproof Musician Blog recommends a maximum of four hours of practice a day. More importantly, they say that one should practice for as long as it is productive. That article is really good, give it a read after you finish here!

I should also say that it will depend on the deadline hehe.

There is no reason to practice just for practice

Don’t make yourself write music for 8 hours a day if it is not engaged, or enjoyable. You just need to show up and engage with your piece and be present!

It will be more challenging but so much rewarding. As you make plans for the next weeks, you can listen to my podcast: HCP 5 about making plans or HCP 6 about setting up an environment of success!