How long does one study a piano piece?

College Confidential Community
1

<p>I need to get a sense of how long it takes for a student to study a classical piano piece (nothing excessively difficult, more like Anton Dvorak’s “Humoreske,” which isn’t easy either). A few weeks? Months? I know that some take longer than others, but say I practiced some everyday, could you give me some rough estimates (feel free to give any examples of songs).</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

2

<p>Umm, you really just practice until you get it good (or in some people’s cases, perfect). No one is really going to be like, I’m going to practice this for x amount of time and then totally stop. Do you actually play piano? Because if you did, you probably wouldn’t be asking this, but I don’t know.</p>

3

<p>I used to play the piano, (up to grade 7) and as a rough rough rough estimate, I’d say 1 piano piece would take ~3 weeks to PERFECT, if practicsed every day for 1.5-2 hours. Well, for me it was like that.
That is, if you are capable of playing the piano at that level… if you are a total newbie, without any experience with reading notes, umm it’d take a long long time, unless you have natural piano ability…</p>

4

<p>It depends on:

  1. How long you practice each day
  2. Your natural ability
  3. Your technical ability and level of play
  4. How difficult you find the piece
  5. Whether you are playing at a fast tempo (that you will need to work up to)
  6. Whether you need to memorize it
  7. How good it has to be
  8. What else you’re learning</p>

<p>I have learned some relatively advanced pieces in a week or two with pretty intense and focused practice, while other pieces have taken me a number of months, especially if the piece is not a priority. There is not a way to give a rough estimate without that information. A kid with little musical talent who doesn’t practice may never be able to proficiently play a high intermediate level piece, while a passionate and talented student may have it perfected in a month.</p>