How much do I have to practice – please tell me the truth!!!

The classic question of all classics is how much do I have to practice?  The honest to goodness truth is that the amount of time that you practice does not determine how fast you learn.   It is how often you practice that determines how fast you learn.   What do I mean by that?

First, the most common mistake to make is to believe that you have to practice for hours to get good at  the piano.   That is NOT true.  All you need to do is practice often for short periods of time.  The one thing that will slow your progress is going long periods of time without practicing.  You need to practice at the minimum 2-3 times a week, at the best, 5-7 times a week.  Each practice session should be at least 10-20 minutes. And those minutes need to be used very wisely.  Skipping weeks at a time without practicing needs to be avoided if you don’t want to repeat your lessons, and repeating lessons can end in frustration and little or no progress.