How many hours of practice total are typical for different piano grades?

Question

Malcolm Gladwell's book, "Outliers", stated a hypothesis: becoming good at something takes about 10,000 hours of practice.

I've recently been wondering how long a typical piano student has practiced by the time they complete grade 8. Obviously there would be huge variation but an experienced piano teacher presumably would know roughly how much practice a student at grade X level is doing and how long they are typically at grade X before moving on.

For bonus points, I'd love to see an estimate of hours for each grade. e.g. perhaps grade 1 is 50 hours; grade 2 100 hours and so on.

If a grade 8 student is doing 3-4 hours a day, 6 days a week, for 50 weeks; that's 900-1200 hours just for grade 8. But are those numbers realistic?

Answer 1

It depends on the grading system used. I completed my grade 8 piano through the Royal Conservatory of Music, in Canada. I would consider my general musical aptitude to be about average for a "serious amateur" musician, so keep that in mind.

I practiced approximately two hours every day for a year (more towards the end than at the beginning), or around 750 hours total. That got me a high 60s on the examination, I believe. Definitely not super well, but enough to pass without being worried.

So I think your range of 900-1200 hours would be accurate to do well on the grade 8 exam. It also depends on your focus and your teacher. I had a good teacher, but I focused a lot on theory (separate study time, separate exam that I took around the same time) and didn't work particularly hard on keeping my tempo consistent throughout songs (that was a big problem on my exam). I also wasn't a great sight-reader.

The only formal exams I took were grade 6 and grade 8, and I'd say 2 and 3 hours a day respectively are probably enough for the average player, based on my experience. This is impossible to answer accurately for you, of course, but hopefully it gives you an idea.

As for the total from grade 1 to grade 8: If you assumed starting at 30 min/day and linearly increasing until 3 hours/day, you'd get just over 5000 hours total. So half of Gladwell's expected time. I think this is reasonable, being "half expert" at grade 8 :P

Answer 2

I'm someone who is currently learning the piano.

For Grade 8 AMEB, I slacked off quite a bit, I barely practiced in the beginning of the year (learnt songs around March), just the 1 hr a week in lessons, then did at most an hour a day for 4/5 days a week towards crunch time. Examinations were in November. Assuming I had 35 weeks to practice, I would've spent around 150 hours on 3 songs (and scales etc.) to achieve a B+.

Personally, I don't think your numbers are realistic, the most passionate person I know for music practices 1-2 hours a day, every day. You also might have to take into consideration that most pianists up to grade 8 are students, who play the piano for leisure. Sitting down for anything more than 1/2 an hour could be difficult, especially if they have homework/social life/sport/etc on their mind. However, everyone I know that plays, passes.

Currently, I'm working towards an A.Mus. I started learning the songs in May last year and will take my examinations in October this year. I have a very irregular practice regime, but I can estimate around 5 hours... a fortnight. Which takes me up to 130 hours. I have 5 months to go, assuming that I start playing more frequently, say 4 hours a week, I can squeeze in a total of 210 hours to memorise 6 songs.

Wow, first time looking at raw numbers, I hope this is of help to you guys. I won't mind answering any questions if you want to throw any at me.

Answer 3

I think it's impossible to equate a flat number of hours with a certain growth in proficiency. Every student learns at a different pace.

I give students the following minimums for daily practice at the piano (these are Suzuki books in which books 1-3 correspond roughly to RCM grades 1-6 and books 4-6 roughly to RCM 7-9, and Suzuki includes massive listening time which is extra): 5 minutes a day for beginners, 10 minutes a day by the end of book 1, 20 minutes a day in book 2, 30 minutes a day in book 3, etc. By the beginning of book 6 students are ready for advanced literature and then we set practice times and goals individually. Times assume practice 6-7 days a week.

Among my consistent practicers whom I regard as talented, I have some who are in book 2 after over 5 years of study, and some in book 3 after less than 2 years of study. That's with roughly the same total number of practice hours per year. The ones who move faster aren't necessarily more talented, it's more that they like to challenge themselves with new material but have trouble taking the time required to make old material sound beautiful, while the slower-moving students are fearful of new material but sound like professionals on their current pieces before they move on. Your mileage will vary...

For someone who was preparing for college/conservatory performance major admissions I would suggest budgeting at least 2 hours practice per day on a normal day and 3-4 hours at least two days a week for extra detail work; and plan to practice at least 4 hours per day while at college/conservatory. My current teacher reports that she routinely had to practice 10-12 hours a day at Juilliard. I play professionally and practice anywhere from 1.5 to 5 hours depending on the day. 1.5 always feels like a very minimal rushed run-through.

Answer 4

Great question, I have been asked this many times!

I began piano lessons in 1992 and completed my AMEB AMusA diploma in 2003 and my LMusA diploma in 2005.

SCALES, ARPEGGIOS, CLASSICAL / EXAM PIECES:

I probably did around 30 to 45 minutes of practice a day, 6 days a week (slacked off on lesson days :) for 6 years + 1 hour per day, 6 days a week for another 8 years..

Total of ~ 3200 to 3700 hours

EXTRAS:

I think what really made the difference was all the extracurricular practice. Various band rehearsals / improvising / my own fooling around included roughly 10 to 15 hours a week from age 12, which adds an extra 3500 to 5000 hours roughly (up to completion of LMusA). My sight-reading, listening skills and ability to learn new material improved considerably as a direct result.

Also spent many more hours playing other instruments - including viola, flute, drums, guitar.

So it seems Malcolm Gladwell is spot on.

Hope that helps!