How to use the online timer
Thirty minutes is the length most instrumental practice can hold real attention for, whatever the instrument. It is also the length teachers tend to ask for between lessons, on the reasonable grounds that thirty minutes five times is worth far more than two and a half hours the night before. In a flat, it is roughly what the neighbours will tolerate on a weekday evening.
Structure the half hour rather than letting it drift: a few minutes of warm-up, the bulk of the time on the specific passage that is not working, and something you enjoy at the end. The count runs in this browser tab, so keep the page open on whatever is propped against the stand and let the sound tell you when it is done.
Repeating a piece from the top is the least efficient practice there is, because the opening gets rehearsed forty times and the difficult bar in the middle gets rehearsed four. Isolate the hard bars, slow them down until they are clean, and lift the tempo gradually. It is duller than playing through, and it is the difference between improving and simply maintaining.
Common questions
Is it better to practise daily or in longer sessions?
Daily, by a wide margin. Thirty minutes five times a week does considerably more than two and a half hours the night before a lesson, and it is much easier on the hands.
Why not just play the piece through?
Because the opening gets rehearsed forty times and the difficult bar four. Isolating the hard bars, slowing them down and lifting the tempo gradually is duller and is what actually produces progress.
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