In a previous article I suggested that 30 minutes of daily piano practice routine is a good baseline for beginners. But the real answer to “how long should I practice?” is: it depends. It depends on who you are, what you want, and where you’re going. So rather than give you a number, let me introduce you to three students — all fictional, all representative of someone real — and walk you through what practice looks like for each of them.

The Casual Performer: 30–60 Minutes

Robert is 39, has a busy life, and a genuine love of music. He took lessons as a kid and got to Grade 4 with Merit, then life happened and the piano went quiet for a long time. Now he’s back — not chasing grades, not preparing for anything in particular, just wanting to sit down at the piano, accompany himself and his family singing, and explore the pop songs he loves.

For Robert, 30–60 minutes a day is plenty. Not because he’s not serious, but because his goal is joy and connection — and that’s entirely achievable in focused, consistent short sessions. The key word is consistent. A little every day beats a long session once a week, every time.

Robert’s Piano Practice Routine

  • 5–10 minutes warm-up: Technical exercises to prepare the fingers, prevent injury, and gradually build proficiency.
  • 10–20 minutes accompaniment: Working through pop songs from chord charts or lead sheets — rhythmic accuracy, coordination with singing, different styles and patterns.
  • 5–10 minutes harmony: Exercises that build an understanding of how chords work, applied directly to harmonising pop melodies.
  • 10–20 minutes self-expression: Improvisation, personal arrangements, messing around. This is where it becomes his own.

Balancing Practice with Life

Robert squeezes practice into the gaps — a lunch break, twenty minutes before bed. That’s fine. The piano stays in his life, he keeps improving at a pace that suits him, and it never becomes a chore. That’s the whole point.

The Aspiring Exam Candidate: 2–3 Hours

Melissa is 17, has been playing since childhood, and is building a genuinely good standard. She’s preparing for Grade 5 with an examining board known for strict marking — which means the bar is high and the preparation needs to match it.

A typical Grade 5 exam covers five areas:

  • repertoire pieces: the chosen piano pieces selected from a list
  • technical work: scales, arpeggios, broken chords
  • sight-reading: to play at first sight a never-seen-before piece of music
  • aural test: listening-based tasks and musicianship
  • discussion: questions are asked by the examiner on some theory aspects about the music performed

I should be clear about my approach here, because it shapes everything that follows: my goal with Melissa is not to chase the certificate. The exam is a milestone, not the destination. Her practice includes aural awareness, sight-reading, music appreciation, critical listening, theory, composition and improvisation — all of it. The exam fits within that wider framework, not the other way around.

On the repertoire side: we do an initial playthrough of all the available pieces, select three, and work on them until each reaches a distinction-level performance. At that point a new piece comes in and the old one goes into maintenance.

Melissa’s Practice Routine

  • 10–20 minutes technical warm-up: Scales, arpeggios, broken chords — the exam technical requirements double up as a warm-up, so nothing is wasted.
  • 20–30 minutes repertoire piece: Focused, mindful and goal-oriented practice on the first chosen piece.
  • 10–20 minutes aural: Singing at sight, repeating melodies from memory, melodic and harmonic dictation.
  • 10 minutes sight-reading: A never-seen-before piece at approximately Grade 3 standard.
  • 20–30 minutes repertoire piece: The second piece.
  • 10–20 minutes quick study: An extra piece assigned for the following lesson — a different one each week, prepared to the highest standard possible within the time available.
  • 20–30 minutes repertoire piece: The third piece.
  • 10 minutes theory: Harmonic, melodic and formal analysis of a simple piece.
  • 10 minutes exploring new music: Active listening to something never heard before — key, tempo, articulation, dynamics, texture, melodic shape, form. Reflecting and taking notes.

Follow this and Melissa will grow as a musician. The Grade 5 distinction will follow as a matter of course — because that’s how it works.

The music improves as the musician grows

A piece of music does not improve by being played over and over mindlessly. It’s the other way around: the piece improves in proportion to the overall growth of the musician — and that only happens when all aspects of music education are addressed. Not just the pieces.

The Prodigious Talent: 5–6 Hours

Chris is 7 years old, from a musical family, and has been attending musicianship and music appreciation classes since he was 4. He has natural technical ability, a developed sense of beat, an instinct for harmony, and a genuine love of improvisation. Most tellingly: he goes to the piano of his own accord, whenever he gets the chance. Nobody drags him there.

His parents want him to become a world-class concert pianist. With the right support network and a top-tier teacher already in place, that aspiration is not unrealistic. But it comes with a reality check: this level of ambition requires a level of commitment that most people never encounter.

Chris’s Practice Routine

  • 3 hours repertoire: Perfecting performance pieces, exploring new music by sight-reading, quick studies, initial assessments of new challenges.
  • 1 hour theory: The architecture of music — form, harmonic language, how music works as a phenomenon and how it affects the listener and the performer. This blends into composition and improvisation.
  • 1 hour solfège / sight-singing / aural training: Developing the ability to conceive music in the mind — not by mechanical means, but by genuine musical understanding.
  • 1 hour technique: Scales, arpeggios, exercises, études. The fitness side of music — refining the coordination required to deliver musical content with the least possible effort.

The fine details shift constantly: recitals, recording sessions, competitions, examinations, radio appearances. But whichever way the time is distributed, Chris is looking at a minimum of 5–6 hours of musical activity every day — before you even count the musical life of his household.

Concert pianists as athletes

If that sounds like hard work, it’s because it is. There’s no way around it. Aspiring concert pianists are professional athletes — they have to dedicate themselves to their craft with the same rigour and consistency. Natural talent matters, of course. But it’s the combination of hard work, daily commitment, and a genuine passion for the music that actually gets someone to the top. Talent without work gets you nowhere near Chris’s destination.

So where do you fit in?

Robert, Melissa and Chris represent three points on a very wide spectrum — the casual end, the serious-but-grounded middle, and the professional-track extreme. Most people sit somewhere between Robert and Melissa. Very few are Chris, and that’s absolutely fine.

There is no single right answer to how long you should practice. The right answer depends on who you are, what you want, and what you’re willing to commit to. The best way to work that out is to have an honest conversation with your teacher and build a plan that fits your actual life — not someone else’s.

If you’d like to have that conversation, get in touch — I’m looking forward to hearing your story.