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Issue #3
Notes from The Music Hub
December 9, 2025
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How Much Should You Practice?
Over the years, my cats have always visited me while I've practiced, even jumping on the piano and walking on the keys themselves like they know how to play. So, I had to pick a kitty picture for this post!
It seems to me that animals love music. Have you also noticed that?
Anyway, back to the question at hand: How much do you need to practice?
This is a difficult question to answer, because it depends.
It depends on your goals, the difficulty of the music you are learning, how fast you learn.
And so forth.
There are too many questions to put a definitive time frame on the total amount you should practice. Some people need a lot of practice time. Others do not.
You might have heard "practice 30 minutes a day." But I think that advice is too simplistic and applied too much across-the-board without considering the real needs of students.
When I was young, my piano teacher told my parents that I should practice 30 minutes a day. I believe this was one of the reasons I had wanted to quit.
30 minutes was A CHORE.
Now that I have taught beginners for many years, I think that number is ridiculously high.
Piano is demanding on the mind and the body. Even for adults, a 30-minute stretch at the beginning may be too much.
Start off in small increments.
I believe that the minimum practice time should be only 10-15 minutes a day, and I think this is sustainable for most people. When you set a timer and an intention, you can get 15 minutes in.
You don't even have to do it all at once!
Sure, once you are past the beginning stages, you might want to sit at the piano for longer periods of time.
But 15 minutes may remain the right amount for a long time. Maybe always.
If you break down longer pieces into small sections, you can work on one section for 15 minutes.
Doing it this way will make it take longer to learn the whole piece. But if you are not trying to get into college for music or win a contest, who cares how long it takes to learn a piece of music?
People with goals of someday playing professionally or studying at advanced levels will obviously need to practice more.
Ultimately, you want to practice the amount of time that allows you to have FUN, learn the pieces you want to learn, and fit music into your life long-term.
Start with 15 minutes a day. It's doable.
The main thing is getting into the habit of practicing so that 15 minutes of piano becomes a normal part of your day - one that you really look forward to!
What's new in the App?
This week, I added a LOT of material in the App!
First of all, I will be moving all the Beginner material over to the main Piano section. It will be in both places: the Piano Accelerator Program AND the main Piano area.
This way, anyone in the membership can go back and review foundations and anyone who is a beginner can continue going through the material at their own pace, even when the Piano Accelerator program is over.
(It's not all moved over yet, but it's happening.)
All of the following can be found in the Piano section of the App!
Lesson 13 has been added to the Beginner Level 2
This lesson is all about ACCIDENTALS!
- PDF of theory worksheet
- PDF of Lesson 13 songs
- Instructional video explaining accidentals
- Demonstration video of how to play the songs
Christmas Songs
In this section, you will find some beginner-level arrangements and an intermediate arrangement of The First Noel.
- FREE PDFs of all the arrangements (these are my personal arrangements of public-domain songs, so I am able to give them to you without charge)
- Video demonstrations of how to play all the songs!
Boogie-Woogie Bass Lines in the unit on The Blues
- A PDF of 12 different Boogie-Woogie Bass Lines
- Demonstration video of how to play them with comped chords
Thank you for being a valued member of The Music Hub Community! Please contact me by responding to this email if you have any questions or concerns!
Happy Music Making!
Heather Niemi Savage, composer, pianist & educator
Founder of The Music Hub
