In other words, just practicing any old way doesn’t cut it. Note that the real key here is not the amount of practice required (as the exact number of hours is debatable) but the type of practice required to attain an expert level of performance. His research is the basis for the “ten-year rule” and “10,000-hour rule” which suggest that it requires at least ten years and/or 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to achieve an expert level of performance in any given domain - and in the case of musicians, often closer to 25 years in order to attain an elite international level. Anders Ericsson is perhaps the world’s leading authority. When it comes to understanding expertise and expert performance, psychologist Dr. You know, this is not a bad idea – one of my own teachers, Donald Weilerstein, once suggested that I establish a 24-hour period of time every week where I was not allowed to pick up my instrument. Heifetz also indicated that he never believed in practicing too much, and that excessive practice is “just as bad as practicing too little!” He claimed that he practiced no more than three hours per day on average, and that he didn’t practice at all on Sundays.
Practice with your mind and you will do as much in 1 1/2 hours.” Auer responded by saying “Practice with your fingers and you need all day. Violinist Nathan Milstein is said to have once asked his teacher Leopold Auer how many hours a day he should be practicing. Other great artists have expressed similar sentiments. I seem to recall reading an interview with Rubinstein years ago, in which he stated that nobody should have to practice more than four hours a day, explaining that if you needed to practice more than four hours a day, you probably weren’t doing it right. Some of the great artists of the 20th century have shared their thoughts on these questions. Is there an optimal number of hours that one should practice? Is there such a thing as practicing too much?