10 Minute Magic

By Philip Johnston

Before you read this next hint, go and get a stopwatch. No - truly, really get one. You can't just imagine
this. Come back when you have.

Back already? Ok. Start the stopwatch, and then carefully read what follows.

If you are practicing by doing a set amount every day you may have noticed something disturbing.
Half an hour can take a long time. Especially if you are working hard. Most students wouldn't mind
practicing nearly so much if they only had to do ten minutes instead of thirty.
But what are your chances of convincing your piano teacher that ten minutes is enough?
Better than you think. Especially when you are talking about doing ten minutes of practice three times
each day.

The idea is that ten minutes flies by so quickly that it is a painless

amount of practice to do. Even if you really don't feel like practicing, ...if you can do three
you could force yourself if you knew that you were only in for 600 painless snatches of
seconds. Tick tick tick. There are three of them gone already. Five, 10 minutes every day,
now that you have read this. you will have
done three and a half
So do ten minutes of practice once in the morning before school. (It hours of practice by
takes longer to cook and eat a slice of toast than to do ten minutes your next lesson!
of practice). Do another ten when you come home. And then That's like having an
another 600 seconds (c'mon - it's nothing!) around dinner time. extra seven lessons
It feels very easy and very lazy, but it adds up. In fact, if you can do each week.
three painless snatches of 10 minutes every day, you will have
done three and a half hours of practice by your next lesson! That's
like having an extra seven lessons each week.

And after your next concert, when people ask you how it is you play so well, you can really confuse them.
You can tell them "I practiced for ten minutes to sound this good!" And you'd be telling the truth (just not
the whole truth).

I hadn't forgotten about your stopwatch. It's been running the whole time you have been reading this
article. It's all designed to illustrate how little ten minutes really is.

Stop the stopwatch now, and look at what it says.

It probably took you less than ten minutes to read all of this. But consider how quickly this time went.
That, plus a few more minutes, would make up the ten that I have been talking about.
Remember, it's only 600 seconds. But it can make a big difference to how you play, and to how likely you
are to sit down and practice in the first place.
(While you've got the stopwatch out, you might want to make and eat a slice of toast - see if my earlier
calculations about ten minutes were correct)