When it comes to young children, there are very few benefits to enduring long stretches of practice time. Shorter more frequent practice sessions are more efficient than longer, less frequent practice sessions. With young children, long stretches of learning often result in negative feelings towards learning in general, let alone towards learning an instrument, which would completely sabotage everyone's efforts.
As a case study, let's look at a practice schedule of 20 minutes a day, five days a week like what is highly suggested with the Junior Prodigy Music curriculum. (For those participating in the follow along videos, both practice sessions and lesson videos all count towards the daily 20 minute goal.) The students I've taught learning on a more frequent piano lesson schedule were the ones who were ready to learn sight reading in under three months.* They were also ready for the same level of material saved for 4th graders in public school instrument curriculums. That's what happens when you use frequency and momentum to your advantage.
When it comes to "the best" route to learning an instrument, that just simply does not exist. Because of varying degrees of attention spans and temperament, there is no one size fits all. Some children have low attention spans others high, some are competitive in nature and can withstand longer learning time while others are easily distracted, some are willing to go further, and some have no motivation to practice and will put up a fight.
So your answer to how long and often should kids practice an instrument depends on the outcome you're expecting.
Let's take the traditional once a week, 30min - 1hr private lesson model. At the absolute bare minimum, your child should practice at least once at home outside of class time to make sure they are proficient with the material that was covered in class. And then on the opposite spectrum alongside of having high expectations, there is no defined amount of time required in preparing for what I'd call concert quality. You practice until the point of confidence and muscle memory however long that takes. So that's the range. It's a pretty wide one. Adjust as you go. Parents of young children should allot a maximum amount of practice time that's age appropriate. Here's a guideline of maximum daily practice time.
Age of Child Maximum Practice Time
3-5 15-20 min
5-8 20-45 min
8-10 45-60 min
Maximum practice times are to remove the temptation of going after quantity over quality. The older the child is, the longer said child could withstand a practice session. (Generally speaking, three and a half year olds can withstand a 15-20 minute lesson and a ten year old could withstand 45min-1hour. Setting a maximum practice time takes out the culture of hammering on and on through practice: one of the worse thing you could do to kids of any age for that matter. If your child needs more practice, write in an extra practice session for another day.
*Student participants were consistent in their attendance and participated in short, less than one minute long nighttime exercises. As children learn piano finger numbers, we include placing a chart by your child's bed as a reminder to review finger numbers for one minute right before bed. New information learned is solidified into longterm memory through sleep, and we've incorporated scientific research into speeding up the timeframe of completing the three book lesson series.
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