This line of study originated at Norges Musikkhøgskole (Norwegian Conservatory of Music) in Oslo, Norway. Professor Harald Jørgensen (Jørgensen and Lehmann, 1997) began the study with conservatory students in 1991 and completed a follow-up study in 1996. He surveyed applied music students about their practice efficiency, motivation to practice, concentration during practice, planning of practice activities, and other influences upon practice and time spent practicing. As we reported in 1999, in collaboration with Dr. Jorgensen, the survey was translated into English in 1997 and was administered to students at five schools in the United States in 1998 and 1999. These schools included two liberal arts colleges and three schools of music at major universities in the United States. In 1998, the survey was translated into Japanese for music students at a conservatory of music in Japan. The survey that was used in the United States and Japan was somewhat different than the one used in Norway in that we asked students to report on the study of a second instrument if they were taking lessons on that instrument and we asked two questions concerning how the student felt her/his practice time was influenced by peers and teachers. A total of 977 subjects filled out the survey.

We have presented several papers about the study in the last few years. The first was at the Society for Music Perception and Cognition (SMPC) held at Northwestern University in August of 1999. The paper was titled, “An International Study of Student Practice Habits.” At that conference we presented two major themes: (1) time spent practicing (see Graph 1 below) and (2) when students plan lesson strategies. Graph I below shows a comparison of practice data divided into three categories: (1) those students who practice less than five hours per week, (2) between five and twenty hours per week and (3) over twenty hours per week. It is easy to see that category (2) contains most of the subjects. Fifty to just over sixty percent of the students in each of the four categories of schools (conservatory in Japan, conservatory in Norway, schools of music in the US and liberal arts colleges in the US) reported practice of five to twenty hours per week.

In the first and third categories there was much more variation between the types schools. Less than five percent of the Norwegian conservatory students practice less than five hours per week whereas about forty-five percent of the students at liberal arts colleges practice less than five hours per week. It should be noted that the Norwegian subject pool contained no voice students while the liberal arts colleges had a high percent of students studying voice who tend to practice considerably less than instrumental students. Forty-two percent of the Norwegian students and fifteen percent of the schools of music students practice more than twenty hours per week. Eighteen percent of the Japanese and two percent of the liberal arts students practice more than twenty hours per week. In the less than five hours per week category the liberal arts schools take the lead again because of the large number of voice students at those schools.

The second area of interest for the SMPC conference was that of planning. Students were asked to identify on a five-point scale [(1) almost never to (5) almost always] if they practiced: (1) Before a practice day, (2) At the beginning of a practice session, (3) During the practice session, (4) Shortly after practicing in preparation for later practice and (5) Between practice days and practice sessions in spare time. Among other things, the figure below shows the relationship to (1) above in that those who practice more plan before the practice day.

The next figure (Planning Time Preferences by Nation and Amount of Practice), illustrates the planning of practice when comparing the two countries. It is easy to see that most students plan, ‘Just before practice’ and ‘during practice’. The interesting comparisons are at the other three points. The three categories of practice in Japanese students shows little difference ‘Before the practice day’ whereas there is a considerable difference in the US students at that point. The US students also show differences ‘Just after practice’ and ‘Between practice days’ while the Japanese students do not. This is one of the cultural differences we have found in this study.

References

Jørgensen, Harald (1997) Time for practising? Higher level music students’ use of time for instrumental practicing. Does Practice Make Perfect? Edited by Harald Jørgensen and Andreas C. Lehmann. Oslo, Norway: Norges Musikkhøgskole, 123-139.

Ericsson, K. Anders, (1997) Deliberate practice and the acquisition of expert performance: An overview. Does Practice Make Perfect? Edited by Harald Jørgensen and Andreas C. Lehmann. Oslo, Norway: Norges Musikkhøgskole, 9-51.