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Hello everybody,
I admit that there allready is a lot of information to find about my question. I did some research and found many different opinions about this matter so that I am even more confused than before.
The reason why I am wondering how often you have to practice is the following: For the next few months I am living in a dormitory for 4 days per week. That makes practice quite difficult because I get back in the evening and have no opportunity to practise earlier. The walls of the dormitory are so thin that you can allmost hear your neighbour talk so I allready got myself an Artino Practice Mute. But still I found that I have no joy in practicing here. I am constantly afraid that one may knock at my door because I am too noisy and in general I dont like to play with a mute because I feel it kind of "kills" the sound. Currently I am forcing myself to practice every evening but as allready described I have no fun in doing so while I am in the dormitory.
Fortunatly I can travel back home every friday, saturday and sunday. At these three days I have alot of fun practicing with my violin because I dont have to bother myself with angry neighbors or the practice mute.
I am wondering now what I should do: Should I continue to practice in the dormitory? Or would it be enough for a beginner (I am playing for some months now) if I just practice on friday, saturday and sunday when Im at home? That would make three practice days per week and I am afraid that might not be enough.
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I'd say, practice on the 3 days you're at home.
"Being enough" depends on what you're aiming for, in any case. That's not a question I ever asked myself. If you want to improve and have a good time doing so, and you get only frustration when you play in the dormitory, why force yourself ?
(if I tried that I know I'd just ending dropping the instrument altogether)
What are your goals, if you have any ? (short-term or long-term)
Playing with a mute is useful at the very beginning but I agree that it's much better to practice without it, if you can.
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I would use the mute and at least practice your scales or maybe one song for 15 minutes those 4 days of the week. A little practice time a day can go a long way.
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@wtw
My current short-term goals are:
1. improving my tone (a goal which I found is hard to work on if you have a mute on the violin, because the mute reduces the "feedback" you get from the violin)
2. Improving my rhythm
My intonation is allready quite good because I work constantly at it (for example I am playing scales while I am using an app called intonia which shows you whether your playing in tune).
My longtime-goal is to be able to play in an amateur orchestra but I think it will be a long way until I am good enough for that.
It is a little bit confusing. On the one hand I fear that it could be not enough to practice only the three days for the next few months. On the other hand I also fear that forcing myself to practice in the dormitory may 1. sooner or later annoy me that much that it reduces the fun I have with the violin and 2. may even worsen my technique because as allready said when I am playing here I am very tensed and just trying to get practice done which may lead to bad habits (for example I am doing very light and very short bowstrokes when I am practicing here because I try to be as silent as possible).
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As wtw wrote, depends on your goals. The goals that you set are great but it's a questions about how quickly you achieve them and to what degree. 
Definitely get a thicker mute than the Artino. The heavy metal mutes are the most silent of all.
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
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