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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.

Regulars





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.

Advanced member


Member

@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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