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Hi fellows...back again with another question. As you can see...I have a lot I was wondering how much do you practice a day?

I think the general advice holds true. Practice until you can't get it wrong. The amount will vary between people.

In Pete McCabes 'Scripting Magic' he recommends you aim to do 10 minutes practice a day, the thinking behind that being that if everything is going well and you're enjoying yourself, you'll end up doing more than 10 minutes but if things don't go well and you give up for the day out of frustration, you've done at least 10 minutes of practice more than doing none at all. Anything is better than nothing and you'll get into a good routine of doing some practice everyday regardless of how much spare time you have.

It's rare that I don;t practice daily and it can range from 20 minutes up to a couple of hours.

It very much depends on what material I'm performing and how much of a brush up I need on it.

I find that practice not only keeps your sleight of hand up to scratch but also helps you to memorise the routine.

In short... Not enough.

Practice is vastly overrated.
It's REHEARSAL that counts.
Unless you are rehearsing your act, you're wasting your time!

As a hobbyist it's very varied. Sometimes I do a lot and other times I don't practice for some weeks.

This being said I've developed a (bad?) habit of always needing something to occupy my hands when thinking and writing. This being cards, coins, sponge balls etc.

Depends a great deal on what I am practicing, the venue I intend to use it in (Stage or close up), where it fits into my routine, how comfortable I am with effects that sandwich it (before and after), etc. Never the same for anything....

I don't practice.

I play.

I only buy new tricks labelled "no practice and learned in 5 minutes".

I learn the moves I need, and spend as much time as I need on learning them. But I don't practice daily. In fact, I tend not to practice. I do everything before a live audience. I break in routines and get them perfect through gigs.

However I spend a considerable amount of time thinking and researching aspects of magic that interest me. Its not practice but it is broadening my knowledge base.

Maybe because I've been learning magic less than a year, but I practice alot. A good hour to two hours a day at least. I blame the Royal Road, cant put that damn book down.

That said, its not just sat in silence playing with cards and coins. Whilst I'm watching the telly or (as bad as this is) sitting in a lecture or on a bus I just play around with sleights all the time. Actually find that practice with the telly on is a good way to make myself not look at what I'm doing.

I remember when I was young and innocent being shocked beyond measure when I asked the great and famous David Berglas how many hours a day he practiced. I was staggered when he retorted, "I don't practice at all. The show is the practice"

I had this vision of great magicians practising every day for hours on end like I did at the time.

i used to do a chapter a week from Royal Road...

but it doesnt matter how long "we" practice, its how long you do...practice as much as you feel you should...

I think it's important to understand that it's not so much about the frequency and duration of your practice sessions, but how you practice. There is some great advice in Jay Sankey's Beyond Secrets book about this topic (amongst others).