I spend 8+ hours at work... (I love this current job though) nothing wrong with doing 4 hours of pratice! BUT, you can run into a few problems, either burning out, or not doing "good" pratice. if it's getting boring, a chore, or work, stop and move on to something else! You don't want to get burnt out doing something you love.

Practicing shouldn't be a chore. I practice for hours a day because I enjoy it! At the point where you feel that you *have* to practice, that's the point where you should put down your saxophone and go get a cup of coffee, or just relax. Only play when you're having fun. If you take yourself too seriously, you tense up. No one wants to be tense, because you can't play as well! Practicing is important, but the time you spend not practicing can be just as important as well. It gives you time to *think* about the music. Even if you aren't, you expirience things which help you interpret better.

There is no possible way to become a world class player without spending as much time practicing, listening and performing as possible. Every book that I've ever read about greats such as Coltrane, Ornette, Bird etc. talk of hours upon hours of daily practicing. Talent is only the seed of greatness, it is the constant hardwork that culminates into success. There are many accounts of how John Coltrane would get done with a Miles Davis gig and he would go and shed in his hotel room for hours trying to work out what he found to be laking in his performance. Of course life experience is needed to draw upon for an emotional conection to music, but this cannot be an excuse for one to not practice as much as humanly possible. Whoever said that practicing should be fun has not been pushing themself as hard as they should. I have fun every time I practice, but it is usually near the end when I've completed my regiment of studies to increase my proficiency on the instruments. This is work, HARD WORK!! I have heard from many teachers that the stuff that is fun to play is not most beneficial. I have fun when I have a gig and it goes great because I practiced my ass off. Don't get me wrong, playing should be a beautiful experience, but when you decide to become a professional, much sweat and blood must be sacrificed for a chance of success in this highly competitive field.

"but when you decide to become a professional, much sweat and blood must be sacrificed for a chance of success in this highly competitive field." this is called desire, and will make pratice fun/enjoyable/whatever... because you're not doing it for the sake of doing it, you see the light, have a map, and know that pratice is the road to get there. getting burnt out is when you're not a professional, don't really have the desire, and are trying to do way more than you can do at the moment. This is when it's best to put things down, think about stuff, read a book, visit a friend, and come back to it later. besides, I don't pratice to become a world class player... I do it because I enjoy doing it. I'm sure there are others here that share my goals and ideals. I don't push myself as hard as I can, and I don't think I'll be doing that with a sax anytime soon.

landrusax - how old are you?

I am twenty seven. Why is this relevent? If your goal is to be able to hang with anyone at anytime in the world, there is no other way to attain that goal then what I said, HARD WORK. I play music because I love it, but that does not mean that it is all fun and games, thats kid stuff. I practice five to seven hours every day, this is not because every time it is fun, its because I am aware of the level of musicianship needed and I hear constant improvement.

Some people (I believe) have more natural (God-given) talent for music than others. Some of these can become world-class players without nearly as much practice as those who don't have the same gifts at the get-go. These others are gifted differently, just not for music. I have a friend who just loves the saxophone, but has no talent for rhythm. For that friend to become a world-class player would take full-time practice as well as a miracle or two. Earning a living (which cannot be done by a saxophone player with no rhythm skills) takes precedence. Another friend seems to have rhythm (and other skills) built-in, can pick up a new piece and sight-read it with few mistakes, and have it worked (almost) to perfection within one hour. That one doesn't need to practice nearly as much to be world-class. We're all different. I enjoy being different.

Oops! I meant to say... Earning a living (which cannot be done BY PLAYING SAXOPHONE when the saxophone player has no rhythm skills) takes precedence.

being different isn't a bad thing, now, is it? A lot of the sax players in my area are quite strange, most of them being bari players (me included)

oh, and we're not neccesarily a bad strange, it's more of a goofy strange.

As charlie parker said," if you don't live it, it won't come out your horn" or something like that. i find myself going into a practice room to get away from life and not have to face all the problems in the world. Its like do you have to be a detective to read a mystry? all my feelings come out in my music, and that is almost the only place

Well, I don't think there's anything wrong with practicing a lot. However, this summer while at camp for 6 weeks, I was playing 13 hours a day at one point. Let me mention I learned a very hard lesson. Never again will I play that much a day, I had a lot of physical problems after. I also learned how important it is to take breaks. So in my opinion, no, there's nothing wrong with it. Practice room 'zombies' also can have a lot of expression in their playing.