If you wanna sound like $Famous_Player, you need to PRACTICE. A lot. You might have a number of minutes in mind. That's not enough.
OK, let me qualify that statement, a bit: it is a good thing to have a set time to practice and make sure you ALWAYS practice at that time. It develops a good routine. Also note that while your lesson is probably no more than an hour, the things your instructor might tell you will give you many, many hours to practice.
Now, I wanted to be a professional musician at a young age and I knew that a) I didn't have gobs of talent and b) I had to be better than 230 of the 250 or so saxophone players that were competing to get a spot in the saxophone program at the university I attended. I practiced, in college, approximately 6 hours a day, every day, except weekends -- and on weekends, I was playing about 6 hours a day.
If you're not planning on being a professional -- you just like playing or will be in a school/community/church/whatever ensemble -- an hour a day might be enough commitment for exercises and maybe another 1/2 hour to practice whatever music for your ensemble.
The point is that the amount of time can vary, but you're still going to have to practice.
Again, 5% of your sound comes from the horn, another 5% from your horn's setup and the remaining 90% is from you. You can have a $23,000 Heckel 41i bassoon and you're still not going to sound like William Waterhouse unless you practice. A lot.
OK, let me qualify that statement, a bit: it is a good thing to have a set time to practice and make sure you ALWAYS practice at that time. It develops a good routine. Also note that while your lesson is probably no more than an hour, the things your instructor might tell you will give you many, many hours to practice.
Now, I wanted to be a professional musician at a young age and I knew that a) I didn't have gobs of talent and b) I had to be better than 230 of the 250 or so saxophone players that were competing to get a spot in the saxophone program at the university I attended. I practiced, in college, approximately 6 hours a day, every day, except weekends -- and on weekends, I was playing about 6 hours a day.
If you're not planning on being a professional -- you just like playing or will be in a school/community/church/whatever ensemble -- an hour a day might be enough commitment for exercises and maybe another 1/2 hour to practice whatever music for your ensemble.
The point is that the amount of time can vary, but you're still going to have to practice.
Again, 5% of your sound comes from the horn, another 5% from your horn's setup and the remaining 90% is from you. You can have a $23,000 Heckel 41i bassoon and you're still not going to sound like William Waterhouse unless you practice. A lot.