RE: What Builds Your Musical Skills More? - The Hours Played Per Day Or The Years You Have Played
In my experience (10 years as a pianist/keyboardist) It most definitely has a lot to do with how much practice you have had lately. When I was in school for music for a brief stint (Jazz keyboarding performance) at one of the top music schools in the states they said for every hour of class you have you should spend 2 practicing. Most music majors were in school for almost 20 hours a week, so 40 more were supposed to be spent practicing your instrument, sight reading, theory and more.
Anyways, I played recitals and took lessons from 14-18 but it wasn't until I lived in an "artist commune" where we were jamming for 2-3 hours daily on a slow day, cycling between the 5 musicians that lived there and probably another 15-20 "sister bands". That is when I became a real musician
The longest I can remember playing without stopping except to pee was 72 hours and I felt like I could play anything at that point. I was playing like never before.
That's quite an acheivement. I recently re-discovered the power of this. If you can hit, say four hours in a day, and then the next day come back and do another four and another the next and so on, unlike when you are only doing a little a day, you start accelerating in your progress like nobody's business. I've started recommending increased daily hours as a result. As much as anything else, it's the familiarity you have with your instrument. :-)