How much should I practice?

30 minutes a day is ideal, but sometimes not possible.  We all have a life.  You can't always be practicing!  Essentially you need to practice as long as it takes to get it right.  Sometimes that means 10 minutes, sometimes an hour.  I rather you practice 10 minutes every day rather than 60 minutes right before your lesson.  Remember slow and steady wins the race!  You can't "cram" your practice-you won't retain it and you end up making dumb mistakes because you are overtired.  Runners don't wake up the day of the marathon and expect to win.  They train for months.  Same concept.