Practice journal

[frank-pianki]

Does anyone use a practice journal on a consistent basis? If so, is it a published bound journal, an app, a pdf worksheet from a website, or a plain notebook? I’ve noticed that many journals have you track your practice time. I MO this is “activity journaling” rather than “results journaling”. You can spend hours “practicing” and accomplish very little. What do you track to monitor your progress? Frank

[diane-michaels]

I use this chart with one student: http://www.essential-music-practice.com/support-files/weekly-and-session-targets-planner-a4.pdf

I fill in the broad goals at the top (detailed notes from our lesson go into a notebook) and she fills in the other blocks daily. She’s young, so we are using this to teach her how to set goals, analyze progress, and use that information to set new ones.

[tea-s-k]

I do not know if it is a practice journal I keep, but I have a small notebook where I after each lesson write down the good advices and reminders my teacher gave me during the lesson. It helps me when practicing because it helps me remember what to work with and over time I can see if there are some things that keep being noticed and thereforre is a thing I need to work extra with.

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

It is important to keep a journal of your practice. How else do we spend so much time on one thing? Why not have a record of it. Keep track of when you change strings, change tempo. And bring a journal to lessons to show your teacher, and definitely write down everything he or she says.

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