"The perfect is the enemy of the very good." - another enemy of the effective practice journal is the "bullet journal" aesthetic. My own practice journal often suffers from too much attention to neatness, making sure thinks line up just right. So I appreciate the permission to take a utilitarian approach!
Yes, I know what you mean - there is often the impulse to make it beautiful but I have found it much more realistic to just jot it down and then I can review it later (or not, as the case may be). There are now practice apps where you can log your time but I find it way too distracting to have my phone on or near me when I'm practicing, and it's just simpler for me to write it down rather than type it into a phone or spreadsheet. Happy practicing! 😊🎹
I have followed all of your advice. Thank you..❤️ I can also say that I pre-plan what I'm gonna practice the next day. It makes it so much easier to sit down and get focused without wasting any time.
I have never even heard of a practice journal - and I had piano lessons for about 10 years over the course of many years. I'm 72 years young. Thank you so much for all your videos.
Thank you! I'm so glad it was helpful. Yesterday one of my students showed me the practice journal he recently started, and it made me so happy to see! 😊 The more I can spread the word about the effectiveness of practice journals, the better!
This is something my teacher should have told me. On and off, I was trying for short spans of time to jot down what I had learned when but never stuck to it (and also began some years after I had started lessons). This whole subject "how to practice" was unfortunately never addressed. Today, I am playing by myself (violin and cello) and after a very chaotic beginning phase, I found it helpful to have goals or assignments for the week, such as "practice this scale everyday for the week, practice this etude everyday for a week, play that run slowly everyday and try to speed it up by the end of the practice session and by the end of the week". What I also found helpful was recording myself once a month and save these recordings in a file to look back at the progress of the year. There are so many ideas I found on YT and elsewhere that my teacher never mentioned, such as practicing vibrato with a set number of "swings" per note, i.e, beginning with two per note, then four etc. to achieve a controlled vibrato. During my lessons, it was never addressed how to practice vibrato for a specific piece, how to decide, when to use vibrato where and how to form it, so, during performance or lessons, I would try to decide WHILE playing the piece where and how to use vibrato and of course, that was most often doomed to fail. It was "some kind of vibrato", not a deliberate choice that hat been thoroughly practiced BEFORE playing tat piece for my teacher or an audience (student concerts for parents, mainly).
Thanks for sharing! I find a practice journal very helpful at setting weekly goals for myself in my own practicing, and I'm glad that you are experimenting with it, too! Good luck!!
What a great video! I’ve “returned” to the piano after years of very little time to play. I tried to come up with some sort of practice routine, but I’ve struggled with that. I only have a finite amount of time these days to sit down at the piano, so I really like your ideas on how to structure a practice session, and also appreciate your ideas on what to track in a journal. Thank you very much for putting the effort into this topic. I feel motivated to play 🎹 instead of focusing on the discouragement at my current abysmal playing level haha!
Hi Prof, I take notes from, for example, your videos so I can review the material. This helps me listen better as well. That said, I am going to start a new notebook incorporating your ideas. Thanks!
I just write down a date and pieces I worked on that day. The pieces are typically divided into sections (that I wrote down on the book) or measures, and I write down which sections I worked on that day. Other notes are what tempo range, how many successful repeat practice to clear that section, minutes spent for a particular section, and anything that I noticed during the practice time to reflect later. I do this so that next day, I have a better idea where to start (the good thing). The bad thing is...often I can't read what I wrote (bad scribbles) or I can't get what I meant in my writing (completely forgetting my inner wisdom...lol).
That sounds like a good system that works well for you! I think it's especially helpful to keep track of tempo, and to take time at the end of practicing to reflect, for the next day. I know what you mean about handwriting - it's always so clear in my head, but sometimes I go back and can't remember what the heck I meant when I scrawled something down in haste! :-)
Am thinking of starting to use a practice journal, so these comments are made from a state of ignorance ! But I was contemplating having different sections in the journal - one for scales/arpeggios, one for new pieces progress, one for theory, one for sight reading, etc - rather than write all notes in one place in chronological order. Would be interested to know if you think there may be any pitfalls in using such an approach ?
I think this is an interesting idea! The great thing about a practice journal, is that you can organize it however you personally find useful. For me, the technical exercises are part of my daily practice, and it's more useful to write the information one day at a time, so I get a holistic overview of what I'm doing every day over time. However, I can see that it might be useful to keep a separate section of the notebook to track your progress on specific technical exercises vs technique vs theory, etc. I suggest trying it for a month and seeing how it feels to you! Let me know how it goes! 📆📆✏️
@@ThePianoProfKateBoyd Thanks very much for taking the time to reply - much appreciated. Yes, as you say - it's really a matter of giving it a go and seeing what works for you and then changing as required. Will let you know how is goes - if I have anything of any interest to add ! Good luck with you channel - I love your style/approach.
@@piano9051 Thanks! I was just writing in my practice journal this morning - it's an invaluable tool for me to help track my progress. Glad you're here - thanks for watching, and happy practicing! 😊
I downloaded your PDF and created my own practice journal. Have you thought about making and publishing a practice journal for purchase with your own daily thoughts of wisdom and tips?
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"The perfect is the enemy of the very good." - another enemy of the effective practice journal is the "bullet journal" aesthetic. My own practice journal often suffers from too much attention to neatness, making sure thinks line up just right. So I appreciate the permission to take a utilitarian approach!
Yes, I know what you mean - there is often the impulse to make it beautiful but I have found it much more realistic to just jot it down and then I can review it later (or not, as the case may be). There are now practice apps where you can log your time but I find it way too distracting to have my phone on or near me when I'm practicing, and it's just simpler for me to write it down rather than type it into a phone or spreadsheet.
Happy practicing! 😊🎹
I have followed all of your advice. Thank you..❤️ I can also say that I pre-plan what I'm gonna practice the next day. It makes it so much easier to sit down and get focused without wasting any time.
Wonderful! I’m so glad to hear this. Btw I was just using this method today when I was practicing - happy to hear it works for you, too!
I have never even heard of a practice journal - and I had piano lessons for about 10 years over the course of many years. I'm 72 years young. Thank you so much for all your videos.
You are so welcome! Good luck with your practice journal - I hope you get positive results from it!
Thank you so much for sharing!! I am learning a lot from your videos. You have such a wealth of knowledge!!!
Aww, that's so kind of you! Glad to help!
Great presentation of this topic! Thank you, Dr. Boyd
Thank you! I'm so glad it was helpful. Yesterday one of my students showed me the practice journal he recently started, and it made me so happy to see! 😊 The more I can spread the word about the effectiveness of practice journals, the better!
This is something my teacher should have told me. On and off, I was trying for short spans of time to jot down what I had learned when but never stuck to it (and also began some years after I had started lessons).
This whole subject "how to practice" was unfortunately never addressed.
Today, I am playing by myself (violin and cello) and after a very chaotic beginning phase, I found it helpful to have goals or assignments for the week, such as "practice this scale everyday for the week, practice this etude everyday for a week, play that run slowly everyday and try to speed it up by the end of the practice session and by the end of the week".
What I also found helpful was recording myself once a month and save these recordings in a file to look back at the progress of the year.
There are so many ideas I found on YT and elsewhere that my teacher never mentioned, such as practicing vibrato with a set number of "swings" per note, i.e, beginning with two per note, then four etc. to achieve a controlled vibrato. During my lessons, it was never addressed how to practice vibrato for a specific piece, how to decide, when to use vibrato where and how to form it, so, during performance or lessons, I would try to decide WHILE playing the piece where and how to use vibrato and of course, that was most often doomed to fail. It was "some kind of vibrato", not a deliberate choice that hat been thoroughly practiced BEFORE playing tat piece for my teacher or an audience (student concerts for parents, mainly).
Thanks for sharing! I find a practice journal very helpful at setting weekly goals for myself in my own practicing, and I'm glad that you are experimenting with it, too! Good luck!!
Wonderf advice!! Thank you!❤❤❤
You are very welcome! Happy practicing and happy practice journaling! 😊
What a great video! I’ve “returned” to the piano after years of very little time to play. I tried to come up with some sort of practice routine, but I’ve struggled with that. I only have a finite amount of time these days to sit down at the piano, so I really like your ideas on how to structure a practice session, and also appreciate your ideas on what to track in a journal. Thank you very much for putting the effort into this topic. I feel motivated to play 🎹 instead of focusing on the discouragement at my current abysmal playing level haha!
So glad to hear this! Good luck - you got this! 💪
i absolutely love your channel. thanks for sharing
Thank you so much! Glad you're here!
This is really good content!
Thanks so much! Glad you're here!
Hi Prof, I take notes from, for example, your videos so I can review the material. This helps me listen better as well. That said, I am going to start a new notebook incorporating your ideas. Thanks!
Excellent! Glad to hear you're getting some new ideas here. Good luck with your piano studies!
I started my practice journal today. Merci.
Wonderful! Good luck with it - I hope it's helpful to you!
I just write down a date and pieces I worked on that day. The pieces are typically divided into sections (that I wrote down on the book) or measures, and I write down which sections I worked on that day. Other notes are what tempo range, how many successful repeat practice to clear that section, minutes spent for a particular section, and anything that I noticed during the practice time to reflect later. I do this so that next day, I have a better idea where to start (the good thing). The bad thing is...often I can't read what I wrote (bad scribbles) or I can't get what I meant in my writing (completely forgetting my inner wisdom...lol).
That sounds like a good system that works well for you! I think it's especially helpful to keep track of tempo, and to take time at the end of practicing to reflect, for the next day. I know what you mean about handwriting - it's always so clear in my head, but sometimes I go back and can't remember what the heck I meant when I scrawled something down in haste! :-)
Thanks❤
No problem! ❤️
What methods do YOU use to track your practice?
Am thinking of starting to use a practice journal, so these comments are made from a state of ignorance ! But I was contemplating having different sections in the journal - one for scales/arpeggios, one for new pieces progress, one for theory, one for sight reading, etc - rather than write all notes in one place in chronological order. Would be interested to know if you think there may be any pitfalls in using such an approach ?
I think this is an interesting idea! The great thing about a practice journal, is that you can organize it however you personally find useful. For me, the technical exercises are part of my daily practice, and it's more useful to write the information one day at a time, so I get a holistic overview of what I'm doing every day over time. However, I can see that it might be useful to keep a separate section of the notebook to track your progress on specific technical exercises vs technique vs theory, etc. I suggest trying it for a month and seeing how it feels to you! Let me know how it goes! 📆📆✏️
@@ThePianoProfKateBoyd Thanks very much for taking the time to reply - much appreciated. Yes, as you say - it's really a matter of giving it a go and seeing what works for you and then changing as required. Will let you know how is goes - if I have anything of any interest to add ! Good luck with you channel - I love your style/approach.
@@piano9051 Thanks! I was just writing in my practice journal this morning - it's an invaluable tool for me to help track my progress. Glad you're here - thanks for watching, and happy practicing! 😊
I downloaded your PDF and created my own practice journal. Have you thought about making and publishing a practice journal for purchase with your own daily thoughts of wisdom and tips?
Nice idea! I will keep that in mind. I'm hoping to get something together for purchase (a course or ebook) sometime in May.
I cannot download the practice journal. I got a "the site can't be reached error" when I tried. Please help!
Please send me an email at thepianoprof.com/contact/
Thanks!
@@ThePianoProfKateBoyd Thank you prof! The link seems to work now.