Notebooks

ShiroKuro

@Pallas Oh! I bought a new practice notebook as well, since my current one is about 3 pages from being full.

I agree, stickers and fun notebooks are nice little reward, lemme see if I can find a photo of the kind of notebook i got... 😅

ShiroKuro

Here are the two notebooks I got:

Not because I need the info presented on the covers, but just because it's fun to have some musical designs (rather than the plain cover on the last notebook).

🙂

ShiroKuro

Pallas Now I want to know what you typically write in them so I can stand on the shoulders of giants.

You might be disappointed! 😃 (also, I'm no giant... more of a small woodland creature... 😃

ANyway, maybe I'll upload a photo of one of the pages when I get home tonight 😃

Animisha

Pallas I wonder if I should move the notebook conversation to its own thread

Great idea!

BartK

I moved this discussion out of the MG thread so more people could see it. Carry on!

ShiroKuro

BartK thank you!!

iternabe

As much as I want to track my practice with more granular details, I can't bring myself to write a notebook knowing the written information is difficult to be summarized digitally.

Has anyone tried using something like the Remarkable 2 tablet?

JB_PT

iternabe I bought a SuperNote Nomad earlier in the year. I love it....but I'll admit I'm not taking advantage of a lot of the features. I just have a handful of notes where I'm using the header feature to quickly move around between pages. They also have a keyword feature that I haven't used yet. You just draw in a star next to any word and it recognizes that spot as a keyword that's searchable and it automatically gets added to a keyword list as well.

ShiroKuro

iternabe I always thought the Remarkable seems great but having an iPad, can’t bring myself to get one.

And I do like paper and pencil…

ShiroKuro

JB_PT never heard of the SuperNote, will have to google it…

JB_PT

ShiroKuro Do you have a keyboard for your iPad? I find 'typing' with the pencil to be so tedious unless it's something short, so I never considered using it for notes.

I tried paper notebooks for awhile, but I get frustrated when things aren't lined up right or if I need to scribble things out. 🙂 That's why the digital notebooks appealed to me. I can delete or move stuff around as much as I like.

ShiroKuro

JB_PT Do you have a keyboard for your iPad?

I do not have a keyboard. I want my iPad to stay a tablet, so I never wanted to get one. And like @Pallas, I used my iPad for the score, so i don't want that the be where I also take notes.

Pallas JB_PT I tried paper notebooks for awhile, but I get frustrated when things aren't lined up right or if I need to scribble things out. 🙂

SAME

This is why I use a pencil. It might not be as pretty, but I can still erase! 😅

ShiroKuro

By the way, here are a few pages form my practice notebook. More of a record than a recipe, i.e. I tend to write down what I did, rather than what to do. Although I do sometimes leave instructions for myself of what to do in the ext practice session.

This first photo is from when I was prepping for the concert. The other two are more regular days.
Concert prep:

Regular day:

A more regular day:

JB_PT

I think it’s great you guys are doing practice logs/notes. I believe in the idea and I have attempted it at least 4 times, with different formats and/or using different methods. I always fall off the wagon after a couple weeks though. So far I haven’t been able to figure out why it’s not sticking or what would make it work better for me.

JB_PT

Pallas Should I do it by day, or by piece, or another way?

I tried it both ways and I thought doing it by piece (my last attempt) was going to be the winner…but nope, still couldn’t keep it going. 😬 In theory, I do like this better because I often return to pieces 6 months or a year down the road and I figured I could go straight to that piece and review where I left off, what my best tempo was, etc. For the few weeks I was doing it, I also found it helpful to be able to quickly tally how many times I had worked on various sections so I didn’t neglect any.

Animisha

Oh those notebooks are so lovely! I have searched for, but not yet found, a beautiful piano notebook.
However, here is a picture of the contents, with some kind of Molly-schedule to the right.

It has many "flourishes of approval", which I have come to understand, are not international, but typically Dutch symbols used to show that something is approved.

ShiroKuro

@Animisha that looks great!

@JB_PT and @Pallas what I do is use it to write down what I play each day, like a journal. So I write the date, and what I pieces I played, I write that in as I play. So when I first sit down, I pull out the notebook, look at what I played the day before, and write in the first hint I’m going to practice…. When I move on, I write down the name of the second piece. Etc.

Usually I also write what section(s) I’m focusing on, or a particular measure that’s giving me trouble. Then at the next practice session, that guides me.

I have several pieces I’m just trying to maintain, so I sometimes look back and see which ones I’ve played more recently, and then I’ll play the ones not in that group.

I also used the notebook to help me plan my concert program, i.e. which pieces and in which order.

And then generally the day before my lesson, I write down what i want to ask during my lesson, both specific pieces and measures etc.

And of course, I take notes in the notebook during the lesson.

Somehow this has become a habit for me and it seems to work well.

I don’t do anything fancier, like track the minutes or amount of time I spend. And since it’s not digital, if I wanted to go back and see how often I’m working on something, I’d have to count by hand etc.

So there are definitely disadvantages to not using some kind of digital method or app. And I find myself wanting to try all the digital notebooks that have been mentioned in this thread so far! 😃

But nevertheless, this system is working for me and it helps me stay on track, helps me make sure I’m moving forward in the piece etc.

Oh and I am planning to use it to help me stay on track with my 40P challenge. But at the same time, I do think I’m going to print out a single piece of paper to write in the title, start and stop date and maybe one other comment, for each piece I play for the 40P challenge. I think being able to see those pieces in one place and watch the list get longer will be very motivating!

ShiroKuro

Oops, one more comment and then I have to finish breakfast and get moving! 😅

One thing that makes a difference for me is having a bookshelf next to my piano. This might sound silly, but for years I’ve always had a shelf next to the piano. Each time we move, I’ve made sure to set it up that way. Aug 2023 to May 2024, while we were living in the rental house, I didn’t have a shelf. The space just didn’t work right, and the piano was in the living room where the piano, sofa, easy chairs and TV etc all had to fit. So, no room for a shelf near the piano.

I never leave stuff on top of the piano, so I put my piano shelf in the next room.

You would think it wouldn’t matter, but somehow it was the biggest pain in the rear! Surely that’s partly because more often than not, I don’t even get to sit down at the piano until 9pm at night, after a long day of work etc. And when we moved into the rental, it was because we moved so I could take a new job, so that whole first year was just crazy working long days etc.

But the point is, having all my piano stuff in a different room added an extra layer of friction that was a bit of a barrier.

Since we moved into our new house, I am back to having a dedicated piano space (yay!) And it might sound silly, but it makes such a difference. On the shelf next to my piano, I have a dedicated spot for the notebook, so it’s always easy to grab. The pencil lives there as well. There’s a spot for my Bluetooth foot pedal (turn those score pages! 🙂 And there’s a spot for paper scores, which I just recently rearranged to make into the 40P spot.

So when I sit down to practice, I don’t have to think about any of this. I know where everything is, I don’t have to go to a separate room and grab a bunch of stuff that’s hard to carry all in one trip.

Since I’m now in the second year of my new job, I’m less tired, I usually get home a little earlier, but there are still many, many days when I’m not getting to the piano until 9pm at night. All these little tweaks just really help me to keep working on the things I want to be working on. And the progress I’ve made shows me that it’s working 🙂

So, @JB_PT could it be that one reason you don’t have success with keeping a notebook or practice journal is because there’s some kind of friction getting in your way? It doesn’t have to be a missing bookshelf, but something in your “piano routine” that prevents you from having the notebook become a standard part of what you regularly do at the piano?

JB_PT

ShiroKuro could it be that one reason you don’t have success with keeping a notebook or practice journal is because there’s some kind of friction getting in your way?

I don't have a problem similar to what you describe, but this is probably the line of thinking I need. Thanks!

ShiroKuro

@Pallas Sounds like a great plan! One thing I like about MG is her very matter of fact approach to just trying something, seeing if it works, and if it doesn’t, move on.