Practice logging

danno858

I saw a YouTube piano practice video where the presenter talked about doing things now so that a “future you’ will appreciate it. It made me think and I’ve decided that I need a more structured and targeted practice schedule or routine.

I tend to sit at the piano and waste my time just playing for my own enjoyment. The problem is that instead of working through problems, I always end up messing up those parts and wishing I had spent better time practicing them. The errors become ingrained. I’m sure this is common! So I decided to keep a log of these measures or phrases where I stumble and just concentrate on smoothing them out and solving the issue(s) once and for all.

Does anyone use a scheduling app or other logging program (not necessarily piano related) which you really like and find useful for tracking your practicing? I’m inclined to just use a simple spreadsheet but I’m wondering if anyone uses something better? I’m hoping a ‘future me’ will appreciate the ‘current me’ taking some time to do this!

twocats

danno858 I use forScore and I flag the pages that need attention. Once I work on them to a satisfactory level, I remove the flag. It's very satisfying to see the number of flags decrease over time!

Animisha

danno858 Does anyone use a scheduling app or other logging program (not necessarily piano related) which you really like and find useful for tracking your practicing?

On my iPad, I draw squares around parts that I mess up, and (if suitable), I write the speed at which I can play that part without making mistakes.

danno858

twocats I have forScore also - I just got frustrated with it because it wouldn’t let me highlight select measures. I guess I was trying to avoid learning another piece of software - maybe I should look at it closer

TheBoringPianist

For spot practicing the parts I always mess up, I add them to what my teacher calls the "Rogue's Gallery" — either I'll post-it them, or copy the section and cut it out and paste them onto a literal Rogue's Gallery. These are not always technically hard, but they are spots I mess up consistently! Then I practice those parts first, every day. (That's how it's intended to work, at least lol)

Example RG for Kapustin Etude No. 2 Reverie

For scheduling/logging practice, I find myself wanting it more for setting up spaced repetition so that:

I can focus my practice on the problem spots in my competition repertoire without letting the rest of the program fall into disrepair
I can keep old repertoire within reasonable cramming distance of performance level

I've tried a spreadsheet but manual logging is a pain and I haven't yet added in formulas for figuring out the spacing. Maybe I should try vibe coding a prototype to see if I can get it to a point where it's useful.

danno858

TheBoringPianist this is a great idea and actually takes it a step further than what I’m doing now. I’m writing M and the measure number(s) of the rogue measure(s) in a note which has the same name as the piece. I’m keeping these each as a separate note on my iPhone notes app

ShiroKuro

Over the years, I've tried different approaches, digital and analog. My favorite was a journal app I think it was called the Musician's Journal? IIRC. Anyway, that app stopped updating and eventually became incompatible with my iPhone, so I had to give up on it.

These days I'm back to using a notebook, in which I write down what I practiced for every practice session. During practice, I come across trouble spots, I'll write down the measure number, or maybe leave a note to myself like "start w page 3" etc. Or sometimes I'll leave notes about which piece to start with or other "big picture" type instructions. I also write down if I recorded or if I'm aiming to record etc. I use the notes for both micro (that-day) record keeping and macro (big picture, long term) goal setting.

So at the beginning of each practice session, I open that notebook up and see what directions I left for myself the day before. And then record as I go what I do in that practice session.

This system works for me, for now. If I could find a digital app I liked, I might switch back to that, but this works for now. Plus my notebooks are very cute. Somewhere I uploaded a photo....

danno858

ShiroKuro this is probably another thing I should add to my routine. I have a lot of those types of notebooks lying around unused.

ShiroKuro

These are the two notebooks I've used most recently, one is full and the other I'm halfway through. Oh and for the record, on the inside, they're just regular lined notepaper, not musical staff. The size is like half of a letter size page.

twocats

danno858 I have forScore also - I just got frustrated with it because it wouldn’t let me highlight select measures.

You could literally just use the highlighter pen to highlight the measures, and then erase your markings when done!

danno858

twocats ok I figured this out. There is a little button way down in highlighter drop down menu called ‘overlay’ ~ I had to unclick it. What it was doing was blocking out whatever I highlighted with solid color. Thank you!

thepianoplayer416

First thing is the question of "waste of time". What do people do that is consider wasteful? The majority of us is not going to become a concert pianist or a performer. We're just playing to entertain ourselves. People like myself who is an older adult practices regularly as brain exercise as well as stress relief.

Of course we want to make progress learning pieces. I set goals how far I want to go with 1 piece before each practice. I don't put in exactly 1 hour each day. Some days when my energy is low I practice less. Other days I practice longer to finish a section. The time would average about an hour a day. I don't like to learn many new pieces. When I learned a piece, I'd repeat it many more times. After a while I'm playing more from memory than improving my reading. In order to be a good reader, I'd need to read more new pieces.

There is no time limit how long to finish a piece unless we have to perform it at a certain date. It a piece takes too long to learn it's probably too difficult so drop it until later when we're ready.

I use MuseScore. They have an online library I can download pieces and listen to the playback before playing. I've been tracking my progress since I started playing a decade ago. There is nothing more effective than making a sound or video recording of yourself. A few days ago I played on 2 different public pianos. Both times I took out a phone, placed it near the piano and made recordings. There is a lot you can pick up on sound recordings including wrong notes, loud & soft passages, not enough or too much pedal.

There are many online videos on how to practice & make progress. Found some that are less common & interesting:

Making mistakes intentionally so you can avoid making them.
Vary your repetitions when you practice:
Think what you need to do before a repeat before doing it automatically:

twocats

danno858 oh great!! Ever since I discovered the highlighter pen, my scores have gotten much more colorful 😂