A big part of maintaining a steady music career or hobby is consistent practice. Frequently practicing is ideal because it helps sustain muscle memory, improve skill and confidence, and retain information. For musicians, it’s especially important to continue building mastery in technique, style, and showmanship for the sake of your career, your fanbase, and most importantly your own appetite for achievement.
One practicing companion that is vital for success is a practice journal. Using a practice journal specifically for musicians can help you establish a lasting routine and get more out of your practice. Here are 10 reasons why musicians should keep a practice journal.
Stay Organized.
For starters, a music practice journal helps you stay organized. A good practice journal will give you an opportunity to take copious notes about each of your practice times. It will help you keep track of what you’ve covered, and make an effective plan regarding what you should cover in the future.
Track your progress.
Another reason to keep a music practice journal is to track how far you’ve come in your practice. It’s important to see how each practice helps you reach further toward your goals in musicianship. This helps you maintain confidence in your work as well as gives you the motivation to keep going.
Creates accountability.
If you are keeping a record of your practices, you will naturally want to maintain your streak. In using a practice journal, you are essentially creating an accountability partner making it harder to miss a practice. Keeping records of your practice and forming a practice habit, makes you more likely to remain consistent.
Become more productive during practices.
A good practice journal will help you outline a practice routine in a way that hits all of your goals. Instead of sitting down idly cranking tunes, you’ll have a task list of specific things you want to do during each practice. Having this practice system in place allows for more productivity. You could accomplish more in 30 minutes with an effective routine, than what you could do in 2 hours without one. Look for a practice journal that has specific practice goal prompts for you to fill in. This way you can customize your own practicing strategy to get more out of your practices.
Build momentum.
A moving object with momentum has a much more powerful impact than a stagnant object without momentum. The same can be said for your music practice. Having a good practicing system in place along with maintaining consistency creates a habit and builds momentum for your music in many different aspects. Personally, I’m a much better performer when I’ve had consistent practice sessions. I’m sure the same applies to every musician. With a music practice journal as a practicing companion, you can build that momentum much more quickly.
Learn things faster.
Speaking of building quickly, a consistent routine that targets your specific music learning goals can help you learn faster. For example, this music practice journal has space for note-keeping and planning as it relates to ongoing daily objectives as well as tracking goals on a week-by-week basis. Mapping out a step-by-step plan and keeping track of progress daily and weekly helps you stay on task without distractions. Ultimately, this will allow you to tackle difficult and complex tasks much more quickly.
Feel more accomplished.
Having a log of your weekly and daily practice activities is an awesome feeling. It just feels good to accomplish things and that’s what keeping a music journal can do for your music practice.
Assess your needs as a musician.
Going into practice without a vision or a plan opens the door to distractions and a loss of focus. I have sat in many of my own practices feeling uninspired and confused about what I should be doing. Without a proper music practice framework and organization, it’s extremely difficult to track progress and pinpoint areas you need to improve. Consistent notes of your previous practices over time can help you discover areas that may need additional focus. A practice journal provides the space for that.
Practice Efficiently and Effectively
Whether you’re just starting out or a seasoned musician, this practice log provides an easy and convenient way to track all music practice time and practice reflections, challenges, and progress.
Better communication with music instructors and more value in lessons overall.
In addition, if you are working with an instructor, a practice journal can be a great tool to aid in working together to get the best results. During practice, you may find that you get stuck on something and have questions. However, you may forget your thoughts or lose notes meant for your instructor. Writing these questions and thoughts down in a practice journal to save for later will alleviate that. Also, your instructor can work alongside you by helping to plan music practice tasks in between lessons using your practice journal. In doing so, you’ll achieve faster and more consistent results thanks to journaling your practice routine as part of an overall music learning strategy.
Be more efficient with your time.
All of these benefits of using a music practice journal work together to ultimately save you time. If you’re like me, you don’t have a lot of time and it might be hard finding time to practice. But you know how important it is to keep a consistent practice routine. Thus, getting the most out of just 30 minutes of practice is a game-changer. That’s what a good practice strategy can provide.
A good practice routine starts with identifying achievable goals. Then, you’ll need to find a good practicing journal that prompts you to customize an effective strategy with an adequate frequency schedule to achieve those goals. Without it, you’ll be more prone to distractions and losing focus throughout your practice. Get organized. Get a practice journal!
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