Practice Record Thoughts Revisited
I’m a logger – I keep track of just about everything and have many journals, both paper and electronic. I was reviewing my notes on practice records and here are some of my current thoughts.
For the public school setting practice records can be a great tool to establish patterns and habits.
For the private studio setting I still like using the Musicians Practice Planner.
For myself and an advanced student I think paper still offers the most flexibility and I like using a composition notebook or a Moleskine Graph Notebook.
Some other random thoughts I found in my journal:
Google Docs? too clunky
Notebook on iPhone? not clean enough
Spreadsheet? yes – would like to see more data / month at a glance but clunky to maintain
In a separate iCal or google calendar? Laptop and maintenance too clunky
GoalKeeper on iPhone? – Can’t see time
…which all brings me back to paper!!
Totally agree with your random thoughts – it mirrors my experience.
I think eventually we will use technology to record practice/lessons/journals etc. But for now the technology doesn’t allow a smooth enough interface.
I agree about technology. Perhaps the Apple iPad will influence this – as a notebook like device with the music playback capability it could be the perfect practice companion. But right now I find paper great, especially as a pre-practice tool – you must plan your practice! “Plan your work, work your plan.”