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Daily RecordKeeping a daily record of what you actually practice is almost as important as the practice itself! My advice is to get yourself a Ring Binder and label it as your Practice Journal (plus the date). Then make yourself a one page template in your favourite word processing software for the daily pages (if you don't have a word processor you can just draw some lines on plain paper!). Leave a space at the top
for the date. Then insert a table of some kind - you need three columns.
The first column is used for describing the different activities you
willbe practicing. The second column is for writing down how much
time you spent on this activity. And the third column is for entering
any Metronome Markings (MM) - this is handy if you're working on any
exercises where one of the indicators of improvement is the ability
to play it at higher metronome markings. At the front of your practice journal should go your short term practice goals (3 months or so). Then put in a sheet that details your goal for the first week and the propose practice schedule you constructed in Step 3. Then make a sheet for each day you are scheduled to practice. As you move through the week take the appropriate sheet from your practice journal and fill it in as you practice during the day. I leave a nice big space at the bottom of the schedule so that I can write notes about the day's practice, what went well, what didn't, maybe some thoughts on how to adapt a certain exercise to make it more effective, etc etc. And that's it. Every three months I put in a coloured divider and then start again with the next short term goal plan. And then the weekly plan. And the daily schedules. Etc etc.Making sure you continue with the daily record ensures you maintain focus on practicing to meet your goals rather than getting stuck in a rut and practicing something when in fact your level of mastery of that is sufficient to meet your goals. Having the practice schedules filed like this also makes for a cool resource in many ways. You can look back and see what exercises you were working on, see previous goal statements, see what kind of tempos you were playing things at etc etc. It's a great way to throw improvements in your playing into stark relief as you tend to make slow, steady progress over a period of time and only when looking back can you actually see this. The gradual accumulation of pages in your practice journal also creates its own momentum and helps to keep motivation up on those days when you'd rather eat glass than practice! Little victories along the way also help with practicing - the elation you fill when you start a new binder and 'file' the old one, short term goals crossed off when achieved, etc etc. There are many positives to keeping a well ordered practice journal - believe me, if you follow the principals outlined you'll grow as a player at a much faster rate than the guy who practices a bit here and there, spends some time slapping, maybe does some tapping, etc etc. As Nike say - JUST DO IT!
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