Getting Started with a Practice Journal for Music

Hi everyone,

In todays post I will be talking about getting started with a practice journal, and what to include within your practice journal.

A practice journal will be different for every person, as everyone is at a different stage within their learning. 

Before even starting a practice journal, I would recommend making a list of areas that your teacher has set you to focus on for that week, two weeks or that month. So then, you will have a visual reference to see what you need to work on.

Music

Areas in Music to Cover in Your Practice Journal

- Scales & Arpeggios

- Sight Reading

- Studies, Etudes & Exercises

- Exam Pieces

- Pieces

- Orchestral Excerpts

- Tutor Books

Scales & Arpeggios

Scales & arpeggios form the basics of any musical learning, and its important that these are included within your practice journal. Work with your teachers to see which scales and arpeggios they would like you to focus on for a period of time. These will also change over time, the more you progress through your grades. Scales and arpeggios also form part of graded music exams.

Sight Reading

Your teacher may want you to work on your sight reading, so this is why I have included this, and this can also form part of graded music exams.

Studies, Etudes & Exercises

Studies, etudes and exercises can work in two ways, and they are that they can form part of a graded exam or just as an something extra for you to learn and focus on. For exam material studies usually start around Grade 4, and exercises for exams usually run from Grade 1 - Grade 5. But, if its just additional material for you to learn then studies can range from beginner level right the way through to advanced level.

Exam Pieces

This is for any exam pieces you are currently working on, and depending on which exam board and format of exam you are doing this can vary between three and four pieces.

Pieces

This is for any additional pieces of music that you need to learn and focus on. But, you may also be learning another piece of music on top of your exam pieces.

Orchestral Excerpts

Orchestral excerpts are for more advanced players, and these maybe introduced around Grade 6 for you to learn and master. Orchestral excerpts work in a similar way to studies, but these are shorter excerpts of well known orchestral music.

Tutor Books

This is for anyone whose just started learning a musical instrument, and within these tutor books are easy exercises, scales and short pieces of simplified music to enable you to get used to your musical instrument. Your teacher will most likely set you tasks to do from these tutor methods, and these books will also get you ready to start working towards your grades.

This should give you a better idea of what to include in your own music journal, but also some of may not apply to the earlier stages of music such as Orchestral Excerpts. Please adapt this list to your stage of your musical learning.