Practice Journal

In the late 1990’s I kept a practice journal.  It was a very helpful tool to keep me from being hijacked by my ego.  I designed it with 6 sections that kept me aware of my physical, mental and emotional state before, during and after practicing.  Here are the 6 sections I used, in case you want to experiment with this tool.  Let me know how it works and what variations you come up with. 

If you are interested in having a form with this information, let me know and I’ll email it to you. Happy Practicing!

• Date and Starting Time

• Finish Time: 
  This helped me see how I felt practicing at different times of the day and to keep track of how long I practiced.  Some of my most successful practices were only 10 minutes long. They were very fun, focused and productive.

• Song or sounds: 
  Here I recorded the songs I sang and the technical exercises I did.

• Initial Attitude/Impulse: “
  Why am I starting this practice session?“
  Some examples: “I need to learn this piece for rehearsal.”  “I heard someone sing this piece on the radio and I want to experiment with it.” “I feel like singing.”

• Initial Observations:
  At the first pause in the practice, which would happen within the first 5 minutes, I would make my observations.  This kept me from getting obsessed with one aspect of my practice and made me have to be aware of my physical, mental and emotional state from the beginning.

• Changes/New Attitude/Impulse: 
  Often I would feel an impulse to change direction after the first observation. Maybe I would switch to a different song that I knew better, or maybe I would sing an exercise that would prepare me for a song.

• Final Observation/Feelings: 
  Here I would be very honest with myself so I could see areas or attitudes that I needed to change or explore more for the next practice session.