Music Teacher's Helper Blog

In my own quest to organize my personal practice time, I came across an excellent planner geared toward any level of student.  As a music teacher, I find it a recurring challenge to communicate assignments and help my students continue to develop in their practice sessions without me. The Musician’s Practice Planner meets both of those needs, and in my opinion, is a necessity for all teachers who want to impart the skill of practicing unto their students.

The planner is very user friendly.  For every week there is a
“Weekly Lesson Plan” and a “Daily Practice Log”.  As the teacher, you fill out the lesson plan page at the end of the practice session.  You can review what was covered in the lesson, from warm-ups/ scales, etudes, and repertoire.   Broad categories allow you to tailor the planner to suit your personal teaching style, and meet the needs of your students.  There is even a column to write down goals for each section.  For example, if your student is starting a new book of etudes, you can write “Etude 1: Work on legato in all phrases, and monitor a low breath”  in the goal section.  Also included is a space to write out a short musical examples on the lesson plan page, or you can flip to the back to find extra staff paper.

The “Daily Practice Log” is filled out daily by the student,  The log helps focus the student’s practice session, and allows the teacher to see what time has been spent on the various categories of practice.  The student makes a list before starting of the the things they will be practicing that day.  They record the metronome marking they took a particular piece or etude, and also record how much time they spent on each category.  They can then review yesterday’s work, or decide to work on something new.

The cost of the planner is nominal, and is available at Amazon.com (product link above) for only $8.95 + free shipping.  This planner is good for 52 weeks, or a whole year.  The added benefits of using a pre-organized planner is that you will find more time for your teaching, less on formating practice logs.  Your students will learn more, practice more, and remember more.  Both parties are on the same page as to expectations for the current lesson.  And by seeing the days filled in over the week, The Musician’s Practice Planner motivates your students so they will improve faster than before.

Your turn!  Have you tried this product in your own practice or with your students?  What do you like, what have you found disappointing in the product?  Do you have your own log method, and how does it work for you?