During my 30 day trial (practicing guitar 5 days a week), I decided to keep a practice log. This enabled me to disclose how I was spending my practice time, but that wasn't the only benefit of keeping the log. In fact, by the end of the experiment I was convinced that keeping a practice log was essential to monitoring my progress and getting the results I wanted out of my practice time.

Keeping Your Practice Time Focused
By writing out each task that you intend to work on (either in advance or during your practice time), you are effectively prioritizing your tasks. This means that you waste less time on tasks that are either unimportant or insignificant, and spend more time working on items that are important.

In my case, practicing for gigs or working out parts for recording projects is an absolute must, so these items always take precedence over others. As important as songwriting is to me (as it should be to most musicians), it's not as important as playing a good show or getting a paid project done in a timely manner. At the same time, I thought it would be a good idea to put aside 10 - 15 minutes for warm-ups and review at the beginning of my practice time. It's better to be prepared than to risk injury, and 15 minutes isn't too much to ask for.

Giving Tasks the Attention They Deserve
Once you have your tasks adequately prioritized (this can be done in real time), it's time to give each task the attention it needs. Another way of looking at this is that you don't want to spend more time on a particular task than necessary. If you're spending 50 minutes on warm-up exercises, then there better be a good reason for it. The whole point of keeping a practice log is to monitor the time you spend on each task. If you can't keep your focus on a particular task, or you tend to "noodle" a lot, then you're missing the point entirely.

Accomplishing More in Less Time
The natural byproduct of prioritizing your tasks is accomplishing more in less time. There are many guitarists who practice anywhere from 3 - 10 hours a day, but if that time isn't spent efficiently, then they may as well be practicing for 30 minutes. If you have the discipline to keep a practice log consistently, then you will know exactly where your time is going and - in the long term - you'll be able to manage it better. "Noodling" will seem less attractive once you gain the benefits of focused practice time.

Becoming an Active Participant
Last but not least, keeping a practice log will help you to become an active participant in your practice time. No longer will circumstances and outer stimuli dictate what and how you want to be practicing. You'll become more decisive, and you'll triage (decide what tasks will benefit you the most) mercilessly. The more projects you have on your plate, the more important this becomes. With discipline you'll effectively allocate your practice time to the most important tasks at hand, and you'll keep on top of it. Completing tasks in a timely (and satisfactory) manner is a confidence booster.

Benefits over the Long Term
Once you have a practice log, you will be able to look back a week, a month, a year from now and see exactly what you practiced and what you were able to accomplish. Imagine being able to go back and see what exercises stimulated the most growth in your playing and thus generating similar results more consistently. Imagine coming up with a practice plan that wastes no time and gets right to the point.

The Importance of Discipline
The whole idea of keeping a practice log is to sharpen your focus; not dull it. If you spent 10 minutes on warm-up exercises, then make sure you're actually spending 10 minutes on warm-ups and nothing else. Each task needs to be handled similarly. If you spent 30 minutes on a particular task but couldn't keep your focus throughout, then be honest with yourself and record "30 minutes of noodling". You're missing the point of a practice log if you get too far off track.

How to Keep a Practice Log
You don't need anything fancy. A small journal or notebook would suffice. Simply record each task you work on and how much time you spent on each. It may seem tedious, but if you can't spare a few seconds to write things down then you may want to loosen up your schedule.

Here's a personal example from February 16, 2008:

• Warm-up Exercises (7 minutes)
• Review (12 minutes)
• Jazz Arpeggios
• Steve Morse Picking Exercise
• Arpeggios From Hell
• I Know You're Here
• Red Flag
• Paint the Town Red
• Exercises (Joe Charupakorn) pages 186 - 213 (59 minutes)
• Songwriting (48 minutes)
• Songwriting (43 minutes)
• Original Composition (16 minutes)
• Original Composition (30 minutes)

Again, there's nothing fancy about it and it doesn't take very long to do. This article was written by David Andrew Wiebe, web designer, graphic designer, guitarist, bassist, keyboardist, songwriter, guitar instructor, and music expert. Interested in winning a free CD? Click here for more info! Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Recommendations? Email me.

Published on February 21, 2008