Log Your Practice Sessions for Better Results

The Complete Music Practice Record Book:
A Six-Month Log and Journal for Dedicated Students
by Larry Zafran
Larry Zafran (2011),
Paperback, 108 pages
Rated 4 stars of 5 possible

At first glance, one might be intimidated by all the blank spaces in this practice log, yet filling the pages with your information in the vast variety of categories provided by the author can help you to better monitor your own or your child's practice sessions while studying any instrument.

Pros
While this practice log was not originally intended for a beginner, it is widely adaptable and can be used by music students of any age and for any instrument. A small corner of each practice record has been allocated for parents or teachers to initial if this is required. The author has thought of most everything one would like to track and provides spaces for each item in a concise half-page a day format. He has left the date spaces blank, so you can start at any time. If you skip a day or have a poor practice session, there's even a space to indicate why.

Neutral
There are a few categories of information for which space is provided that I will probably not use. Mood(s); Meditation, Breathing, Physical Exercise, etc. aren't the sort of data that I consider to be part of my practice time, while Performance/Rehersal/Recordings are not something in which I am involved at the moment... but which I might use in the far future. However, these few categories currently of no use to me may be useful to others. The book would best be used with a fine point pen or very sharp pencil and neat, small writing.

The author pointed out to me that this book is not spiral bound... which I would definitely have noticed on my own. I doubt that, for such a slim volume, the lack of a spiral binding is going to be a large handicap. Even so, the lack of a spiral binding is something that can be remedied at many local copy shops such as Kinko's.

Cons
The spaces provided to write in aren't very convenient; they feel cramped for someone with large, sloppy handwriting like mine... Each practice log or self-assessment section has been given a medium width bold border that helps visually divide the page, and which some may view as an asset. On the negative side, this same border helps the page feel more cramped, especially to those of us who normally write large. The months have been rounded to 28 days, which, over the course of one year (two of these books) leaves out 29 daily practice sessions, and four personal assessment records - approximately another whole month of practice data; hence the four star rating of a potentially five star product.

Possible Improvements
I'd like this to be a full page for each day, with a bit more space to write for the day, especially in the notes section at the bottom of each daily practice log. The page size need not continue to be 8 X 10 inches; I think 6 X 9 inches would work as well with the single daily practice log per page. I'd like to see the book expanded to handle an entire 52 week year. The weekly assessment sections could remain in place at one after every 7 daily entries; only the monthlies would need to be arranged differently, with one being placed at roughly every 1/12 of the way through the log.

Recommended to all dedicated music students and professionals. This review is based on a full copy of the book provided to me free by the author in exchange for review.