Monthly Practice Report (November, 2014)

Recalling one post from 2009 (The Third "M"), and another from 2012 (One Twenty-Minute Interval at a Time), here is my November (2014) practice report:

And while we’re on the subject, I’d like to clarify a few things about the way that I record my twenty-minute intervals. First, I keep a countdown timer beside my bala. (I picked this one up for around $8 at a local electronics store.)

I set the timer for 20 minutes and when I’m ready to begin practicing, I press the start button. Then I do my best to "tune it out" entirely. Now, practicing for me means that I need to be at my instrument. I can be playing, working things out, experimenting with technique, doing exercises, learning a new phrase, etc., but if I have to get up for any reason, I pause the timer. This means that I do not count transcription-making, video-watching, studying transcriptions that others have made, checking audio recordings, nor focused listening as "practice." All of these activities are of course necessary and they certainly contribute to my growth and development as a musician and as a bala player, but the only practice time I record is when I am physically at the instrument, tapping keys.

I do count practice time with others, however, but because I have much less control over tempo and because I can’t readily stop the music to isolate a part and then error-correct, I only count it at half of it’s actual value. (So, for instance, if Stan comes over and we go through material for two hours, I’ll fill in only three little boxes. Same goes for rehearsals with Katenen’s group.)

As best I can, I try to prepare myself to stay at the bala for at least twenty minutes at a time. I feel that my practicing is more effective this way than if I were to, for instance, record two minutes, pause, go do some cooking, record two more minutes, pause, go to the washroom, etc. (I will do it that way if I have to—I do feel that "a couple of minutes here, a couple of minutes there" is helpful—but I prefer to work in more substantial blocks.)

Every month I print a new practice sheet. (And these days, I post it on the door of my apartment so that anyone who comes over can, at a glance, see how consistent I’ve been.) But I allow myself to "backfill" up to the beginning of the month. This means that if don’t manage to practice very much on a given day, I can catch up at some later date—up to the end of the month. My current goal (even though there are three hours on the sheet) is to practice for at least two hours every day. If I practice for more than two hours (i.e., more than six boxes) on a given day, then I can fill any box that I had previously left empty—again, up to the beginning of the month. However, I can’t fill "forward." If I have filled in all nine boxes for all the days from the beginning of the month, then if one day I practice for more than three hours, I simply stop recording. It's rare, but it has happened.