We’ve noticed a common theme across many of our students: finding time and staying consistent with practice can be challenging!
We’d love to better understand how you currently organize and track your guitar practice, and what (if anything) would make our Practice Assistant more helpful.
Please take a minute to answer these quick questions below! And if there’s anything else you’d like to share, feel free to reply in the thread. Any input will help us!
Thanks in advance.
1. How do you currently track your practice?
I use the Practice Assistant
Notebook / pen & paper
Spreadsheet
Other practice tracking app
I don’t track my routines
0voters
*Forgot to add Community Learning Logs Please include it in a topic reply if that’s what you use!
2. If you don’t use the Practice Assistant, why not?
I didn’t know about it
I prefer my own tracking system (notebook, spreadsheet, etc.)
It feels too complicated or time-consuming to set up e.g. : creating routines, replacing items
I tried it but stopped using it
I don’t see enough value in it
I forget to use it
Other
0voters
3. What would make a practice tool genuinely helpful?
Clear progress tracking (so I can see improvement over time)
Reminders or streaks to keep me consistent
Simpler and faster to use
Guidance on what to practice and when to move on
Built directly into the lesson flow
Other
0voters
4. Right now you’re using notebook / spreadsheet / another online tool, what would have to be true for you to switch to a built-in JustinGuitar online practice tool?
It would need to be faster and easier than my current system
It would feel as simple as pen & paper
It would be fully integrated into the website and lesson pages
It would help me plan my practice sessions in advance and check them off as I complete them
It would clearly show specific skills improving (e.g. chord changes BPM increasing)
It would tell me when I’m ready to move on to the next Grade / Module
It would track which songs I can confidently play start to finish
It would include light feedback or self-assessment check-ins
It would track streaks (e.g. 7 days in a row)
It would send gentle reminders if I miss practice
Small milestones or badges would motivate me
Nothing: I genuinely prefer my current system!
0voters
If you select Other in any of questions, please elaborate in the topic reply!
To elaborate on my choices, I keep all my guitar related material in the Notes and Reminders app on my iPad. It’s hard to see a web-based tool topping the flexibility I have with these, as I can draw on the screen, add screen grab images and I have a kanban board that songs move across as I learn them.
At the moment I don’t really have a practice routine but I anticipate using the same tools in some way once I leave work in a couple months and have time to practice more. I guess maybe it’s guidance that I lack, having to work out what will actually go in a practice routine that will be useful for the music I want to play. It doesn’t have to be faster than my current set-up but it should offer something unique that makes me want to use it
The 2 Questions that have option for OTHER do not allow for description on why Other was selected. In both cases my response would be mostly the same. The system I use currently (spread sheets etc.) is tailored by me, to my goals. If I could tailor a Justin tool to serve the same purpose, I am sure that would be fine, but I don’t think that everyone wants the same thing as I do. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
My practice routine is very simple, really. It’s been developed throughout many years of experience and, so far, it seems perfectly sufficient for my purposes.
Depending on what I feel like doing, I either noodle for a while or, more often, build a chord progression, especially when I want to incorporate some new chord fingerings I’ve learned. The progression is then recorded on a looper and I practice soloing over it. If something interesting comes out of it, I make a proper recording via an interface direct to the Audacity software, add more tracks to build a proper backing track, then improvise to my heart’s content… If there’s something in the lead line I don’t like, the track gets deleted and I play it from the top. It often happens that I have to do it many times.
A true challenge for me is recording a cover until I get a satisfactory result (I find it a lot more difficult than playing my own stuff ); e.g. the recording of ‘Wonderful Tonight’ (3 minutes playing time) took me about four hours…
I’m currently using the practice assistant only as it’s handy and fast to use. For quite a while I used it along with pen and paper to take notes on the practice session, which was actually a real winner combo. So it would be lovely to add an option, where you can enter daily notes, like in a diary/pen and paper option.
Thanks for making this survey! I appreciate all the efforts you and all the team put in to improve user experience.
My main resistance is I have enough device / web distractions in my life already, and try to avoid using my devices while playing. Having another thing I need to update on my phone / pc is a distraction I’m not prepared to have.
Totally agree with Tony above. Devices while playing are a distraction for me. If I ever do feel the need for a practice reminder system a pen and paper would be adequate. And it never needs charging.
I just use my notes app right now. I track in loose point form what I did with comments reminding myself of things like BPM and notes about what I thought was going well or what I was having difficulty with. It’s very low-friction and easy to use and I am not tempted to overthink it which can be a problem for me.
I looked at the Practice Assistant but it feels a bit too fiddly for me. It’s much easier to just jot down a note in my notes app.
I was recently playing with making a Notion workspace where I tracked exercises and songs along with dates I did them with data like BPM, as well and the frequency I want to perform them with the idea that I could load up a page and it would give me a daily agenda for what to do on a given day. That’s pretty much what I would like to see in a Practice Assistant but it’s hard to compete with a simple text file, to be honest.
I am a big fan of the practice assistant. If we could have a way of uploading off site videos or embedded offsite video links it would be the ultimate. But I am still going strong with it. It does require some personal work to keep it updated and working for you but i suspect any practice helper requires the same.
I don’t like that sort of rigidity with my playing/practice. I work on things for awhile, specifically focusing on bits that give me a hard time, and I shift around because too much rigidity makes me bored and it starts to feel like work. And that’s not why I play guitar.
I’m very much a “go with the flow” sort when it comes to guitar so I won’t use any specific practice tool unless it’s built into the lessons I’m doing and I don’t have to do anything extra to use it.
Yep, I’m old school as well. My guitar playing area has no internet access and I have an old phone that can’t load apps. But I prefer pencil and paper… specifically a nice 2B and a good eraser.
I used to use the practice assistant but as I kept hearing “learn songs” as a mantra several times in the community I sort of ditched the practice assistant. But I will be going back to it as it did help me progress.
The only thing I found strange in the assistant was that some exercises were so short in time that it just wasn’t enough. It often said song practice 5 minutes. 5 minutes song practice just isn’t enough to progress IMO.
As I don’t have any goals in guitar-playing, I see no value for me in a practice assistant.
I thoroughly enjoy playing and I am able to recognise the things I get better at (as well as the areas that are slipping ).
I just enjoy what I do and the time I spend with music-related activities, even if it’s just typing out rubbish on the forum
I’m guessing that most folk don’t use a ‘formal’ tracking system? (unless you count working through the grades)
At this point in time, i’m learning things along the songs that we play in school during the evening.
So there’s no point for me to keep a practice assistent besides the one in my head. And the sheet music, tabs and other stuff lying around, telling me what i’m practicing at this point.
Also: what @tony said, having yet another device you need to update would be a no-no for me.
I go as far as using a laptop for practicing songs, playing backing tracks etc, but that’s it.
I don’t use my phone as it’s way too small and distracting for me. Before i know it, an hour has passed, doing no practice at all.
Not good.
Technology can be a great tool, for many things in music.
For structured practice; organising, editing, reviewing, adding notes to etc, pen and paper are quality companions.
Tactile, universal, and transportable anywhere.
Please include it in a topic reply if that’s what you use!
If there’s something in the lead line I don’t like, the track gets deleted and I play it from the top. It often happens that I have to do it many times.
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