Keep A Journal Of Your Music Lessons

Do you keep a journal of your music lessons?

Chances are a teacher from The Music Junction has recommended it because chronicling your practice can inspire you about the progress you’ve made. It can also help you figure out how long it takes to master a piece of music, which can be useful when preparing for recitals.

Any notebook will work or, if you want something more specific, you can download a music log here.

If you need some additional inspiration for keeping a journal, read this New Yorker story by Jeremy Denk, a professional pianist who has played with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the symphony orchestras of Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, and London. It is cutely titled “Every Good Boy Does Fine” and discusses how Denk rediscovered his music journal that dates back as far as 1981. Each page is filled with suggestions for improvement by various instructors as well as his insecurities. It also serves as a diary of his life and the important role instructors have played in his life.

Denk wrote: “There’s a labyrinth of voices inside your head, a counterpoint of self-awareness and the remembered sayings of your guides and mentors, who don’t always agree. Sometimes you wish you could go back and ask your teachers again to guide you; but up there onstage, exactly where they always wanted you to be, you must simply find your way. They have given all the help they can; the only person who can solve the labyrinth of yourself is you.”

We agree.

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Music Junction offers private one-on-one music lessons with talented and caring music teachers at our music school in Burbank, CA. Study your choice of piano, voice, guitar, ukulele, violin, drums, woodwinds, strings. Virtual lessons are also available.