My conservatory piano teacher Michael Ruiz used to say that he wanted to own a Victorian house where all of his students would live. I suppose this meant that he would be available for coaching at any time and that all of the students would improve through semi-supervised hard work and osmosis.
He would also talk about a scenario in which one student would practice while the another would observe. The logic here was that the practicing student would be forced to be honest and more diligent about using the practice time wisely; the observing student would learn from the practicing student's actions.
Having started this blog not too long ago, I've become increasingly aware that my own work has improved as I've put forth my ideas behind memorization practice. In effect, this public blog has become Ruiz's idealized practice room, with me as the practicing student and you readers as the observers.
After posting about using a practice log, I thought it would be useful to me, and possibly to you, to post my daily practice log to the internet. Not only does this discipline assure that I'll use my log more regularly (yes, dear reader, there have been gaps), it assures that I'll be thinking even harder about what I'm doing each time I'm practicing. I'm thinking of it as a lab/practicum to this blog.
For all I know, no one will make much sense of this online log. (If you do have questions, however, feel free to post them.) For me, it's a useful tool as I strive towards greater awareness in my practice time.
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