Practice Breakdown: March 2024

I had some free time in a waiting room, so I added up my practice hours for March. I updated my March Goals Recap with the total number of hours (50.45), but I thought I'd share the breakdowns here.

I spent almost a quarter (23%, or 11.8 hours) of my total practice time on Chopin ... which is interesting because I practiced Chopin only 18 days in March! This was a surprise to me. I would have guess that I'd practiced it every day, except for the few days I was in North Carolina and had only a 61-key keyboard to work with.

Only 18 days!

Next in the ranking is the Blues Learning Track at PWJ. I started on March 6, but I didn't really start working in it until March 10. I made it through the first three lessons and ended up devoting a full 8.9 hours of practice time over 17 days to the blues. When I was NC and only had that little keyboard, I only worked on the blues--mainly playing the blues scale over the easy and medium shuffles.

A full 16% (8 hours) of practice time went to Maple Leaf Rag, which I also only practiced for 18 days in March! I would have bet money that I'd practiced that one every single day.

Next was Bare Necessities with 16%, or 7.7 hours. Almost as much as Maple Leaf! I didn't start working on "BN" until March 3, and I practiced it for 20 days in March.

Sevenths (mostly dominant sevenths) got 12% of my practice time (6.1 hours) in March. I was pretty faithful about working on these and managed to go through the exercises for 25 days last month.

I didn't quite finish the Misty Challenge in February, and I spent a good 3.6 hours (7% of practice time, and 7 days) on it in early March.

Scales (3.6 hours) also got about 7% of my practice time. They were my warm-up of choice for 22 days.

Finally, just 2% of practice time (about an hour) went to "discarded" projects: the "Fly Me To the Moon" challenge on PWJ, which I started but quickly decided I didn't want to do; and my shells exercises that I'd been doing each morning. Those will be covered in PWJ's Level 5 Foundations, so I decided to just work on the Level 4 Foundations (sevenths) for now.

And that's it! I know there is benefit in taking short breaks from pieces, but I do want to be a little more regular in my practice. Several times I went several days without practicing Chopin and/or Maple Leaf, and I think I'll see more progress if I'm a little more consistent.

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Picking Up the Pieces: A Piano Practice Journal

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