(Apologies for the cheesy clip art. I needed to come up with something, or the Blogger template would show a fuzzy, overly-enlarged snippet of the first chart below.)
When I showed my husband my piano practice tracker, he said I should market and sell it. Ha. It’s not for sale, but I’m excited to share how this tool has transformed my practice—and why it might inspire all three of my readers. Since my last post about the Amazing Practice Tracker, I’ve made it even better. Here’s a peek at how it works, using my June data.
All The Pretty Colors, All the Pretty Winners
My tracker now sparkles with color: darker shades for active pieces, lighter ones for maintenance, technique, and sight-reading. Each day, the piece I practice most gets a bright yellow highlight—a little “gold medal,” if you will. (Click image for a slightly larger view.)
A leaderboard automatically shows the day’s top piece and time.
And if that isn't enough, I keep track of the month's leaders--specifically, how many times each piece made leaderboard. And, of course, I give more gold medals to the top three.
Weekly and Weekend Insights
A weekly leaderboard highlights my practice MVPs--like Pineapple Rag dominating June (for mid-June performances), then America the Beautiful in preparation for a July 4th weekend performance.
I also track hours per week and weekend above, plus the percentage of practice done on weekends. These stats have revealed a shift over time: I used to cram practice into weekends (for weekend percentages of 50% or more), but I'm now fitting in shorter, frequent weekday sessions for a greater percentage of my practice time happening during the work week. Without tracking, I’d have missed this!
Monthly and Yearly Trends
Graphs bring my progress to life, and I love being able to see changes, even when they reveal a decrease in practice time. In 2025, for instance, you can see how volleyball season cut into my practice time in February and March.
Another chart compares daily hours across months, with past months in lighter colors—June is dark red. I love challenging myself to top the previous months' records each day.
I can also compare my data from year to year. Here is a rather messy-looking chart showing the time spent on individual pieces/projects each year, with gold medals for the most-practiced projects.
And here is a 2024/2025 comparison of total hours per year.
As you can see in this chart, 2025's hours are lower than 2024’s. This was surprising to me, as I'm definitely improving faster (and playing better) than last year. It seems like I'm practicing more, but I'm not. Hmm. I wonder why. I guess I've incorporated smarter practice habits over the last couple of months (shoutout to Molly Gebrian and Rebecca Bogart). Also, I now have a consistent year of playing behind me, whereas last year I was very rusty after not playing since 2020. Finally, thanks to Piano With Jonny courses, I'm able to learn ragtime and blues-heavy pieces much more quickly.
Still, I'm hoping to surpass my July practice hours from last year. Like last year, I'll be on vacation for part of the month ... but I think I can do it!
Categories and Goals: Staying Focused
Because I have so many pieces/projects, I've begun to group them into categories (e.g., classical, ragtime), tracking how much time I spend on each category.
Of course, I have a leaderboard for that too.
And a pie chart, because what fun are the numbers without a pie chart?
I also set category percentage goals each month. A formula compares my actual practice time to these goals, color-coding results: green for on-target, red for “step it up,” yellow for “slow down.” In June, I sadly neglected classical for Pineapple Rag and America the Beautiful. :(
Predictions and Motivation
The Amazing Practice Tracker calculates average daily practice ...
... and it predicts (or recommends, based on percentage goals) category hours for estimated total hours per month. The "Avg Needed" numbers turn negative when I reach the goal. I love seeing those numbers turn negative! This month, I practiced 49.4 hours. If I'd only fit 3.8 more hours in yesterday, I would have hit 50! Ha!
Seriously, this “gamification” makes practice addictive—I’m always looking to hit the next goal.
Why It Works for Me
Tracking isn’t just numbers; it’s a window into my progress. (It's also helped me to become pretty good at Excel!) I love how it shows patterns, keeps me focused, directs my goals short- and long-term goals, and makes practice fun. My Amazing Practice Tracker 2.0 literally turns data into motivation. Want to try it? I'm happy to share a clean Excel template with you. If you’re new to Excel, I can help customize a simple one for your pieces and goals. Just drop a comment!
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