Mind Mapping Your Practice :
The Anti-Practice Journal Approach to Journaling Your Practice
By Tracy Bass
University of Missouri - Kansas City
Dissertation Points Credit
Spring 2019
Introduction
Most of us at some point in our lives have been instructed to keep practice journals or maybe we were even required to keep them. My freshman year of college was the first time I had seriously taken lessons and my horn teacher required us to keep a practice journal. This usually led to me making up what I had done minutes before my lesson and just scribbling down my thoughts for the week. I was practicing regularly, but just could not get on the practice journal train.
I expressed my dislike for this method with my teacher at the time and she offered great advice and gave me some direction to do some further research about practicing. This led me to find Randy Gardner’s article from the February 1996 edition of The Horn Call titled “Plan Your Work and Work Your Plan.” I can not stress how important this article was for me and I refer back to it from time to time and recommend that everyone checks it out. This article led to my love for making lists and holding myself more accountable for getting work done.
Gardner’s article approaches practicing from the perspective of the practicer having “productive learning styles and efficient time management skills.”p33 He discusses how one should approach each practice session with a plan and a set of goals, both long-term and short-term. He also has clear ideas about how to practice in a way to achieve these goals. There are several examples of ideal practice days and what you should cover based on the type of player you are and how much time you have.
One of the most beneficial takeaways I have from this article is the idea of breaking your practice period into smaller sections throughout the day instead of just doing it all at once. He incorporates the writing of Dauprat and Farkas into his ideas and also stresses the importance of listening and score study into your routine as well. Gardner also details how to construct your daily practice sessions and gives a list of tips to make your sessions more productive and effective.
Over the years, I have tweaked how I use his method and have learned from different types of study routines and planner/journal methods to develop a system that has made a difference in my and my students’ practice routines. One of these devices is called “mind mapping.” Mind mapping is a method of organizing topics and thoughts in a hierarchical way so that you can see everything’s relation of the whole. The other system I use comes from looking at the ways different people use bullet journaling. Once you have created a mind map of your goals, I integrate bullet journaling techniques into creating lists and timelines that I can hold myself accountable for.
Mind Mapping
Mind Mapping is a way to diagram your thoughts in more of a stream of consciousness way. “A mind map is an easy way to brainstorm thoughts organically without worrying about order and structure. It allows you to visually structure your ideas to help with analysis and recall.”mm Mind maps work for people because of the layering and the structure that can easily be altered without much mess. I like to think of it like something that is alive and can grow and fluctuate as ideas come to me. Mind maps are a place for you to dump everything in your brain out onto paper so that you can easily organize your thoughts later.mm
Before you start your mind map, do a quick google search to see what other people have done. Everyone uses this process differently and there are no real rules. They can be applied in other aspects of your life such as studying or planning out the structure of a paper. I have found them useful in many different situations so be open to using them outside of just planning your practice. Seeing how other people have laid theirs out and their use of colors and other visual aspects can give you more ideas for what you do and do not want to do with yours.
You will also need some sort of notebook/journal. I have tried various styles over the years and I like using graph paper the most, but I have had students that prefer sketch books and dot paper of all sizes. I have also seen notebooks where the top half of each page is blank a and the bottom is lined. This style works well for combining your mind map pages with your bullet journal pages. I also suggest that larger pages are better so that you can take notes and jot extra information down as you go. You can keep these notebooks forever and refer back to them from time to time to see how you worked through certain things during the course of your career. There are also several websites, softwares, and apps that can help you create mind maps, but I choose not to use them because it has been proven countless times that writing things down is more effective. For the purposes of this paper, you will get a peek into how I would use graph paper to create my mind map for the Spring 2019 semester.
Working through this process, especially for the first time, is more fun with others. Find a friend to work through this with so that you can bounce ideas off of each other. If you are a student, talk to your teacher about what your realistic goals are and line them up with your teacher’s expectations so that you are both aware of the things you need to get done. The best advice I can give is to make sure you leave some extra room during each step. This can be used for revisions you need to make or for adding new information along the way. Also, do not be afraid of colors! This should be something that can be a source of creative freedom for you.
The first step is to decide the time frame for your mind map. This acts as the centerpiece for your diagram that everything else is based around. Some examples you could use are:
- A single semester
- Preparing for a specific audition
- Preparing for a recital
- A process of adding in new elements to your practice routine
- Transitioning from high school into college or another type of transition between degrees/programs
Whatever you choose as your time frame, make sure that it is controlled and not too broad. Remember, you can make edits as you go, but you should not have to completely recreate your map during your selected time. Goals constantly change and the items you need to be focusing on shift throughout time so if your time frame is more than six months, you should consider narrowing it down. See example 1.
Next, choose your broad areas you wish to work on. We are not ready to name specific titles yet, but general genres of practicing such as:
- Warmups
- Scales
- Buzzing
- Fundamentals
- Etudes
- Playing tests
- Listening periods
- Excerpts
- Solos
- Various ensembles repertoire
- Recital repertoire
- Audition repertoire
- Gigs
Keep these items general and list everything you could need to work on during this time frame. The more broad this first section of growth from the middle is, the better. See example 2.
For your final branches, we get into more specifics. For example, if you have a branch for recital repertoire, you can list the pieces you are working on, ie:
- Solo Repertoire:
- Lament - Martin
- Brahms Songs - Hackleman
- Sonata 2 - Cherubini
- Antante - Strauss
- Concerto - Atterberg
List anything that could fall under that category, but just give it a name. Do not go into specific etude numbers you want to work on, just list the composer or instead of listing everything second horn except you wish to learn, just put “second horn excerpts” under excerpts. See example 3.
I can not stress the importance of how free you are to create your mind map however you want. If you do not like your first map, tear it out and start over. It is totally fine to change your mind or come up with some new ideas on how you want it to look while you are already in the process.
Bullet Journaling
After your mind map feels complete, I move into a bullet journal style of planning. Bullet journaling, or BuJo for short, is a style that allows the user to create a style of logging information through a method called “rapid logging.” “If rapid logging is language bujo is written in, bullets are the syntax. Bullets are short-form sentences paired with symbols that visually categorize your entries into: tasks, events, or notes.”bj The system is customizable in many ways and again, I recommend doing a search to see what other people are doing with their journals to get some ideas. There is a huge community of bojo users on instagram that share their ideas on that platform that you can easily find as well.
For each of the smaller branches you have made, make a page (or two) in your notebook. Here is where we get into the details and specifics of what you are trying to accomplish. Say you are working on a set of Kopprasch etudes for this semester. You can list each etude you want to get through during the semester along with whatever information you want to add as to the details you need to work through to pass it off. These can be performance practice notes, tempo markings, or any other specifics you need and as always, you can edit these as you go. See example 4.
Another way to organize your items is to add a series of columns beside your initial list. I label mine 3, 2, 1 from left to right and assign the progress I need to make for each item to get them from category 3 to category 1. This is something that I use when working on a list of excerpts. No matter how much I have worked on the excerpt previously, they always start back at 3. For me, category 3 means that I am learning the excerpt. This is when I find recordings and do score study and begin to dive into the context of the excerpt and learn how it goes. Category 2 is when I am ready to perform the excerpts for others and get feedback. This can be for a teacher, conductor, or colleague, it just means that I am ready to learn how experts are wanting to hear the excerpt performed in an audition setting. Category 1 is when I feel like I can consistently perform the excerpt at audition level. My goal before an audition is to get each of the excerpts moved to this category. See example 5.
It is ok if you change what is on these lists throughout your time frame; again, there are no rules for this. I do suggest adding in specific dates or smaller time frames for each item when possible as a short term goal under the umbrella of the time frame you started with. You can be as generic as “one per week” or “one each lesson” if that helps. The main goal is just to create something that holds you more accountable to get work done.
Why this method works best for me is that when I have completed an item, I can put a line through it (I find red to be the most satisfying) and visually see myself getting the work done. This system is much more rewarding to me than simply making a list at the end of the day with whatever I have done. Do not be afraid to use as many colors as you want or even incorporate some sort of sticker system. I encourage my students to make their notebooks fun and something they can open up and feel good about the work they are putting in on the horn. You can also add in dates for when you pass things off as well to keep track of your progress. Your system will evolve over time so do not feel trapped with whatever you start with. This is highly individualized so make it as personal as you feel you need.
Use the rest of your notebook for your weekly planning. Take one day each week and set aside some time to sit down and plan your work for the week. Start by figuring out how much practice time you are going to get in each day for the next week. This is just a rough idea of how much time you will have, our schedules are crazy and change a lot so build in some flexibility. Next, list the things you are going to work on each day by using your mind map and bujo pages, but make sure you are being realistic with what you can get done in the time you have for each day. You can be very specific and assign how many minutes for per day you will spend on each task, or you can simply make a list of everything you need to get done that day in priority order. This also gives you the chance to mix it up every day so that you do not feel stale practicing the same things the same way each day. Whatever system you use, as you go through your practice session(s) for that day, mark each item off as you complete it. See example 5.
Something that my students have done is create areas of reflection for throughout their journals. I have seen them do daily, weekly, and monthly reflections. This has been a great idea that I have incorporated, especially for my younger students. It give them a chance to check in with their progress and access the work that they are putting in versus the work that they are getting done.
Another thing that some of my students have done is create some sort of reward system for themselves. I have seen them simply use stickers for days that they are getting through their entire list or incorporating elaborate reward systems with getting treats for themselves. Especially for younger students, this can be a fun way to get the parents involved in making sure that they are doing good work. Say you get through all your practice sessions for a week, then you get to reward yourself with ice cream or a bag of candy. This has been a great motivator for some and if it works, it works.
Conclusion
It is important to remember that there is no right or wrong way to do this. Tailor it to your specific needs and your goals. This is just a way to create more structure for planning the things you need to work on and to hold yourself accountable to your goals. Find a friend to do this method with and compare with each other. Lastly, never be afraid to tear a page out or mark a giant X through it and move on to the next page. Like i said, there are no rules. This should be a fun way to express who you are in practice planning.
If you are a teacher, do not be afraid to use this with your students of all levels. It provides a different viewpoint than the old school practice journals and I have seen more student success with a pre-planning method. It gives them a chance to work with you to meet your expectations and gives them a chance to track their progress in a creative way. Plus, it is always fun to see how students take these ideas and run with them in a way that tailors to their specific needs.
As a performer, this can be a great way to time manage the things you need to be getting done. You can organize your weekly practice sessions in a way to make sure that you are hitting the specific items you need to work on and not waste time on thing that are not as important. I have found that when I am in peak playing phases, this method helps me balance the work I need to be putting in on the horn without missing anything. Having a method that is ever changing with room to adapt to your needs is a must for the busy performer.
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