Mommy, how many times do I need to practice my instrument? This many!
Guest post by Jelaire Richardson
I made these practice charts to help our children keep track of their musical instrument practice sessions. There’s one for piano, one for violin, and one with a generic musical note, each in both color and greyscale. They have 30 numbered circles where you can put stickers as a reward for each practice session, so one chart can last about a month. We usually hang them on the fridge where the kids can see them frequently. They get so excited at the prospect of putting a star sticker or a smiley face on the chart.
One reason I made these charts was that all the ones I found online were calendar-based (i.e., each sticker went on a particular day). But I wasn’t concerned with whether my kids missed a day here and there. Also, I made day 15 an extra big circle, and day 30 be a star. The kids get to pick an extra special (i.e. bigger) sticker on those days. The day 15 halfway point helps keep their motivation up. You can either use this chart to track days practiced and ignore days missed by just never skipping a circle. I find this method works best for my young children. Or you can use to track missed days as well by leaving those circles blank on the days they missed. I was surprised at how difficult it was to find gender-neutral practice charts online. So I tried to make the colors (green and orange-y) and designs (stars and vines) as gender neutral as possible.
For my charts, I use the little round stickers that you can find almost anywhere. Here is a link to the ones I bought on Amazon.com, which are just the right size.
| Music practice charts | ||||
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Combined document of all three instruments, both color and greyscale |
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This is Great! I love the thought you put into these! I will definitely be using them for my studio which includes violin and piano, Perfect! Thank you so much!
That’s great that you have a studio and do both piano and violin! I am glad that they are helping people. 🙂
This has been a lovely way for my daughter to track her violin practice. Thank you!
Great, I am glad it has been helpful!
I love these! You don’t happen to have one for guitar or trumpet, do you? My kids all play guitar, plus one plays piano, one violin, one trumpet, and two of them are in chorus. The perfectionist in me wants charts that match, but yours are so much nicer than all others I have found that I have to use them.
I’m so glad you’ve found them useful! I actually don’t have one for trumpet. I (somewhat selfishly) only created charts for the instruments my own children played. So to cover my bases, I created the eighth note chart for all those other neglected instruments out there! I’d do a trumpet one, but the original editable file died in a hard drive a couple years ago and it’d take me a while to recreate it. But thanks for leaving your feedback! I’m glad you like them.
These are brilliant practise charts, thank you for creating them. We use them by putting a star for a lesson, and a round sticker for a practise. My son is very motivated to earn the stickers so he can put them on, and he earns a reward at half way (15) and the end (30).
Hey Charmaine!
Wow, thanks for letting me know how you use these. What great ideas–especially differentiating between lessons and practice sessions. I love that!
Thanks for your comment and best of luck to your son! 🙂