Hi,

we are a group of young learning musicians, mostly piano but some guitarists as well. Our day jobs are all based in IT and as such the idea to link one to the other has been floating around for quite a while.

In a nutshell the idea is for an interactive website to schedule daily/weekly practice. This could involve ten minutes of scales, learning a set piece, or working on licks... and other possibilities.

You could track your goals on the site, and tick off your daily accomplishments. Allowing others access to your profile could add some of the needed social pressure to get the work done :P

Other possibilities would include set study packs, looking at others who are practicing the same things you are, to then get ideas for new pieces, scales.

The idea is still in its infancy but we have the means and motivation to make it happen.

I would really love some feedback from others who are learning an instrument. Does this sound appealing at all? Suggestions are very welcome :P

Thank you (The site would be totally free btw)

Sounds like a great idea - sign me up and keep me posted.

Bill

This is a brilliant idea!

Apart from the things you mentioned, you could include all sorts of things on it such as:
-e-mail reminders to practice
-a section devoted to tips for self-control (i.e. tips that would make sitting down to practice easier)
-a section devoted to practice tips (i.e. tips to make practice more efficient)
-a section devoted to book reviews (by the users of the site)
-Some type of resource section that links you to various sites that help with ear-training and theory.
-A place to post videos and recordings of the users of the site.

I am sure that other people could think of many other things as well.

I agree that I'd appreciate user reviews/comments of music books -- individual pieces, books of sheet music, instructional method books, DVDs, software, websites, etc., as well as books about music and musicianship.

I'm a bibliophile and hoarder of sheet music, and always enjoy it when people share their experiences such things, and there are always people arriving to ask questions about the various (usually rather expensive to invest in to test drive) instructional software/DVDs/websites that promote themselves on the internet.

Unfortunately such discussions tend to get scattered and buried by inherent structure of this kind of user forum, so it's tiresome to search out and extract all the reverences to a particular item. Get me drunk and I'll rant about the need for better information architecture than the temporally-based forum/blog formats.

I also really like the idea of being able to comment/connect with others who are learning (or have learned) the same piece of music. We do that to some degree here (esp. in the Alfred's threads), but even there it's relatively rare that people are working on the same piece at the same time. So again, there's the thread burial/resurrection issue.

Excuse my garrulous midsummer-insomnia semi-coherence, but I think that what I'm trying to get at is that I would be more motivated to participate consistently in a practice-tracking site which had a social-media-ish aspect that enabled me to connect with others who were using the same practice materials which I enjoy.

The issue I see is that I have no reason to care about about what or whether Joe Blow is practicing, or what he may or may not observe about what I am or am not practicing... unless or until I notice that Joe he likes playing the same sort of music that I do, or is working through the same instructional method, or is another elementary ragtime player or sight reading geek. In that case I'd probably be interested in following his progress, and he in following mine, and this we might be useful in keeping one another motivated to A) practice these common interests, and B) bother to go to a website and enter our daily timesheets.

Confession: I have created for myself a number of practice tracking databases and other systems. However, IRL I find that I fail to consistently use them. I think that connecting and sharing experiences and opinions with others who are working with the same pieces, genres, methods, etc. would provide a lot of motivation.

I agree. It would be much more helpful for me to connect with others working on the same pieces. Right now I'm working on 3 difficult pieces. It would be great to connect with someone working on at least one of those.

Also, I am bad with keeping up a practice tracking sheet!

Sounds like a brilliant idea!

Please do keep us posted. I'd certainly use it.

Tangleweeds, I just received an email from Joe Blow, and in it he expressed the following.

"Dear Rossy old chap, just a quick note to let you know I am very sad today. As you know , I have been following Tangleweed for a while now, I find him interesting, helpfull, sensitive and very hard working, as well as being an inspiration to me as a fellow piano player. Imagine my surprise when I read his post declaring he doesn't care what I do, I am gutted, and have taken to alcohol as a result"
Sincerly,
Joe.

Fantastic idea. I hope you guys succeed with it. I'd certainly use it (if it ever comes into fruitition, I'd appreciate if you could send me a pm).

I used to develop my skills in photography in a similar fashion, so why not help one another speed up our progress at the piano?

Great idea, will it be free?

I think a website like that needs a critical mass of people to work to increase the chance of people working on the same pieces, so I would think it would be best make it free, at least in the initial phases, with the option to make donations (explaining the need for it). I bet many of us in here would donate significant amounts for something like this to happen.