The ABRSM Practice Notebook

Great book, space for the teacher, student and parent. Ideal for the younger musician. Also has a strip to tick days practised. I think most books in this category have the same sections. It’s a nice A5 kind of size. The only complaint I would say, is in the beginning there are loads of random pages and even an example page filled in - which unless you’re really stupid - it’s probably not needed! My son is 7y and loves writing in comments about his piano practise. It’s useful and nice overall. I would buy it again even with the annoying pages at the start.

This slim book (about the size of a paperback) is a brightly coloured and well organised Practice Notebook. Children can write their name on the cover and contact details inside. The book contains a lesson timetable (especially useful if children are taking lessons at school and the times/rooms change), lots of tips and advice, lesson notes (36 in all) and even an end of year report.Although there are space for 36 lessons, in effect each Lesson incorporates a week’s practice – so the notebook should last for a year if you consider school terms. Each lesson has a double page spread. The left side has a large space for teachers to write ‘things to practice’ and to give marks for effort and achievement. The right hand page has two manuscript lines, in case teachers want to write notes to learn etc, plus a practice diary, with spaces for the days of the week and the weekend and how long they practiced – or how long the teacher would like them to practice. Underneath are notes for the student to write comments and also parents comments and a space for parents to sign.This is a particularly useful book if you do not see your child’s music teacher regularly, but is equally useful at home to organise your child’s practice. They may be surprised by how little/often they practice if they write it down and realise that they have not, in fact, been practicing for ‘hours’ but more like fifteen minutes! This also enables you to ‘talk’ to your child’s music teacher and exchange comments and will make the whole process of practicing a little more special.

I noticed these while shopping on Amazon, and I decided to order a few to trail with my students as they often said about poor practice regime and so on. These books have space for 36 weeks worth of practice and a space for teacher comments, a practice log and parent comments and signature. As Well as this these books also had a large section at the back with basic theory notes and a few pages of manuscript also at the back. The front of the book allows space for contact information for you teacher aswell as a grid to show lessons times for each week and grid entitled 'shopping list' where there teacher is able to write in any relevant materials needed for the lessons, on the whole I've found these to a large help with my teaching practise as I can clearly see how much practice my students are doing and any comments they may have. On the whole I would recommend these to any teacher as they are a valuable resource if used effectively.

Format is quite good but far too small. Would be better if the 'practice' diary section was labelled as "day 1", "day 2", etc. instead of day names as this would fit better with weekly lessons. For example, for a lesson attended on a Wednesday, the practice diary runs from Monday to 'weekend'. This means that practice notes relating to that lesson have to spread over two weeks of the diary. Poor thinking by the publisher. Overall I think it is not good value for money and I would have been better off buying an ordinary perpetual diary containing two pages to a week. I won't be buying this product again.

We have had two of these practice books. My child’s piano teacher sets practice/learning targets in it each week, and my child uses that as well as recording her practice sessions and any comments she has. Just a very good communication tool between my child, me, and the piano teacher.It is a double page spread per week. Quite small- just smaller than A5 in size. A perfect size for the purpose.

This little notebook packs a punch. It has been a great help for all of us involved in my daughter's piano lessons: it helps me track payments to the teacher and keep an eye on what my daughter learns during lessons, it helps the piano teacher to write notes in one place, rather than scribble them on pieces of paper and most importantly, helps my daughter have everything in one place and read on little tips. It really has inspired her to take piano lessons more seriously. Wonderful notebook, worth every penny.

Bought as required for my daughter’s guitar lessons and has proved useful

I buy these notebooks, all the time, for all my pupils. Plenty of room to write up what they need to do and for the pupil and parents to record notes or practice times. Full of little quotes and useful tips.