Introducing tuneUPGRADE, a music practice tracker!

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Finding time to practice your instrument can be tough. Making the most of that practice can be even harder.

 A while ago, I found myself having a few practice challenges.

  • I simply wasn't practicing enough. 
  • When I was practicing, I wasn't practicing long enough.
  • When I was practicing, I wasn't focused on the right things for the right amount of time. I just played whatever was fun, not what caused me to learn and grow as a musician.
Simple to fix, right? Just watch a clock, and plan a little better. Only watching the clock caused a big problem - it distracted my focus from my practice if I was glancing over every few minutes.

And so, tuneUPGRADE was born.

tuneUPGRADE simply helps you organize your practice and keep focus on the music, not the clock. On tuneUPGRADE, you can:

  • Design a practice routine and just hit 'go'. At that point, tuneUPGRADE tracks your time and tells you when it's time to move forward. You don't have to watch the clock, and you can keep yourself focused on your practice.
  • Take notes as you practice. Track your tempo, track difficult sections to work on, and leave yourself notes that automatically appear the next time you practice a song, letting you make the most of your practice time.
  • Set a weekly practice goal, and automatically track progress towards it, helping you reach your goal.
I've been personally using it for a few months, and the effectiveness of my practice has skyrocketed!

tuneUPGRADE is in beta and is free to sign up and use, with donations optional if you want to support the site - I pay out of pocket for the hosting and development costs today. I'd love to hear any feedback you have - drop me a note at [email protected]!

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How to Form a Great Practice Routine

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Forming a great practice routine can be challenging. You only have so much time to practice in a day, and out of context statements such as "I heard musician X practices scales 2 hours a day! Should I be doing that?" can lead you to forming routines that don't work for you. Sure, scale practice is very important - but before you sit down and spend a practice session on scales, consider that a practice routine should have the following four phases. The Four Phases of a Practice Routine Simply put, a practice routine should factor in these four phases: Exercises for warming up and focusing on techniques or concepts you want to master Tunes you're learning  for building up your repertoire, consistently adding difficulty to grow your skills Repertoire review  for ensuring tunes you already know don't grow stale Open practice time  to play whatever you want to enjoy yourself and keep your interest. Depending on what your current goal is, the amount of time spent in ea
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One of the most common features asked about initially was the ability to install tuneUPGRADE as a mobile app. Most users wanted this so they could run tuneUPGRADE in the background while using other apps on their mobile phone. This was tough to do when it's opened in a browser tab, and on iOS, the timer would even stop running! In order to solve this quickly, tuneUPGRADE allows you to install as an app directly from the website itself. Simply log in, navigate to your account, and select 'Install' on the left (alternatively, click here ). If you are on Chrome on Android, PC, or Mac, an installation button will be present. Click install to simply install tuneUPGRADE as an app. If you are on Safari on iOS, on the 'Install' page, click the Share button, then 'Add to Home Screen'. Now, when launched from the home screen, tuneUPGRADE will open as an app, allowing it to live outside of Chrome/Safari, and best of all, on iOS, the practice timer will run pr
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