Online Practice Record - FAQs
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General Questions
How long has the Online Practice Record site been available? - The first students registered for the Online Practice Record site in 2003.
Is the Online Practice Record easy to use? - We realize that teachers and students interested in this program are dedicated and want to spend their time working on music. We have made every effort to offer as many features as possible to encourage students to practice and track their progress while keeping the program simple to use. We welcome your suggestions to improve the program.
Do many people use the Online Practice Record? – Thousands of music students have used the Online Practice Record program, more than 100,000 practice records have been saved, and thousands of practice records have been e-mailed. We always welcome your suggestions to improve the program.
How does it work? – You begin by selecting whether you are a music student or teacher. After you register, you will receive an e-mail with a link to activate your Online Practice Record account. We are sorry to require this additional step; however, it is an added security measure to reduce unauthorized use of the program.
After logging in, music students and teachers will go to what we call a “Dashboard,” and this is basically a main menu of available options. As in the past, students may create and edit a practice record; enter comments, goals, or questions; print or e-mail practice records; view statistics of other users of the program; and enter information about contests and performances.
There are many new features that were not available in the old program. One of the main features is the ability to allow teachers to link their account to their students. This is particularly beneficial for school music teachers since they now have the opportunity to view the practice records of all of their students on one screen without having to sort through hundreds of hand-printed or e-mailed practice records. It is also useful for private music lesson teachers to keep track of the progress of their students and send comments or questions to each other directly from the program.
How much does the Online Practice Record cost to use? - There is no charge to use the Online Practice Record program at this time; however, we encourage you to help support this site. We have many ideas for new features, and we cannot move forward with these improvements without your help. In the future, there may be features available for a nominal fee and we may offer advertisements. We appreciate your support!
Can I record practice time for two instruments? - Yes, there are two ways to use the Online Practice Record with two instruments. You may either enter the practice times for both instruments on a single practice record or you can keep separate practice records for each instrument. You wil need to decide which works best for your needs. If you want to enter both instruments on the same practice record, you could easily notate which instrument you practiced in the materials/notes area. If you want or are required to keep separate practice records for each instrument, you need to register twice, once for each instrument. You may use a single e-mail address for your registrations, but the program requires that you have different user names.
Why do I need to register to use the program? - Your registration is important for several reasons:
The Practice Record program is not available to general Web site visitors and this allows us to save network and computer resources for our registered users.
The Online Practice Record program must obtain a minimal amount of personal information in order to be able to save practice records for an individual and to keep them separate from others. It also displays your name on the printable practice records as well as any optional e-mail sent to your teacher.
We can notify registered users of program changes or improvements.
We love to see what part of the world our users are from. We have had users register from Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Bermuda, Bhutan (Himalayas), Brazil, Canada, Chili, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana (Africa), Great Britain, Greece, Hong Kong, Iceland, India, Israel, Italy, Ireland, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Russian Federation, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, St. Vincent, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Vietnam, and Yugoslavia.
By entering your location you are able to view statistics that show how your practice time compares to other users in the same city, state, and country.
Your registration information will not be shared. Please read our Privacy Policy for more information.
I registered, but I did not receive any e-mail. What happened? - The two most common reasons why you may not receive the e-mail confirmation are 1.) You made a mistake entering your e-mail address and 2.) Your Internet service provider or e-mail program classified our e-mail as spam and blocked it.
I registered and received the confirmation e-mail, but the link in the e-mail did not work. What do I do? - The most common reason why the link does not work is because your e-mail program may have split the URL (Web site address) on two or more lines. If this happens, you should copy the separate lines of the URL and paste them together into your Web browser. Once you access the page, we suggest that you bookmark the Online Practice Record site to eliminate future problems.
Are you interested in my comments and suggestions to improve the program? - Absolutely! Many of the new features of the program are due to user comments and suggestions over the years. We regularly try to add new features, and your support allows us to improve the site while providing the service at no charge. Thank you for your comments and suggestions.
Can you recommend some additional Web sites that are helpful for music educators and/or students? - There are many great resources available, and we will provide a few below as we discover them:
- http://www.musictheory.net is an impressive collection of music lessons, training tools, and utilities.
- Educators, to learn more about using technology in your teaching, become a member of TI:ME, the Technology Institute for Music Educators at http://www.ti-me.org.
- Students, listen to other students perform classical solos and ensembles from the radio show From The Top at http://www.fromthetop.org.
Frequent Questions - Music Teachers
I am a private music teacher. Can I try the program before telling my students about it? - Of course! Register to use the program as a teacher and try out the many features in the program. As a private music teacher, you may appreciate the option to have your name included in searches for private music teachers in your area. The private music teacher search feature is available in the Student accounts.
Can I change my class's practice record reports to show the practice time in minutes rather than hours and minutes? - Yes. From the main teacher dashboard, click on the "My Account" tab and then the "Account Settings" tab. You are able to set several preferences here, including whether you would like to display practice time in minutes or hours and minutes.
I am getting notices when my students submit their practice records. Can I stop the notifications? - The notices that you are receiving are sent when a student enters a message in a practice record for the teacher. You should review these messages as they may contain questions or concerns from your student. If you are sure you do not want to receive notices when a student enters a note to the teacher in a practice record, then from the main teacher dashboard, click on the "My Account" tab and then the "Account Settings" tab. You are able to set several preferences here, including whether you would like to receive notifications when students complete practice records.
I am a teacher and I require parents to sign the students' paper practice records. Do you have any suggestions for using the Online Practice Records in my situation? - If you require parents to sign paper practice records to verify the students' practice times, you may not be able to take full advantage of the convenient features of the Online Practice Record site. However, your students can still keep track of their practice time/materials using the Online Practice Record. Rather than e-mailing their practice records or using the Teacher account to view the practice records for the entire class, your students could print the weekly practice records and have their parents sign them before turning them in. There are several benefits to using the Online Practice Record rather than paper: Students may be motivated to practice, the printed practice records you receive will be typed and easy to read, you may enter comments into the students' online practice records, the students can compare their practice times to others, etc.
I am a public school band director. What is the best way to get my students registered for the Online Practice Record? - We have tried to provide several methods for you to have your students register for the site. Before you register any students, the first thing we recommend is for the teacher to create a teacher account, enter the current semester/year, and then enter your class periods (that will be using online practice records). After this information is set up in the teacher account, you can go to the "Students" tab and then click on "Roster." We have provided two methods to simplify registering your students: Automatic and Manual. The Automatic method will allow you to enter the number of students in each class period and generate temporary logins for each student. You may print these logins and we suggest attaching each login to a sheet of information/instructions for the students' parents. These may be taken home by the students to complete their registration outside of school. The Manual method allows you to select the year and class period, and then have the students go to a computer one at a time to register new accounts. The Manual method is best used if you have a volunteer or staff member who can monitor your students as they register. Note that with each of these methods you will be able to view practice record reports for your students in the semester/year and class period that you selected. If students are not registered using one of the two methods above, students are also able to register for a student account using the Student Registration form, and then the students may later request to be added to your account. You will be notified via e-mail if a student has requested to be added your account, and then you may select the year/class the student is in and approve the student.
I am a teacher and have been using the Online Practice Record site for many years. At the end of each week my students e-mail me their practice records. Will my students need to continue to e-mail practice records with the new Online Practice Record program? - In the new Online Practice Record program, your students will have an option to e-mail their practice records to you, but it is no longer necessary. At any time, you will be able to view and/or print a report that shows all of your students along with their total practice time for the week and average practice time per day.
Frequent Questions - Music Students
Can a student use the site without a teacher? - Yes, students can use the Online Practice Record site to keep track of their practicing with or without a teacher. While you will not need to print or e-mail practice records to your teacher, you can compare your practice time to others in your area or even students who play the same instrument. We have also included a place for you to enter your Contests and Performances so you can remember them for years to come.
Why can't I change the start day for my practice records? It currently is set to Monday, but I would like for my practice records to start on Sunday. - Most likely, the reason you are not able to change the day that your practice records start is because the teacher tied to your account has already set this for all of his/her students and you will not be able to change it.
Some friends at a different school are able to send messages to other members of their music program. Why do I not have this option? - This is an feature that is available to your teacher, but some teachers will choose not to allow it.
I am looking for a private music teacher in my area. Can you help me find one? - When you log in as a student there is an option on the Main Dashboard to search for a private music teacher. Please note that although we allow music teachers to sign up and display in the private teacher search results, we do not check their references. Please make sure to check references for any private teachers that you decide to contact in your area.
What is the "Custom Entry" for the Practice Records? - The "Custom Entry" initially was going to be the main way to enter new practice records. In using and testing the program, we decided to simplify the entry so that clicking on the "Practice Records" tab goes directly to your current practice record so that you can enter or edit your practice information. We left the "Custom Entry" tab available in case you wanted to enter old practice records from prior weeks, for example.
Frequent Questions - Advertisers
Can I advertise my music business on your site? - The Online Practice Record is a
rare opportunity for music instrument manufacturers, musical instrument repair companies, music organizations, band/orchestra/choir camps, and sheet music publishers and distributors to advertise to music students across the United States and the world. We are currently working on an advertising system that will allow an advertiser to select which users see the advertisements, whether based on a geographic location (e.g. a country, state, and/or city), type of user (e.g. Students and/or Teachers), type of musical instrument played or taught, etc. We realize that many of our users are children and we will only allow advertisements directly related to the music industry and to the benefit of our users. Please contact us if you are interested in advertising on this website.
Have a question that has not already been answered? Please let us know.