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The Online Practice ScheduleThe Practice Solution
 Instructions The online practice schedule consits of several parts. The main section consists of a calendar which is used to organize and track your pratice for a weeks time. On the right hand side of the page there is also a tuning fork, metronome, and counter. The Calendar At the top of the page are the days of the week:
The third type of box used on the schedule is a memo box. They are available for making notes, like a scale's top speed or any observation that might be relevant to a given day. The Menu (Premium)
The Tuning Fork
The Metronome
The Counter
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It's
not you, it's your practice. Do you want to play the guitar better? Then you
need to learn to practice better. Our online schedule along with our 
Click
on one of the days (or the arrow next to it) to get started. You will see the
daily menu. The menu has five choices. "New Timer" creates a new
time oriented task, for example if you plan on warming up for fifteen minutes
you would use
a timer task. "New Goal" creats a "to-do" type task, something
you either finish or not. For more on goal oriented practice visit our 
When
you create timer you will see a purple box appear on that day. Timers have
several
parts. The large text ("Concierto de Aranjuez" in our example) is
for writing the assignment. There is also a time amount box (15 in our example)
that shows
the number of minutes you
want
to
spend
on a
given
activity.
There
is
a big
black
triangle
next to it (it looks like a play button) which you click when you want to start
the timer. As time passes the white box next to it will fill up and show the
number of minutes that pass. When a timer is running the box turns red.
To
pause it click on the pause button (the two little lines that are now where
the play button was.) When the box is finished then it turns gray.To move a
timer click and hold on the
drag area (the three lines at the top). To erase a timer click on the X. For
more options click on the down arrow and
a menu will appear.
"Reset
Timer" sets the timer back to zero, "Duplicate" creates a copy
of the timer box on the same day, "Daily" puts a copy of the box
on every day of the week,
"M W F" includes the box on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and "T
Th" includes
the box on Tuesday and Thursday.
Goal
Tasks are created by selecting "New Goal" from the day
drop down menu. Goal boxes are very similar to timer boxes. Moving, deleting,
and copying them is done in the same way. The difference lies in how they keep
track of tasks. Rather than a timer, they are completed simply by clicking
the "To-Do" check box. Goal boxes work great for many tasks, often
better than timer boxes. For more on goal-oriented practice visit our 
Premium
members have access to many additonal features, all of which can be found in
the menu at the top right of the page. "Save" will save a copy of
your schedule online. That way your schedule appears automatically after you
log in. Also,
it is available from any computer with an internet connection, so you can
use the same schedule at home, the office, and at your guitar lesson. The Online
Practice Schedule also automatically saves after you complete a task as well
as saving automatically every fifteen minutes. "Print" sends a copy
of the schedule to the printer (We recommend you select landscape
under your printer settings for the best results.) "Hide Alerts" hides
all of the alerts like "Are you sure you want to delete this?" "Hide
Hints" hides
the little helpful hints that appear in the bottom right hand part of the screen.
"Reset All" resets all the timers and goal tasks for the whole week.
This is helpful if you are starting a new week of practice when the new week
is
similar
to
the old.
That way you don't have to type the same information in over again. "Delete
All" clears the whole week and starts you fresh.
The
tuning fork will play a pitch so that you can tune your instrument. Click
on the tuning fork icon or press "t" to hear the tone. You can change the refrence
pitch in the drop down menu located next to the tuning fork icon.
The
metronome is a crucial part of developing your skills. The Online Practice
Schedule includes a basic metronome on the right hand side. To start and stop
the metronome click the "on/off" button or press the space bar. To set the
meter select from the drop down menu (e.g. for 4/4 select 4, for 5/4 select
5, etc.) To change the speed type in the number you want (up to 240). To change
the volume drag the volume slider.
A counter is also included. Why? Because repetition is a
crucial part of succesful practice. This counter helps you keep track of repetive
actions. Say you are going to repeat a section seven times. Click the up arrow
(or press the up key) until the counter reaches seven. Play it once, then click
the down arrow (or press the down key). Repeat until you reach zero.