Everyone has their own way of practicing, I’m not here to tell anyone which one is the “right” method.
I started thinking about how ridiculous my own setup was.
I’d sit down with a sheet on the stand, two different coloured pens, a rubber, phone, laptop with a spreadsheet open to keep track of what I was doing. The phone timer would be running plus a metronome going.
Somewhere in the middle I’d have an idea — something I wanted to try, something I noticed, maybe a different way of playing a passage. If I remembered, I’d grab the phone and record it.
Then the next day I’d listen to it and think: Why did I record this? Where was I in the piece? What was I trying to solve?
After a few sessions the score was covered with so many marks that I could barely see the music. Despite all those notes, I often couldn’t remember exactly what had gone wrong the previous time.
That’s basically why I built Satie.
Now my iPad sits on the stand and that’s pretty much all I need.
My scores are there, metronome, tuner, timer, all is there. I can make notes directly on the score, or make notes inside the practice session. I can come back to a session later and see what I was working on and what problems I had. I can record the whole session, or just a section, and listen back to it.
If I get an idea, I can just record it immediately, not interrupting what I’m doing.
The biggest difference for "me" isn’t that Satie somehow makes me practice better, it makes it much easier, simpler with everything I need in one place, everywhere I go.
So I’m curious:
How do you practice?
How many things do you have around you when you practice — score, pencil, timer, notebook, phone, recorder, spreadsheet, computer…?
How do you go back and review what you did in previous sessions?
If you want to give Satie a try, I’d genuinely like to hear what you think. If you don’t use it, tell me how you practice. I’m interested in the systems musicians have developed over the years to keep track of their practice. Thanks!!
Submitted 2026-09-04T08:17:23Z by Get-Satie-2026 https://www.reddit.com/r/Learnmusic/comments/1w6y9hf/how_many_things_do_you_actually_need_around_you/?utm_source=ifttt