Modacity: Pro Music Practice

Modacity is always open on my phone when I’m practicing. (Honestly it’s not always daily, but I thought that made a better title for the review.) My longest practice streak is 111 days, and I know that because I tracked it in Modacity. For me this “gamification” of practicing is a powerful motivator. The ability to track what items I have practiced is also meaningful to me. And I have several “lists”—groups of individual practice items with timings—so I can pick something I feel is meaningful when I know I have a limited amount of time to work. I’d give the app five stars but for some small user interface details that I would do differently. And about that I’m happy to say that the app’s developers and product managers have responded to my suggestions, implementing some of the changes I suggested. I’m really happy to have this app as an aid for continuous improvement of my musicianship.

A great app for any activity- musical or non-musical - that benefits from a structured practice routine. I’ve been using it to practice piano. I used to keep a practice notebook but of course you have to keep writing the same entries (“Group 1 scales, Beethoven sonata”) over and over. Then if you’re like me and enjoy seeing summary stats, you then have to manually tally up your practice time. This is archaic - Of course an app can take care of this! And you can see summary stats not just of overall practice, but of practice lists (think, a Beethoven sonata) and the practice items within (think, the various sections of a Beethoven sonata)! There’s also a deliberate practice feature that I’ve only just started using. There’s also a great support team that you can message and they will respond within a day, whether it be for musical questions or questions about the app. A recent update broke the summary tables, but Jared helped me resolve it and was very responsive. Yes, the app is somewhat pricey but think of the terrible meals at casual restaurants that people will drop $90 on for a single meal whereas they could have put that $90 towards something that would help them better themselves and master a new skill! The people at Modacity obviously care about music and their product and I for one am happy to compensate them for their work. My only suggestion would be to offer a lifetime subscription for a single price - I’d pay for that.

This app is completely customizeable and helps you practice smart to avoid wasting time and reinforcing bad technique or wrong notes or rhythms. You can create a database of repertoire and systematically review it to keep it all fresh and in your fingers. You can shake your device to randomize repertoire review. You can write notes that go with each piece. You can record yourself to track progress and those recording are stored with that piece or technique. You can hear how each technique has improved or deteriorated with time. You can schedule technique practice to make sure you keep up with technique details that you need to learn, improve or keep fresh. I’m planning to show the data and recording to my teacher to ask her to critique my practice strategies. When I bring this app to the lesson she will be able to see an exact history of how I practiced each technique, listen to brief recordings of my practice technique and help me to troubleshoot my practicing to help me improve even faster. One final item on my wishlist for this app would be to video record myself as well. As an early intermediate violin student, I like to monitor my posture and body mechanics. I currently use my camera app, but it would be really nice to be able to make and store very brief videos and make notes about things to improve. Even better, a candid camera option that would take random occasional video of me practicing for thoroughly candid review of positioning.