Instrumentive User Guide

This user guide explains how to use the Instrumentive app developed by Stonekick.

Do you play a musical instrument? Use Instrumentive to practice more effectively and improve your playing:

Keep notes on everything that you practice and plan to do. Log in Instrumentive every piece and exercise that you play. At the end of each session review how it went and write notes on areas that you need to work on next time.
Track how much time you spend practicing. This way it will be impossible to hide when you skip practice! Use Instrumentive to time every session and view the practice stats regularly. Set a goal for sessions per week and stick to this.
Record your playing. This will help you to identify areas that you need to work on. You will also be able to see how you have improved over time.
Stay motivated. Focus your practice by creating goals to work towards and tracking your progress.

The philosophy behind Instrumentive is simple: consistent, reflective practice matters more than marathon sessions. The app helps you build a regular habit, stay organised, and see your progress over time — so you spend less energy wondering whether you’re improving and more energy actually doing it.

Getting Started

Signing in

When you first use Instrumentive you will be asked to sign in. This lets us back up any data you put into the app, which is handy if you lose your phone with a year’s worth of practice data!

You will also be able to access your data on any device which you log into.

What’s in the app?

Instrumentive Tabs

Instrumentive has 5 different tabs:

On the Homescreen you can quickly see what you have been practicing and view your summary practice stats.

In Goals you can set goals to work towards and log your progress.

The Library lists everything you have been practicing in one place — pieces, exercises, scales, and anything else you want to include.

You are likely to spend most of your time in the Practice Sessions tab. This is where you track every time you practice. You also have the option to record your practice sessions.

Recordings lets you see everything you have recorded using the app. You can create new recordings from within a practice session.

Quick Start

Tap START on the homescreen to log your first practice session.

Here you can log each piece or exercise that you are practicing.

Once you have added a practice item you will be taken to the session activity screen.

Instrumentive Sessions

Start the Timer to see how long you practice for (1.)

Set a target if you want to practice for a certain amount of time (2.)

You can also choose to record your session (3.)

There is an in-built metronome on this screen if you need help keeping time (4.)

Keep using Instrumentive to log your practice and you will soon have a handy history of everything you have done.

Organising Your Library

The Library is your central catalogue of everything you play — pieces, exercises, scales, études, warm-ups, sight-reading material, or anything else you want to track. Think of it as a living index of your musical life.

Adding pieces and exercises

Tap the + button in the Library tab to add a new item. Give it a name (e.g. “Bach Cello Suite No. 1 — Prelude”) and optionally add a composer or author. You can also add notes — for example, a reminder of which edition you are using or what key it is in.

Items you practise during sessions are automatically added to your library, so you don’t need to set everything up in advance. But spending a few minutes adding your current repertoire up front makes it easier to find things later.

Favourites

Tap the heart icon on any library item to mark it as a favourite. Favourites float to the top of your lists, making it quick to find the pieces you are working on right now.

Notes on a piece

Each library item has its own notes field. Use this to jot down anything you want to remember — a tricky fingering, a teacher’s instruction, a target tempo.

Using tags to organise your library

Tags are the primary way to organise items in Instrumentive. They work like labels that you can attach to any piece, exercise, session, or recording.

Instrumentive Tags

Look out for the “Add a tag…” buttons throughout the app.

Why tags instead of folders? A single piece can belong to multiple categories at once. For example, a Bach Invention might be tagged with Piano, Baroque, Polyphony, and Exam Repertoire — all at the same time. With folders you would have to pick just one place to put it, or duplicate it across several folders.

Tag categories

You can organise your tags into categories to keep things tidy. Common categories include:

Instrument — Piano, Violin, Voice, etc.
Artist / Composer — Bach, Chopin, Ellington, etc.
Genre — Classical, Jazz, Pop, Folk, etc.
Practice type — Warm-up, Technique, Repertoire, Sight-reading, etc.
Custom — anything that makes sense for your practice, such as Exam Pieces, Concert Programme, or Needs Work

You can create as many categories and tags as you like.

Applying tags

You can add tags to:

Pieces and exercises in your Library
Practice sessions (to mark the focus of that session)
Goals (to connect goals to specific areas)
Recordings (to find them later by instrument, piece, etc.)

Filtering by tags

Instrumentive Filter

Once you have tagged your items, you can filter any list by one or more tags. This is especially powerful if you play multiple instruments — filter by Violin to see only violin pieces, or by Exam Repertoire to focus on what matters right now.

When filtering by multiple tags you can choose between:

AND mode — show items that match all selected tags (e.g. Piano AND Baroque)
OR mode — show items that match any selected tag (e.g. Piano OR Violin)

Batch-editing tags

Need to tag a lot of items at once? Long-press on an item to enter selection mode, then select multiple items and apply tags to all of them in one go.

Practice Sessions In Depth

Practice sessions are the heart of Instrumentive. Each session is a log of what you worked on, how long you spent, and any notes you made along the way.

The session workflow

A typical session flows like this:

Start a session — tap START on the homescreen, or create a new session from the Sessions tab.
Add activities — add the pieces and exercises you plan to work on (or add them as you go).
Practice — use the timer, metronome, and recording features while you work.
Make notes — jot down observations as you practise each activity.
Finish — review your session and save it.

Activities

Each item you practise within a session is called an “activity”. For each activity you can:

Start and stop the timer to track exactly how long you spend on it.
Manually enter a time if you prefer not to use the timer — tap the pencil icon next to the timer.
Set a time target so you know when you’ve put in enough work on that item.
Write notes specific to that activity in that session — what went well, what needs more work, what to focus on next time.

Reviewing notes from previous sessions

When you add an activity for a piece you have practised before, Instrumentive can show you notes from your most recent sessions on that piece. This is a great way to pick up where you left off — you’ll immediately see what past-you said to focus on.

The metronome

Instrumentive has a fully-featured metronome built right into the session screen.

BPM control — set any tempo you need, or use tap tempo to match a tempo by tapping.
Subdivisions — add subdivisions to help with tricky rhythms.
Sound presets — choose from different click sounds to suit your taste.
Drone — play a sustained pitch alongside the click to help with intonation.

The metronome keeps running while you practise, even if you navigate to other parts of the app.

Recording your practice

You can record audio directly from within a session. Tap the record button (3. in the session screenshot above) to capture your playing. Recordings are automatically linked to the session and activity, so you can find them later.

Session tags

You can tag entire sessions, not just individual pieces. This is handy for categorising sessions by focus — for example, Technique, Repertoire, Lesson Prep, or by instrument.

Getting the most from sessions

At the end of each session, take a moment to review your notes. Write down what to focus on next time — even a single sentence is enough. This small habit turns Instrumentive from a simple timer into a genuine practice journal, and your future self will thank you for it.

Session Templates

If you tend to practise the same set of items regularly, templates save you from setting up your session from scratch every time.

What templates are

A template is a pre-built list of activities — pieces, exercises, or anything else — that you can import into a session with a single tap. Think of a template as a practice plan that you can reuse.

Creating a template

Go to the Sessions tab and tap .
Give your template a name (e.g. “Morning warm-up” or “Recital programme”).
Add the pieces and exercises you want to include.
Optionally set a time target for each activity — for example, 10 minutes of scales, 20 minutes on a sonata.
Reorder the activities by dragging them into the sequence you want to follow.

Using a template in a session

When you start a new session, you can import a template to pre-fill your activity list. You are still free to add, remove, or reorder activities after importing — the template is a starting point.

Favouriting templates

Mark your most-used templates as favourites so they appear at the top of the list for quick access.

Building a structured routine

Templates are one of the most powerful features in Instrumentive. They let you design a structured routine and follow it consistently. For example, you might create:

A warm-up template — scales, arpeggios, and a technical exercise
A repertoire template — the pieces you are currently learning
A lesson prep template — everything your teacher has assigned this week

Having a plan before you sit down removes the “what should I practise?” decision and helps you use your time more effectively. You can always deviate from the plan — but starting with one means you’re less likely to skip the things you find difficult.

Setting and Tracking Goals

Goals turn vague intentions (“I should practise more”) into concrete targets you can actually measure. Instrumentive supports two types of goals: manual goals for open-ended objectives and time-based goals for building consistent habits.

Manual goals

A manual goal is for any objective that isn’t purely about clocking hours — learning a new piece, preparing for an exam, memorising a concerto, or mastering a tricky passage.

How manual goals work

Set a deadline to give yourself a clear time frame.
Track progress through 5 stages, from just started through to complete. Update the stage as you make progress.
Break it down using the built-in task list. Add specific steps (e.g. “Learn exposition hands separately”, “Memorise development section”, “Play through at performance tempo”) and tick them off as you go.
Link pieces to a goal so you can see which library items are connected to it.

Manual goals appear in the Goals tab where you can review your progress at a glance.

Time-based goals

A time-based goal tracks practice quantity — either time spent or number of sessions over a period.

Setting a time-based goal

Choose a target: for example, 2 hours per week or 5 sessions per week.
Choose a period: daily, weekly, or monthly.
Enable repeating if you want the goal to reset automatically at the start of each period.

Automatic progress tracking

Instrumentive calculates your progress automatically from logged sessions. You don’t need to manually update anything — just practise and the app does the maths.

Goal history

For repeating goals, Instrumentive keeps a history of each period so you can see whether you hit your target last week, last month, and beyond. This makes it easy to spot trends and stay accountable.

Weekly practice target

On the homescreen you can set a weekly practice target — a simple goal for how many sessions (or how much time) you want to put in each week. The app tracks your progress and shows your current streak — the number of consecutive weeks you have hit your target.

A practical approach to goals

If you are new to goal-setting, start simple: create one repeating time-based goal — something like “practise 4 times this week”. Once that habit is established and you are consistently hitting the target, add manual goals for specific repertoire milestones or skill objectives. The key is to set goals that are challenging but achievable — a goal you never hit is discouraging, and a goal you always hit without effort isn’t pushing you forward.

Tracking Your Progress

Instrumentive gives you several ways to see how your practice is going — from a quick daily glance to detailed statistics over any time period.

Homescreen dashboard

The homescreen is your at-a-glance summary. It shows:

Practice summary table — total time, number of sessions, and average session length for the current period.
Bar charts — a visual breakdown of your practice over recent days or weeks.
Heat map — a calendar-style grid showing which days you practised. Darker squares mean more practice.
Streak counter — how many consecutive weeks you have hit your weekly practice target.

Most-practiced pieces

See which pieces and exercises you have spent the most time on. This can highlight imbalances — if one piece is dominating your practice time, you might want to redistribute.

Per-piece statistics

Open any item in your Library to see its statistics: total time practised, number of sessions, date last practised, and a timeline of your work on that piece. This is useful for seeing whether you are giving enough attention to each item in your repertoire.

Filtering stats by tags

All of your statistics can be filtered by tag. If you play multiple instruments, filter by instrument to see stats for just that instrument. Filter by Technique to see how much time you’re spending on technical work versus repertoire. Tags make your data as flexible as you need it to be.

Exporting your data

Need to share your practice log with a teacher, or analyse it in a spreadsheet? Instrumentive lets you export your data in two formats:

PDF summary — a formatted report suitable for printing or emailing.
CSV export — raw data you can open in Excel, Google Sheets, or any spreadsheet app for your own analysis.

Reviewing your progress

Make a habit of reviewing your stats at least once a week. The heat map and streak counter are designed to keep you accountable — a gap in the heat map is a gentle nudge, and maintaining a streak becomes its own motivation. But don’t obsess over the numbers. The real value is in the notes, the recordings, and the gradual improvement you’ll hear when you listen back to old recordings.

Recordings

Instrumentive lets you record your playing directly within the app so you can listen back and track your improvement over time.

Creating recordings

You can start a recording from within any practice session by tapping the record button. The recording is automatically linked to the session and activity you are working on.

Viewing and managing recordings

The Recordings tab shows all your recordings in one place. You can play them back, rename them, tag them, and delete ones you no longer need.

Cloud storage

Your recordings are stored in the cloud and synced across your devices. Keep an eye on your storage quota in the account settings if you record frequently.

Why record yourself

Recording yourself regularly and listening back is one of the fastest ways to improve. Your ear misses things in the moment that become obvious on playback — intonation issues, uneven rhythms, tonal imbalances. Try recording the same passage a few weeks apart and comparing — you’ll often be surprised by how much you’ve improved.

Settings & Account

You can access settings from the main app menu.

Weekly practice target

Set your weekly target for sessions or practice time. This drives the streak counter on the homescreen.

Timer and sounds

Choose your preferred timer sounds and metronome click sounds.

Display

Enable dark mode for comfortable practice in low light, and turn on keep screen unlocked so the app stays visible while you play.

Family profiles

If more than one person in your household uses Instrumentive, you can set up separate profiles so everyone’s practice data stays separate.

Sync and backup

Your data is automatically synced to the cloud when you are signed in. This means your practice log is safe even if you lose your device, and it stays in sync across multiple devices.

Managing your subscription

You can manage your subscription through the Google Play or Apple App Store. In Instrumentive, go to Account in the main app menu — you will see a button to manage your subscription which links to the correct store.

FAQs

Where can I get more help?

If you need help or have a feature request please get in contact with us at [email protected].

Can I schedule in a future session?

Sure, when you add a session you can tap on the date at the top to change it. You can add future dates as well as past ones.

Can I manually input a practice time instead of using the timer?

You should see a pencil icon next to the practice timer. Tap on this to manually input a time.

How do I delete practice sessions/pieces/recordings?

You can swipe left or right to delete an individual item from the app. If you want to delete lots of items, long-press on one to bring up the delete action mode. You can then highlight everything you want to delete.

How do I cancel my subscription?

You can manage your subscription through the Google Play or Apple App Store. In Instrumentive, if you go to “Account” in the main app menu you should see a button to manage your subscription which will link to the correct store.

I have purchased the pro version of the app. Will this work on my other devices?

When you purchase an app it is linked to your (Google Play or Apple App Store) account. As long as your other devices are logged into the same account, your paid licence will automatically transfer across. Note, however, that your licence won’t transfer between Android and iOS as they are separate apps on the two different stores (Google Play and Apple App Store).

How do I use the metronome?

The metronome is available from within any practice session. Open a session, add or select an activity, and you will see the metronome controls on the session activity screen. See the Practice Sessions In Depth section above for full details.

Can I export my practice data?

Yes! You can export your data as a PDF summary or as a CSV file for use in spreadsheets. See the Tracking Your Progress section for more details.