Hi

Since there are many threads at the mo on practicing etc. i though I might share one of my eperiences and see if anyone else has experienced the same.

Earlier this year I was without a piano for 1 month. The first week was OK, the second I was getting alittle frustrated, by the third week I was looking through the internet trying to find the nearest piano shop for alittle - i'm interested in buying can I play this Steinway for a couple of hours but it was too far away.

Then, when my piano came back I didn't feel urged to play it immediately so I waited to the next day. Once prepared I played through my LRSM pieces and was very surprised at how good they sounded - to me of course. I was sure that the pieces were alot better than the last time I had touched a piano four weeks previously.

This natural improvement through not playing - is this a recognised experience that many players at the higher levels experience. It's definitely something to do with absoring what you've learnt, letting your muscles and brain relax etc. But, for anyone getting tied up in knots re upcoming exams I would definitely recommend trying it.

My LRSM plan is to practice like mad until two weeks before the exam and then have a week off. The actual week before the exam I don't think I'll play any of my pieces through at full tempo but just look at specific details slowly etc.

I'd be interested to hear what others think.

Andrew

There is time off and there is time off. I spent years without playing a note chiefly because I was too busy doing other things and also because I had lost confidence. When I did eventually restart the piano I was pleased to find that my teacher thought I was around grade 5 to 6 level so I hadn't lost as much form as I thought. The last grade exam I did was grade 6. Now I am pushing myself to new heights and I am working for my grade 7. I certainly never played as well as this when I was a kid. Part of me feels sad that I missed all those years but I did other things with my life and I don't regret that. I hope in the future I won't miss years of practice as I have done in the past.

As for shorter breaks I think they can work. Often if I repeatedly practice a difficult bit I leave it to soak so to speak and when I come back to it I am often surprised by my new-found facility. I also find I can get a fresh perspective on a piece that has become overfamiliar if I leave it for a little while. When I come back to it I sometimes find that I am better able to play it as a piece of music rather than as a collection of technical difficulties.

I always find that when I finally sit down at a piano after being on holiday, my playing has magically improved . But flute gets worse, I think - probably something to do with lack of embouchure muscle use.
And I often find that when I go back to pieces that I had a bit of a mental block with months before, I can do them (partly as I've improved but also as I have a different and more positive attitude towards them to the one I had when I'd been practising them for hours on end.)

I'm sorry to say that I disagree The one time I had to take a couple of days off (after a knee op) I couldn't seem to play quite right. But I think leaving a piece, and then re-learning it is very helpful

I used to run competitively and I'm surprised to see so many parallels between running competitively and playing an instrument.

Before a big race, if I had trained intensively for the months prior to the race then I would taper before the race by doing some very light running or no running. This always resulted in a fantastic race - running was truly effortless and I felt as though I was literally flying. But the 'tapering before a race for a great race' would only work if I'd been running intensively (60 plus miles a week). It didn't work if I'd only been running say 10 miles a week.

I'm very inexperienced musically so I can only extrapoloate from my running experience. Perhaps taking time off from practising can be beneficial but for very well practised and skilled musicians (so I'm surprised Bohemian has had the opposite experience!).

I'm sure someone somewhere will determine a forumla to find the ideal time needed to take off to maximise gains given a certain level of skill and practise.

No need to apologise Bohemian

I think we might find taking time off is more beneficial for some instruments than others.

Dear Andrew, I agree with you. For me, if I take a few days break from playing a piece, it sounds better when I start afresh and I also have more enthusiasm for the piece.

...but if I leave it for too long (i.e. when I had a 3-4 year break from playing), my fingers had become quite rigid (rigor mortis!) and the playing was obviously not very good.

I think 3 or 4 years might be pushing the theory alittle far

But you never know if you'll totally break down and everything gets entangled.
I think I better stay at the safe side and not risk anything for my DipABRSM in piano this year.

But that could be the result of recovering from the aneasthetic.
Can totally wreck your concentration levels for longer than you expect.

I was going to say I'm sure that your theory is true with piano but I'm not too sure about all other instruments. I love coming back to a piece and seeing how it has somehow managed to sort itself out in my absence, it's a wonderful feeling. Of course though, like Gwu said regarding the race, this is only true if you have put a lot of practise in beforehand!

I think the thing with stopped practising is: it gives you and your brain/fingers time to get use to the stuff that you learnt....of which by practising hours and hours daily won't. It's like eatting food; if you eat too many in a day, daily...there will be a bad effect of over-stuffing and not being able to digest them entirely. But if you give it a rest...then things will go naturally and it may even give a more satistifing result!!

**That's why I stopped practising from now on, so in my Dip exam (next wed), I'll do well after all the long period of resting!!**

Please don't stop practicing on account of what i've said

I don't want to be responsible for any mishaps

Good luck next week

lol...I think I might need some luck as well.....

Ah, maybe. It did take a long time though.
Like gwu, I think stopping really hardcore practice before a performance can help on a mental level because you're not thinking "oh great, I can't play that bit even after 2 hours work on it" when you perform it, you're thinking more musically. Maybe. But on a physical level, I don't understand how it works!

On a physical level, taking time off allows the ligaments, joints and muscles acclimatise, adapt or strengthen themselves. This isn't possible if you're constantly loading them (i.e. practising). They can only strengthen when you're resting. That's why a lot of runners will intersperse a hard running week with an easy running week so that the muscles can adapt, during the easy week, to the new load introduced in the hard week.

Musicians aren't exactly overloading with lactic acid though - other than injury prevention (which is a very good point), I still don't get it. Surely a good night of sleep is enough for everything but exceptional cases in music?