I look forward to practising most days, but I get the odd 'off day' where I just don't feel like it. I usually tell myself just to do ten minutes and see how I feel, promising myself it's okay to leave it if I really don't feel like it. It usually works a treat - after a few minutes I've forgotten I didn't feel like practising. But some nights (like tonight) it just isn't happening. I struggled through 30-40 mins then gave up.

I've worked out that reluctance to practise usually coincides with having something really difficult to work on, especially when the task seems really big or unobtainable (like now!)

Just wondering how others cope with practice ' off days'?

N.B. Feel sure Mad Tom will be on to point about that practice should never be anything but pure joy!

Practice is never anything but pure joy!

Leave it - for a day. Play old pieces. Work on sightreading. Have fun.

Next day, when I go back to it, I tend to find that things seem easier and not such a mountain to climb. (Just don't let yourself see it as "putting off" - make sure it's only one day, not longer).

If you have a big difficult new piece that seems impossible, pick a small section and just work on that, then when that bits going really well, choose another etc etc. That way you always feel you've achieved something, rather than feeling you're getting nowhere with the piece as a whole.

Haha... that's a really cute response. Right on time, just as expected



Like cellocase, I take days off too. It is easy (too easy, unfortunately) for me to do so, because after my Saturday piano and singing classes, I am usually too tired to practise. So on the weekends, I hardly do any serious practice, other than messing around trying to play pop songs by ear, or do some sight-reading that gets on everyone's nerves.

I am lucky to live facing the block of a chinese-flautist, who practises almost everyday. On my rest days, I hear him play his amazing passages, look at my piano (yes, the slim and #### Wolf), and feel a longing for it. Sometimes, just listening to the sounds of the flute make me want to play a scale or two in response. So I get back to my practice promptly every Monday, despite all the difficult chords and fingerings which I dread. That little urge to "compete" keeps me motivated. Childish, yes, but that's how I am, an over-aged child.

I also found out that just by looking at the score on off days helps with the actual practice sessions. For those terrible passages full of tough chords, I read them "off-keyboard" a couple of times, and finally when I started playing them, they don't seem as daunting as before. I guess it is psychological...

EDIT: Hey, I didn't know that certain words are being replaced by ### ! Some sort of censorship? But don't worry, I didn't write anything outrageous

I never take any days off except when I'm away or ill. When I get the 'off' day, which I seldom get (if ever) because at 51 - almost 52 - I think I have "wasted" too much time for my liking, I start by doing what I claim is a must: scales and some technical exercises (Hanon, arpeggios, broken chords, etc) and then, if I feel like it, pass on to some new (accessible) repertoire or play what I know I can play well. Otherwise, if it is a really "bad" day, I leave it there. As you can see, if I really need to, I force myself to do the "basics" (about 35 - 45 minutes). That's the way I go about it (it may not be your way)
However, referring to the "reluctance to practise something that is too difficult", I think it is often worth stopping to analyse whether what you're trying to tackle is at your level or too much for you. That was the case with me, for instance, when my former teacher made me plod through Bach's French Suite No 1 just because, he said I'm very musical and a "diligent" student. At times it was almost an ordeal to start my daily fight against the "Guigue", for instance (last mov't) as I kept feeling I'd never manage it ... at least for now and in the near future. I feel I could have used my time to revise - or improve - the previous movements, which have now vanished into thin air as they were a little too much for somebody who'd then been studying for just 1 year!
So, assess the difficulty of what you're doing and see if it corresponds with your level. Use the graded pieces file, if applicable, to see what grades the pieces are at (I can PM you one if you like). If you discover they're at your level, then tackle it (or them) by tiny bits and very gradually ... after all, nobody learns to walk overnight.

Think the problem for me is that when tasks seem too big to accomplish. I am thinking about a 12 bar blues lick, with accompanying RH chords in every key. Took me several practice sessions (if not a week) to learn in C! If each one takes a week, that feels like a long time! I also have to come up with three improvised solo sections for the three pieces I am working on for grade 3 jazz. I usually find this fairly easy, but for some reason it's just not happening for me at the moment.

However, last night (when I decided to abandon my practice session) I thought I was probably making life more difficult for myself in the way I was going about it.

I find it straightforward organising practice for my classical stuff. I know what I have to do, so I just get on a do it. With jazz, if I did everything I could be doing I'd have to practice for 10 hours a day or something ridiculous! So each session is almost about picking one or two things to focus on...which means always feeling I'm behind with something else.

I think one of the hardest things about getting to grips with jazz is the learning things in every key bit. But if it takes you an hour to get it in C then it will take a bit less in F, less again in Bb etc and by the time you get back to C it will be a doddle. The other good thing is that the more you do it the easier it gets especially as the same patterns crop up over and over again.

I have to admit that I don't learn everything in every key (but, shhh, don't tell anyone). I do tend to learn tunes in at least two keys so I can play them on tenor and alto and licks and patterns I'll learn in 12 keys.

I was thinking about one of your other posts last night, I think that what makes jazz piano more difficult than jazz sax (and quite possibly classical piano) is that you really need to work on both the soloing bit and the comping bit. It's probably the soloing that is the most satisfying to you personally, but it's the comping that makes you a valuable part of the rhythm section and ultimately someone that other people want to play with and that's when it really gets fun.

I pick up some of my Open University work! Practicing feels really good after an hour with some of my study texts!

Hmmm. Good question.

When I have days where the "muse" just doesn't seem to be calling I ask myself to play one beautiful note.

Just one.

Then I can put the instrument down.

'Course, when I've played one beautiful note, I want to play another.... And another.....

Then three hours have gone by.

Of course, you might have better willpower than me and be able to put the thing down after one beautiful note.

I can't do it..

Cheers,

Matt.

If I really don't feel like practicing I just play easy pieces that I enjoy to remind me why I'm playing.

I also find strangely that if there's something I'm working on that I'm finding hard sometimes just leaving it for a couple of days and doing something else works! Strange I know, but it's like my brain needs a while to take it in.

No, it's not strange at all.

The subconcious is remarkably good at assimilating new information and indeed the term "sleep on it" is used to describe that very effect - difficult decisions often become easier to make when you sleep on them for a while, just as learning something new becomes clearer after you've given your brain time to sort out the detail.

The concious mind is fogged by daily grind and other distractions, the subconcious beavers away in silence and comes up with the goods at a later time, but in a very understandable format.

This is also why those with severe autism often show great talent for memorising vast amounts of abstract information. Their apparent mental separation from everyday life gives them a totally uncluttered and undistracted mind with which to assimilate even more information, not just with the subconcious mind but also their concious mind. Perhaps this is also why children appear to soak up information like a sponge - their mind doesn't have the worries or day to day chores to deal with at the same time as learning. Adults who make the time to tap into that zone as well, are also capable of learning things they may have otherwise thought impossible.

I generally opt for either
* Playing through some old stuff that is relatively easy or
* sightreading some new stuff that is again relatively easy.

At the moment I'm trying to get my G5 scales memoriesd - so I sometimes just do one scale thinking I'll just do one then I've at least made an effort - I can end up playing one scale for half an hour - up, down, fast slow, slutterd, tounged, standing on my head or whatever - Like many others I find that starting to do something is the most difficult bit once you start you often want to keep going.

Yes, I have noticed this too.

This is a very important fact, and well put.

I'd go further. Almost all of your solid improvement as a musician - strengthening memory, gaining understanding, improving motor skills, training the hearing - happens between practice/study sessions, during sleep or, while awake, through the workings of the subconscious mind.

Practice and study shove information into the mind, and in the background the mind sorts it and integrates it all together.

It is really what you ought to expect. Ultimately, there have to be physical changes in the brain for learning to take place, and they take time.

It follows that not only study and practice but also rest, sleep, nutrition, general health, freedom from stress, ... all contribute to developing your abilities and skills.


As for the original question? What do you do when you don't feel like practising? Practise anyway!

I'm sure this is true. Sometimes when I'm struggling to master get something, the more I practice that section the worse it gets until - in extreme cases - I can't play it at all. If I then play it through just once, very slowly and correctly then leave the piano and come back some time later - perhaps the following day - it often comes quite easily!

Anyone else find that?

I find that to make progress, I have to take the tricky bits to a slow enough speed such that I am THINKING about what I am doing - if that makes sense. I.e., such that I'm not relying on any muscle memory, or anything like that - I am mentally TELLING the fingers & feet (I play the organ) what to do.

Then, after a good night's sleep, I find that at my next practice session what I was TELLING my body to do has "sunk in" and been absorbed into muscle memory. But that certainly does not happen during the first practice session - it needs time and sleep to be absorbed.

David.

My impression is that it's perfectly normal to have off days. I get some days when I'm either not in the mood for playing or my flute sounds absolutely awful. I usually do one of the following (depending which works on a particular day):
a) mess around on the instrument for a bit until I forget that I hadn't liked it ten/fifteen minutes before
b) recognise that I'm not going to get the sound I want (not sure what piano etc are like, but with woodwind there can be a tendency for tone etc to get worse instead of better as you get more frustrated) and do technical work instead e.g. flexibility, scale/arpeggio exercises, articulation exercises, vibrato exercises, singing notes, harmonics, jumps, bending notes etc, or work on technical/fast passages from pieces and really take them apart.
c) switch instruments temporarily - for some reason bad flute days are often good piccolo days and vice versa, and if neither comes together then I have other instruments which I can mess around on to get myself back into the mood for playing e.g. sometimes I'll play clarinet or recorder (both of which I play very badly) for a little while and then realise that perhaps my flute didn't sound so bad after all. You can pick a recorder or penny whistle up quite cheaply and use it to mess around with - and will probably realise after that your main instrument perhaps didn't sound as bad as you thought.

If you're not in the mood for playing then you may find it helps to do a shorter practice and work on things like technique which are less inspiring but will help with the rest of your playing and therefore give you a better starting point for your good days (and will also free up more time to spend on the things you really enjoy when you have a good day).

As much as I would like to say I never feel like not practising I unfortunately have "off days"!! I used to force myself to practise on these days but by doing that, practising the next day would also feel like a chore. So now if I don't feel like practising I don't! I catch up with some friends, go for a meal, the movies or just relax. The next day (sometimes 2 days later...) I always feel much better and I always enjoy playing again so much more that I end up practising for much longer making up for the "lost time".

Then I have an awful lot of sleeping to do in the next 3 and a half weeks!

I'm beginning to get slightly worried because my motivation is insufficient for me to apply seat of pants to piano stool and work. It's been like this for about 4 or 5 weeks now.

This happens from time to time and on the whole it passes, but I must admit it's taking a long time at the moment. It's only with piano, though, and maybe that is the problem; butterfly brain cannot assimilate theory study, organ practice AND piano. One has to prevail at any one time and at the moment piano is taking the back seat. Perhaps it is because none of my pieces, being in their early stages, sounds tolerable to me yet, and it is complicated by the fact that I am trying the new tactic of memorising as I go along, so it is slower than usual.

It doesn't help reading about people who fret and work extra hard to catch up on a couple of lost days!

Hi Mel,

If this is a reference to what I wrote I didn't mean that after a couple of days I worry and work extra hard trying to make up for the days I haven't practised.
I never want to feel that playing the piano is some kind of work I have to do. Even though it takes time, dedication and lots of practice I want to keep the practice fun, something I'm looking forward to doing everyday.
If for exemple I've got a piece that is difficult my first reaction a year ago would have been to look at it and feel quite low straight away, try playing a couple of bars, close the book and wonder how on earth I'd be able to learn it and how long it would take. The way I'm approaching a piece and practising has changed since then. Now when I get a difficult piece (at the moment I'm learning bits of Beethoven Op. 14 no.1) I will look at it and start working on some small sections only. Last night I worked on 8 bars. I tried the fingering that was suggested then started having fun trying all sort of fingering. I know I've spent too much time on these 8 bars but by doing that I've somehow memorised all the notes and I'm really looking forward to trying the fingering which I thought worked best last night and see if I still feel the same when I try to play these bars again tonight and maybe work on a few more bars.
Playing the piano is something I've wanted to do for as long as I remember and I intend to play until I physically or mentally cannot play anymore. When I started playing a couple of years ago I had never heard of ABRSM and didn't know about the grades. All I knew was that I wanted to play the piano and just like some dream of getting to grade 8, since I'd never heard of the grades, me was getting 10 years of practice/playing behind me.
When I feel unmotivated and tired I remind myself of why I started learning in the first place. I love the sound and feel of the instrument and I love piano music. I never want to feel that learning is a race. If a piece takes me a week more to learn that it would take someone else just because I'm messing around with it so be it..I don't worry about it as long as I enjoy the time I'm spending on it. Since I want to keep playing for as long as I can I want to make it as enjoyable as I can. And so if one night I don't feel like practising I don't and I don't worry about it. If I don't play for a day or 2 or a couple of weeks if I need a holiday I'm not going to worry about it and if I tend to practise more after the "time off" it's never because I have to, only because I can't stop myself, I really enjoy it.

Do you feel you've lost your motivation because you've taken on too much ie 2 instruments? maybe concentrating on one for a while would help?
Maybe reminding yourself why you're learning would also help?
Whatever you decide to do I hope you get your motivation back soon!!!

Anyway I've been rambling for long enough....hope that makes sense!!!!

Yes it makes sense; sometimes, I know I sound grumpier than I actually am.

It 's just that I have laboured for many hours on all of these pieces and I know that if I don't get back in the saddle soon, it will take that much longer to pick up the threads.
Periodically, lots of people lose motivation - there have been threads on this before. It is just difficult to metaphorically kick yourself up the behind and work!
My teacher will be wondering what I am getting up to - we have a very ad hoc arrangement where I ring up and arrange a lesson when I need one. I just haven't read of anyone having quite such a long period in the piano doldrums.

Actually, what usually gets me sparked up is news of one particular adolescent of my acquaintance who will loudly and happily trumpet their latest achievements. I find them sufficiently annoying to want to attain my own musical goals. I call it The Grrrr Factor. I must find out what he's doing at the moment.......

That would not work for me. I really need the regular lesson to keep me going.
I found it difficult changing from weekly to fortnightly lessons.

If it's any consolation, I managed to pass both my secondary school entrance exams and my driving test in between grades 4 and 5 piano.

It's not ideal, I know - and I aim for a lesson once a month but Christmas got in the way. The resulting extra organ duty (plus a looming exam) has meant that something had to give and it was the piano (and regular exercise - all have to be fitted in after a day at work.)

Up to and just beyond grade 8 a weekly lesson kept me on the straight and narrow, but nowadays a longer period is required in order to make any noticeable headway.

Just talking about it on here helps. I can feel the beginnings of the itch to play. Let's see if it survives the journey home.

I feel like a lot of pressure has been taken off me now that my clarinet teacher has agreed to give me an hour's lesson every fortnight instead of half-an-hour weekly. I've felt so much better about practising over the Christmas break because I didn't have the worry of seeing a weekly lesson looming and feeling as if I hadn't made any progress, and feeling guilty about it. I've been spending lots of time on my clarinet again and enjoying it again, and my first lesson after Christmas was really positive. On at least one of the two weekends between lessons now, I'll be able to spend a significant amount of time on clarinet practice, and even though I've got domestic commitments on the alternate weekend, it won't make such a critical difference now. I changed to fortnightly piano lessons shortly after starting piano and that made a big difference, and I feel better already about my clarinet lessons

It was after grade 8 I started having fortnightly lessons. It does take longer to make any headway but I'd feel much more stressed having to ring when ready for a lesson than having a regular lesson to be ready for.

For me, if I don't feel like prac and it doesn't come after a few goes, then I just don't bother. You can't force yourself to feel a certain way or to enjoy something if now is just not the right time. I guess the bottom line is, How vital is it to do prac every day? Or does it matter to miss here and there? Speaking as one who learns for fun and misses more than hits, I don't stress too much about it, although a forum concert and an exam do help to motivate one.....

How about opening a new thread called the "Grrrr Factor"??
Hope you didn't loose the motivation you got yesterday before leaving work and that you managed to practise a bit!
If just talking about it helps, keep posting.....Piano practising can be a very lonely thing and talking to people can help a lot. I'll never be able to help technically as you are way beyond my level but I'm sure a lot of people here would be able to help.
But for now...get your ###### on that stool and start practising again!!!!!


Glad to hear you've got your motivation back Skylark!!!

This is going to sound really cheesy but I'll say it anyway - I think being kind to yourself is key to learning pretty much anything in life.

I have strategies for those, thankfully very rare, days when I simply don't feel like practising which include-

promising myself I only have to get the cello ready to play then see what happens (the equivalent of just putting your kit on in anticipation of the gym!)
debating what I'd do instead and whether that would be any better
thinking about the joy of the last time I got something right
remembering how long it took me to pluck up the courage to book lessons and reminding myself of my utter excitement when I got my cello - those 'lost years' are very powerful to me

However, if I still don't feel like it and/or the session is going poorly. I stop. I try not to feel guilty, hopeless or otherwise concerned because I know that will make a simple choice 'an issue'. I also know it will seep into future practices if I am trying to 'catch up' or 'be extra good'. I am lucky that it hasn't happened that I don't want to play for stretches of time, but if it did, I think I would want to reflect on why that has taken place and perhaps see what I could do to make life easier for myself.

Confidence is so fragile in learning, we need to be supportive to ourselves - I try to cheer myself on rather than sabotage myself and I try to accept that the process of learning is infinite, has no defined format, will often feel like a rollercoaster and yet is ultimately work every frustrating moment.