I Don't Like to Casually Play the Piano Anymore

[BbAltered]

I'm mostly retired these days, and live in a corona-lockdown state. Which means I get to spend hours playing the piano. I can spend an hour on sight-reading, and an hour on Bach, and an hour of scales and arpeggios, etc. And I'm enjoying playing with fingers relaxed and very supple from all this playing.

 

And this has ruined casual playing of the piano for me. I hare trying to play something if I haven't spent an hour warming up the fingers. It feels awkward. I'm kind of at that place where I feel the need to warm up for an hour before trying to do any playing.

 

Do others experience this? Am I over-thinking it?

[Al Quinn]

I find I need to warmup for at least 20-30 minutes so that my fingers, hands, etc. do what I"d like them to without fighting me. I find it also important to reconnect with the piano each day, which I do through warming up. Interestingly, once I warm up I feel warmed up for the rest of the day. I can warmup at 10am and still feel warmed up at 10pm even if I haven"t played in between. It"s surprising but true. My warmup usually starts with free improv where the intent is to explore by mindlessly playing whatever my fingers decide to play, purposely excluding any theoretical understanding I have of music. The intent is to connect with the sound of the instrument and discover new sounds. That usually goes on for 15-30 minutes and then I play some Bach, Beethoven, and/or Chopin. After all of that I"m ready to start working on whatever it is I"m currently working on, which lately has been solo jazz piano.

[ITGITC]

Yes. Same here.

 

I call it the C19 Lethargy Blues.

 

Good to know: Everybody's feeling it.

 

Even better to know: This too will pass.

 

For me, I know what I've got to do: get up, get out, wear a mask, see people but keep a respectable distance, get some exercise and a good night's sleep.

 

The body and the mind are interconnected, we've all heard. I'm pretty sure this is true.

 

I have been dealing with the C19 Lethargy Blues since the beginning of time in one form or another.

 

To combat it, my regimen includes anything that helps - within reason of course.

 

Think positive. Stay well. Surround yourself with others who do the same.

 

You'll want to play again. Your musical mistress is there whenever you're ready to return.

 

My best to you, BbAltered.

 

Tom

[ElmerJFudd]

Get outside as much as you can. Sun on your face, go talk to people even if it"s with space between. When you start losing interest in things you previously enjoyed at this time - feeling down or depressed is a concern

[Markyboard]

For me, I know what I've got to do: get up, get out, wear a mask, see people but keep a respectable distance, get some exercise and a good night's sleep.

 

Tom

 

I think I speak for many when I say I'd feel much more comfortable if you included putting on your pants.

[ITGITC]

For me, I know what I've got to do: get up, get out, wear a mask, see people but keep a respectable distance, get some exercise and a good night's sleep.

 

Tom

 

I think I speak for many when I say I'd feel much more comfortable if you included putting on your pants.

 

 

Yes... forget this sometimes.

 

Lucky for me, most of you are no longer surprised by this. (I DID, in fact, turn the camera away when I got out of the shower on Friday's Zoom party. You're welcome.)

 

Thanks for the reminder, Mark. You're a good friend.

 

ITGITC?

[drawback]

Am I over-thinking it?

 

Yes.

 

It sounds to me that in your regime, casual playing is warming up.

[Docbop]

This C-19 is effecting everyone differently. I went thru quite slump of listening to a lot of music, clinics, lessons, but not playing. That finally really got me mad at myself and I'm getting it turned around. For me getting out and walking and at least seeing people saying/nodding hello, sometimes talk for a minute from a distance, while getting some fresh air and sun really helped. Also going for take out food became something to look forward to, because I only go to a few places so they recognize me and say hello and occasionally we talk for a bit so I'm still getting some human contact.

 

If me I'd back off so much warmup and grab a songbook, fakebook, memory of music you like and just play. Don't make it about reading or tech, just playing for the joy of playing like when you got into music. Get back to when you started and just the joy of making sounds.

[16251]

I didn't play piano at those formative years before age 13, so I always need to improve my technique and dismal classical chops, but I am more interested in warming up my mind and ears before my technique when I sit down to begin practicing. Some days I'll take a random improvisation that I either transcribed or am learning from sheet music and pick a few licks and work on hearing them better and how I might use them different ways and multiple keys.

[Doug Robinson]

I don't warm up at all unless I have a gig or a session coming up, then I warm up for about 10 minutes a day for a week. Then again, I'm not tackling classical repertoire and it doesn't seem to hold me back in my jazz work.

 

However, I'm finding it difficult to sit down and play casually right now, with all the time in the world on my hands. I kind of don't care very much if I create another improvisation or compose another masterpiece that few will ever hear.

 

When I do sit down, something nice usually comes out but...having trouble finding the 'why' of it.

[Outkaster]

Don't feel bad a lot of musicians are not motivated. There isn't much to look forward to.

[El Lobo]

I call it the C19 Lethargy Blues.

Boy howdy, that's a tune we could all be jamming on.

[El Lobo]

I've had a few backyard jams at my house. I haven't been playing much at all and I discovered when I went to pound out those Little Richard 16th notes that my hand just wouldn't do it. It was kind of cold in the yard so I chalked it up to that. For the last jam, a friend who is a killer keys player was with us so I just played sax. It wasn't cold out but when I went to solo, I discovered I couldn't make my fingers do what my mind could think. It was as if the connection had withered. Of course, the more I played, the more it came back. But yeah, if you're not playing regularly, the reflexes go away.

 

And you know that you're over the hill

When your mind makes a promise your body can't fill

 

- Little Feat, Old Folks Boogie

[bennyray]

Don't feel bad a lot of musicians are not motivated. There isn't much to look forward to.

 

I went about 4 months without playing hardly at all guess because they were no gigs because of the pandemic. I like to jog so once I started back getting outside my mental perception changed

 

and seemed like life is really what you make of it. Yes if felt so weird playing with the band since I took a break from playing for a few months.

[mate stubb]

I have barely turned a keyboard on since the pandemic started.

[Tom Williams]

Hmm. The main effect of not playing with my band is noticing how little I miss it, but that may be a lethargy / depression thing. So I have been retooling my music room setup for multitrack recording. That in turn has gone in fits and starts -- I might go full manic for two or three days, and then neglect it for a week.

 

Like a bad marriage seeing if having a baby might help, I'm now trying to solve the recording motivation problem via GAS. So far I've bought a Very Big Monitor and a couple of low price VSTs; and I have a nice condenser mic on order.

 

On another front, the band reconvenes this coming week; we'll see if that rekindles anything.

[Joe Muscara]

I call it the C19 Lethargy Blues.

Those would be some interesting extensions! Are you playing any alterations?

[El Lobo]

I call it the C19 Lethargy Blues.

Those would be some interesting extensions! Are you playing any alterations?

Would that include the dominant 7 and the 9?

[Baldwin Funster]

Maybe you should try playing formally instead of casually. A top hat and tuxedo should do it. And wing tip leather booties.

[J. Dan]

My piano has been way out of tune for a while. It started when I moved out through my divorce and the piano stayed. I moved back in with my piano after I bought my ex out of the house after a refi and some legalities. Financial issues ensued as one would expect and piano tuning took a back seat. I have plenty of digital boards always in tune to play and usually I was practicing on the rig I'd be playing money making gigs on, rather than the piano. Fast forward to still broke but also unemployed with a horribly neglected piano. ....I don't play it. I play my digital boards until I can scrape up the funds to get it tuned (assuming that's more important than food).

 

I DO miss my piano and sometimes sit down to play anyway and immediately get bummed out by the sound and go to a digital keyboard.

[dazzjazz]

Yes, I've been quite unmotivated to practice piano or organ since C19 struck, but still enjoy demonstrating things for my students. I've put my energies into a new production music album that has come out great.

 

Ironically, I finally bought a guitar and starting exploring that without attachment, and realised I could do the same thing with the organ. Just played for 3 hours on my A100 and it felt great.

 

Attachment is the issue I think - I'm trying to relax and just have funk with my hard-won skills and say 'fuck it' to the self-criticism in my head.

 

Darren

[ProfD]

If me I'd back off so much warmup and grab a songbook, fakebook, memory of music you like and just play. Don't make it about reading or tech, just playing for the joy of playing like when you got into music. Get back to when you started and just the joy of making sounds.

Bingo.

I

have a blast everytime I sit down to play mainly because it's all about music.

 

For me, dealing with the technical aspects of music whether it's learning a song or gear related is separate from actually playing music.

[El Lobo]

Get back to when you started and just the joy of making sounds.

Get back, get back

Get back to where you once belonged