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Holiday for musicians. How many days do you need?

Posted in Play: August 2015

This year I`ve decided deliberately to take a longer break than usual. Are 12 days since I didn`t play the flute and will still be 18. I know very well the good and not so good sides of a short and a very short break and now I`m curious to find more about a long one. 

I`ll start with the very short break. In my opinion, 2 or 3 days is a very short break and didn`t allows you to disconnect yourself completely from the music. On the other hand it allows you to start again on the same level where you were before, without losing something from the technique. Your sound has the same quality and the fingers are still fit and ready to play the difficult passages. To know this is very encouraging and motivating, but from my experience I believe that after a big performance or a long period of playing it`s better to have 5 or 6 days off. This I call a short break which allows you to recover very well. What happens in this time? Maybe the first two days you are still there with the mind and not completely disconnected, especially when the performance before it was very demanding or you`ve played a long period of time without break, but 5 or 6 days are enough to relax your mind and the muscles. Paradoxically, after this days for some musicians the sound quality is much better and the desire to play increases. For other musicians it`s more difficult and they don`t feel so comfortable to start again the session of practicing or playing. Why? Because they need more time to arrive on the same level before the break. This is very individual and if for some musicians 2 or 3 days off are enough, for others, 5 or 6 days off are ideal. What can I say now, after 12 days of break? I miss to play the flute but the good side is that I enjoy the holiday and feel myself free and completely disconnected from music. Still 18 days and than I`ll be back again with new topics and fresh ideas.

I wish that you enjoy your holiday, too!