What do you do when...

[caitlin ruadh]

you just don't feel like practicing? Do you give yourself the day off and say you'll feel like it another time? Do you tell yourself, "It's a discipline and i need to stay with it no matter what I feel like," and force yourself to get on with it? Just curious because I've had a couple days like that and I've heard both sides from different sectors. So what do the people on good old C&F think?

Today I was having one of those days and I hauled out my old Mally's Essential Irish Session Tunes and just ran through a bunch of stuff--both stuff I didn't know at all and stuff I once knew and am trying to remember. It seemed to help, but I had a horrible time concentrating very long on anything.

Thanks

Caitlin

PS--my husband has an original solution--he said, "Oil your flute. Then when you CAN'T practice you'll want to!"

[ImNotIrish]

you just don't feel like practicing? Do you give yourself the day off and say you'll feel like it another time? Do you tell yourself, "It's a discipline and i need to stay with it no matter what I feel like," and force yourself to get on with it? Just curious because I've had a couple days like that and I've heard both sides from different sectors. So what do the people on good old C&F think?

Today I was having one of those days and I hauled out my old Mally's Essential Irish Session Tunes and just ran through a bunch of stuff--both stuff I didn't know at all and stuff I once knew and am trying to remember. It seemed to help, but I had a horrible time concentrating very long on anything.

Thanks

Caitlin

PS--my husband has an original solution--he said, "Oil your flute. Then when you CAN'T practice you'll want to!"

I pick up the fiddle or banjo, and take it from there. I don't think there's much benefit to playing when you're not into it. These moments pass. so, go with the flow.

Arbo

[Whistler Bard]

Well I'm new to the flute, in fact i'm still waiting for mine to arrive by mail, but since i've played other instruments my opinion is that if you don't feel like it, don't do it. I mean, try for a couple of minutes, cause sometimes the tone gets in your blood and you start enjoying it, but if after those couple of minutes it's not working...go and watch tv or take a walk, there's nothing you can do!

[jiminos]

both of the above are good responses... mine is not that different.

i play other instruments... and in all honesty, while i do practice every day, i have little or no discipline. i don't do scales, i don't do long tones, i don't do arpeggios (can't even spell it)... with the whistle, i practice the songs i am learning... i play them very slowly and correctly, if there is a problem passage, i work on that... but even as unorganized there are "those days."

then those days come, i pick up the whistle and find i am completely unmotivated... once i realize that, i just noodle... i don't work on anything... i play little bits and snippets... almost like letting the whistle tell me what we're doing... very relaxed with no goals or ambitions for the practice... just noodling.. hanging out with a friend, as it were....

rare is the day that i don't pick up the whistle and the flute... if i don't play them, i do play the guitar... but after almost 40 years of guitar playing, i definitely don't practice that... i just play and whatever happens happens..... bottom line rule for me.... it must always be fun. if it isn't.... go do something else.

be well (and hang in there)

jim

[Cork]

you just don't feel like practicing? Do you give yourself the day off and say you'll feel like it another time? Do you tell yourself, "It's a discipline and i need to stay with it no matter what I feel like," and force yourself to get on with it? Just curious because I've had a couple days like that and I've heard both sides from different sectors. So what do the people on good old C&F think?

Today I was having one of those days and I hauled out my old Mally's Essential Irish Session Tunes and just ran through a bunch of stuff--both stuff I didn't know at all and stuff I once knew and am trying to remember. It seemed to help, but I had a horrible time concentrating very long on anything.

Thanks

Caitlin

PS--my husband has an original solution--he said, "Oil your flute. Then when you CAN'T practice you'll want to!" :lol:

As the famous flute teacher Trevor Wye once said, "Don't practice, unless you want to!"

I'd say, that skipping a day here and there won't kill you.

But, you already know the reality.

Yes, flute playing is a discipline, as the price we pay for our beautiful art.

;-)

[RudallRose]

caitlin
even a 5min practice is better than no practice.
I've been playing flutes for 42 years now (gasp......that's rather frightening) and when I was a boy it was so much easier to jump out of bed and practice. I couldn't wait to play and find that groove.
It was the same when I competed all those years, ensuring that everything was "perfect" and striving for that. Practice was essential to the outcome.
Now, however, things are different. There are days that I simply cannot pick up the flute and do anything with it. It's a chore. My head's not into it.....my hands don't feel right.....my embouchure is gone.....whatever.
With the complexities of life it's not that easy to find solace in your flute......sometimes it is.

I've always said: Music is a much better mistress for me than a master. That's precisely why I chose long ago to abandon any ambition to play professionally full time.

So when I don't feel like playing, I'll sit there with the flute in my lap or within reach, watch TV or read or listen to music. I'll pick it up here and there, blow a few notes, work a scale, try accidentals, pick a measure from a tune and work it up in as many variations I can, try changing the mode. Stuff that just comes automatically and I'm physically attached to the instrument even if I'm not actively working something.

Other times I'll just want the finger work and not the shoulder strain or lip work.....so I'll pick up a low whistle (Bb is my favorite one to work with).

So when you don't feel like it.....don't.....but at least hold the instrument in your hands and let your fingers do whatever comes naturally. You might be surprised.

dm

[jim stone]

That's a great post, David.

I have the opposite problem from the original poster--left alone I will practice until I'm injured.

Obviously there are times when one shouldn't play, that is, one really deeply doesn't
want to. Otherwise, if one wishes to be good at playing flute, it's best to err
on the side of playing. There is simply no question in my mind as to what
it will take for me to be good at this. And to stay good for as long as I can.
Bit like being a serious athlete.

[RudallRose]

good point, Jim.
But I'm fond of saying that every person has their instrument. Some can play them all -- like Seamus -- but most of us, there is one good fit.
I stink at guitar, the piano, the bodhran....and know the fiddle and i would never get along, though I would love to.

That said.....

[chas]

I think David's point about playing even for just a few minutes is a good one. The lips can atrophy if unused, but even a few minutes will keep the muscles in some semblance of shape.

I've been playing for maybe a couple of hours a week for quite some time. When I think of 2-5 years ago, when I was playing probably an hour or more almost every day, I wonder where the motivation came from and especially how I could find the time.

[Henke]

When I feel like I should practice and am not motivated, I sit down and watch some video clips of great flute players I admire. If I'm still not motivated, I might play a few minutes just to see if it changes, if it doesn't I would go have some
whisky

[Jennie]

I play daily, whether I want to or not, unless someone else in the house has a migraine!

My self-imposed minimum is "two tunes a day." When it's late and I'm tired, I just go for two tunes. But usually it stretches into two more, and then two more. I'm finding lately that I often play better when I'm tired. Maybe because I quit fighting myself.

I've been doing the "two tunes" routine since Christmas. I feel I'm sounding better, and getting more consistent.

Jennie

[Whistler Bard]

I admire your discipline Jennie, I think it's great you're able to do that! I'd try to follow something similar, but the problem is that people around my apartment and the neighbours don't quite agree with me

[Cork]

I play daily, whether I want to or not, unless someone else in the house has a migraine!

My self-imposed minimum is "two tunes a day." When it's late and I'm tired, I just go for two tunes. But usually it stretches into two more, and then two more. I'm finding lately that I often play better when I'm tired. Maybe because I quit fighting myself.

I've been doing the "two tunes" routine since Christmas. I feel I'm sounding better, and getting more consistent.

Jennie

That's similar to what I do, except that I generally begin my day with a warm-up.

On the "bad" days, on the worst of days, I at least get that much done.