Fickle playing...
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I’ve been playing for about 6 years, however there’s something that I’ve struggled with ever since I started.
I have a lot of “bad days” of playing where I just don’t sound as good as I’d like, and it’s physically harder to play the instrument (ex. more limited range than usual, airing out notes, messy articulation, low endurance etc.). I know I can play well, but it’s just that sometimes I’ll go through periods of time where it’s very difficult to play. It can’t be a matter of practicing too little as I dedicate one hour each day to practice, with the occasional day off here and there.
The thing is, I swear it’s related to my diet. As crazy as it sounds, whenever I restrict what I eat for health reasons, my playing goes down the drain. Whenever I’m more lax about food and exercise, I sound great. I know it sounds stupid, but over the years this has proven to be true. And it’s not like I’m starving myself or anything. I don’t know what to do! -
I think most people have good and bad days. As you become more proficient, the bad days tend to be fewer and less severe, and you can compensate so the listener doesn’t really notice a drop-off.
As for diet, rest, and exercise, they’re all important to help you play better, but the effects (good or bad) are more cumulative than immediate. Being relaxed while playing goes a long way, too.
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Like Dale said, we all have our bad days.
I've been playing for 5 years now after being away from the horn for 50+ years. The first year had a lot of ups and downs but since then, up to now, I do fine until health problems, like a pinched nerve attack to the left shoulder that I injured about 2 years ago, kick in. During the past 4 months I have had to endure 3 cases of a pinched nerve. I can't take nsaids so trying to play the trumpet through pain was just too hard so I had to stop playing for 2 to 3 weeks in each case. I'm 85 now and the older I get the harder I have to work to get back to where I was. That's when I have a lot of bad days. But this month has been good to me
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My perspective, is bad days and good days happen. When practice routine is regular where physical tone (not sound tone) is maintained, it still happens. And typically it is you, the player that feels it, but others around you don't. So, even after decades (6 for me) of playing, this still happens to me. perhaps one or two days out of the week, to my own expectations, I am a bit off. And after all these decades of playing, I have not come up to recognizing one particular barrier that is responsible for this. And when this happens, I accept it, then move forward to continue playing, but with more concentration and thought to keep me on tract.
Who knows, maybe these "bad days" happen for the better to get us concentrating more on our playing, otherwise we would be taking things for granted and when we become blasé we loose our ability to progress. Reframing these events into a positive prospective helps, I do believe.
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“Some days you get up and put the horn to your chops and it sounds pretty good and you win. Some days you try and nothing works and the horn wins. This goes on and on and then you die and the horn wins.” — Dizzy Gillespie
Getzen Eterna 700, Eterna 800
Conn Connstellation 28A, Victor 80A, Connqueror (1903)
ACB Doubler Flugelhorn -
@shifty said in Fickle playing...:
“Some days you get up and put the horn to your chops and it sounds pretty good and you win. Some days you try and nothing works and the horn wins. This goes on and on and then you die and the horn wins.” — Dizzy Gillespie
So true. I am still playing on horns that have ages that may challenge my own longevity, such as my 1939 Olds Super Recording (although so far GeorgeB has this one beat!)
