Been a while! In spirit of my break from the blog and website, the topic of the week came from talking with my students about this exact thing: The Break.
We all know it’s important to stay consistent with practice, but sometimes the best thing to do is to take a break. This could be for a minute, day or a week or more. Here are some examples.
Sometimes when you’re doing a good job in your repetitive practice, just relentlessly looping something, you reach a point where progress slows or halts completely. This is when it’s good to take a break, play something else, go get some water, get your mind off it. When you come back to it, you’ll notice it’s a lot easier.
That type of break can be a few seconds, or a day or 2. Another longer break of several days or weeks might be needed if you notice you’ve reached a plateau in your playing. You might notice that you’ve been working on the same song for a while but not making any progress. That might be the time to forget about the song and start something else. I’ve had students do this, and when they get back to it they’re somehow better than when they left it. I’ve experienced this many times too. I’m not sure why it works but it does!
Also, maybe you’re just becoming unmotivated in your playing or songwriting. Maybe it’s time to take up a different hobby for a while. Learning an instrument and writing music can be demanding and taxing if you’re putting a lot into it, so maybe instead of so much output, you need some input. Maybe watching movies, listening to music or reading books will help balance your creativity and energy for your instrument.
It’s important that before you take a break, make sure you put enough effort into whatever you’re doing. But find those moments and situations where taking breaks are useful. Also make sure your brakes in your car are in good condition, if you notice squeaks or screeches then it’s probably time to change them. Hope this helps!
J Holguin Music 