Why You Can Play a Piece Better Some Days Than Others
1. Expectations
It would be reasonable to think that progress when learning an instrument should be linear. If you can play something today, then you should be able to play it tomorrow, right? But learning doesn’t necessarily work like that and what you learn today may not always mean that you are able to play the same thing at the same level tomorrow.
There are many things that influence our ability to play and retain information, and the learning process itself requires you to forget in order to reinforce and then remember.
One day you may be well rested, highly focused and feel confident about your playing. Then, the next day, you may be tired, in a different emotional state and not have the same level of focus. It’s very similar to those moments where you are searching for a word that you know, but you just can’t remember it in that moment. It doesn’t mean that you don’t know the word, it simply means that you temporarily forgot it because your brain is doing other things.
The important thing to recognise is that “off days” are not a loss of skill. They are temporary and are simply days where it is more difficult to access what you already know. However, how you respond to those days is what really matters.
2. Access
We should acknowledge that playing the piano relies heavily on automated processes. Much like speaking, we aren’t consciously thinking about the movements our mouth is making to form words (at least I’m not). The same is true for the piano. Our fingers learn movement patterns and, with enough repetition, many aspects of playing become automatic which then allows our attention to focus on other ways of reinforcing the music and the musicality.
So, when we are having a bad day, some of that automation doesn’t function as smoothly as it normally does. The movement patterns become more conscious, which pulls focus away from other aspects of the music and suddenly makes everything feel much harder.
The interesting paradox is that when we are trying harder, it often makes playing worse. It can introduce tension as you begin focusing too much on hand movements, it can make you forget other aspects of the music and it can become mentally exhausting very quickly. All of this can suddenly make it feel as though you have taken a massive step backwards at the piano.
So if we know that not every practice session will feel equal and that some days will naturally feel better than others, then what should we do to keep improving regardless?
Firstly, it’s important to acknowledge that forgetting things is actually a good thing. It highlights weaknesses, gives us opportunities to relearn and reinforce material and, often, the more times we successfully relearn something, the more stable it becomes.
Secondly, on an off day, a lot can still be achieved by simplifying your playing. Perhaps you spend time on tasks that involve a lower cognitive load, such as reinforcing a dynamic change in the music (for example, “f” changing to “p”) rather than trying to solve a large technical issue. Maybe you slow everything down and focus on just a few bars.
3. Stability
What we don’t want to do is try to force things and accidentally reinforce mistakes that later become habits.
What makes an exceptional player and a fast learner is often not improving their best days, but improving their worst days and making those sessions less destructive.
The best players still have bad days where they cannot play at the same level as they can on their best days. However, they usually have a much more secure foundation, they can recover more effectively and they are able to turn those sessions into something productive. This leads to much more consistent progress over time.
We should also try to judge our playing over a longer period of time (perhaps looking back over 90 days) rather than worrying too much about whether today’s session feels worse than yesterday’s.
Having said that, we can still have very productive “off days” if we are able to recognise when they are happening and adapt our practice accordingly. Lowering expectations and reducing the cognitive load of the session can still allow us to move forward. Tasks based around musicality, listening and memorisation often require less precision and active mental effort and can still provide valuable progress through slower, more repetitive practice.
Progress at the piano is inevitable with enough time and intention, but making that time enjoyable and motivating is much easier when we feel successful while playing. This is why bad days can feel demotivating. However, if we can adapt our practice so that we continue playing successfully, we will keep progressing, avoid creating unnecessary problems and feel much happier about our long term improvement.
Matt
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