Day 298: heal. work less.

I played more today than I’ve been able to in the past week combined. (It was still just a tiny bit of playing.) Recovery from any injury feels good, but I believe strongly in erring on the side of over-precaution. I’m continuing to take it easy, ice the back of my neck, and take ibuprofen.  (I’m writing here of my recent pinched nerve, but I’d be lying if I pretended to be completely healed from my foot surgery. Life is random and difficult, you know? I’m trying to heal in several ways, and the foot still hurts.)

Playing today, I was hyper-aware of working with absolutely minimal physical effort. I’m always trying to relax, but now I have a newly heightened focus on it.

However much effort we are exerting, there is always room to reduce it and achieve the same or better results.

Day 49: Go mental.

It’s hard to not just play; it’s not like I’m writhing in pain. I’ve had to tell myself several times today that playing was a bad idea, that I need to just (physically) rest. I want to take this warning from my body seriously, learn from it, heal properly and prevent re-injury.

Here’s one thing I know: studying music without the instrument in your hands, or with a different instrument (today for me, voice and piano, left hand only), frees you up. You can really consider the notes as they are, and things like phrasing and mood, the things that often seem kind of amorphous and hard to pin down? They come to life. It suddenly occurs to me that even when my arm is healed, I need to be doing this more often.

(Of course people have told me this before, but maybe I wasn’t ready to hear it. I was impatient and wanted to play. Now I agree with those people. But you won’t listen to me. You’ll think mental practice is for the birds. It’s okay.)