Technicalities

Sitting here in my post-holiday overindulgence coma, I thought back on the many happy Christmas Days I had as a child. They were not, in my mind, notable for the warm family memories or the gift-giving or the caroling or the turkey dinner, but for the fact that it was one of 2 days in the year when I did not practice the piano.

These two "no piano" days were the only ones sanctioned by my childhood piano teacher, a Juilliard graduate and a stickler for discipline (the other day off, for the record, was one's birthday, and as my birthday is in January, my precious days off came very close together!) Although most professional musicians' practice schedules may not be quite so stringent, the general attitude is very much the same. It was instilled in me early that you had to practice to simply maintain your level of playing - time off meant an equal amount of time just to get back to the shape you were in previously.

Everyone occasionally needs a day off (particularly after a long period of heavy playing), and one day will usually have minimal impact. Most musicians will tell you, however, that after a couple of days off, playing feels a little "off". Wind and brass players have it even worse because their technical demands include the use of the very small muscles in the embouchure which are agonizingly quick to get out of shape. Most years, I can count on one hand the number of days my French horn player husband has taken off - his horn travels everywhere with us, vacations included.

Conducting is a different matter entirely, as muscles used are less fine-tuned and specific - taking a couple of weeks off certainly doesn't make too much of a difference (and I don't really "practice" gesturing anyway). But as with any physical activity, one must be conscious about maintaining strength and mobility - conductors regularly stand for a couple of hours at a time with their arms in the air, which is a rather unnatural position! When I am conducting a lot, I do a good amount of abdominal exercise to keep my core muscles strong (long periods of standing can be tough on the back), and when I have a few weeks off, I usually increase repetitions in my weight lifting routine to keep my arm and shoulder muscles in working order. And that's just the physical part, which is relatively easy - as for studying music, it's rare that more than a day or two goes by where I don't at least crack open a score for a half hour - and then there is the music that is constantly playing in my head that I'm listening to and analyzing, but that's a topic for another post.

Keeping up one's technique during theoretical "time off" essentially means that we don't get much "time off" at all, but that's the way it is - as Polish pianist Ignacy Paderewski famously remarked, "If I miss one day of practice, I notice it. If I miss two days, the critics notice it. If I miss three days, the audience notices it."