musical depression

[thorn]

- best term i can think of to describe it + best place i can think of to discuss it.

basically im on the verge of giving up piano. im sure 99% of pianists get days/weeks like this and you can all relate.

i cant seem to play anything any better than half what i know it should be and am capable of. as a result practising slowly becomes less and less productive and happens less frequently. its easy to say when you feel like this you should use it to your advantage and start practising like a bastard, but its easier said than done.

at the moment i just dont want to even look at a piano.

dunno what the point of this thread is. can people relate? any tips for getting through it?

[go12_3]

I am sorry to hear about your wanting to quit piano.  How about taking a break for a while?  And look at pieces that you would like to play instead of the "have to" play pieces.  I know how some pieces can get mundane day after day and that everything sounds the same or doesn't make sense.  I don't know your age, thorn, nor your level, and whether or not you are taking lessons.  If you are, then discuss your feelings with your teacher.  If you aren't  taking lessons,  try a different approach in playing the piano. I quit playing because of learning another instrument and then when I resumed playing piano, it seemed so fresh and new and I was able to learn the pieces better.  I think many musicians gets a "burn out" whereas the mind and fingers won't connect and it is a struggle.  I go through that with my violin and piano off and on.  It's something that I have to work through and overcome and in time, whether is a few days or weeks,  then I feel I could play my instruments with a better approach and attitude.  Sometimes it's the little things that can make a difference and when you can play a few favorite pieces instead of pieces that you have to work on, then the playing piano will be more enjoyable for you. 

best wishes,  go12_3

[shortyshort]

I am going through the same thing at the moment.

I just can't be bothered to play.

I force myself every few days just to go through a few things to check, but I'm not actually getting better.

I have been here before, and it does go away.

Perhaps try a different instrument for a while.
I am thinking about picking up my Bass Guitar again.
It may be fun to see how much my last few years of piano may have improved my Guitar skills too.

Have fun.

[renatog]

Yes I agree with them.
  You should definitely spark up your musical interests, don't just rely on your "have to play" mentality.  That will make your piano learning boring.  I would recommend picking up a piece that YOU want to play.  It can be a piece of music that inspired you to learn, or it could be a piece that you don't know how to play, but would like to.  If you like listening to contemporary music (Pop, rock, dance, hip-hop, RnB, etc) you can try learning to play one for your own enjoyment or to show off .
Never give up on music!
Good luck

[quantum]

Been there many times.  My suggestion is not to fight yourself into playing piano.  Give yourself a distraction, take a break from piano.  Try composing, just listening to recordings and discovering new music.  Do you play another instrument?  Why not learn.  Diversify your music activities.

When your mind has calmed down, you may realize that you miss the piano and have an urge to come back to it. 

Although piano is my main instrument, it is not the only device I use to channel my music.  Somehow I think this may keep me sane. 

[ahinton]

Have you considered trying to compose something?

Best,

Alistair

[zheer]

  If you truly love music, it is simply not possible to give up.
I am working on a few pieces for a recital, what I do is, spend 20 minuts two to three times a day at the piano playing the music, the rest of the time away from piano. This way you'r never board, in-fact some days I don't even look at the piano since I'm busy with other things. So speaking from experience I'd say a piano holiday does the trick, a very famous pianist once said in a interview, that he takes a one month holiday from music and piano practise yearly.

[db05]

Currently have the same problem. In fact, I haven't touched my instruments (except for keyboard for a while, and guitar for a youtube vid) for a week. The only reason I'd touched them today was because of lessons. For now, I'm forced back to studying guitar because of a recital on Saturday.

I try to be positive (hence the youtube vid  ), but the truth is that the chances of me making it as a musician is slim. But more so is the chance of being an athlete, priest, soldier, genius or beauty queen. 

But I do get depressed a lot... Approximately every two weeks, no exception since 2003. 

[josefine]

You don't practice as much as usual and now you are close to giving up piano, which makes you very unhappy. If I get you right your problem is lack of motivation. As mentioned, it happens to all of us sometimes

Motivation is an essential issuie in piano practising. Motivation is what makes it all go forward.

So, with that said the question is How do you mobilize motivation and how do you keep it up? The music itself is of course the greatest mainstay for motivation, but sometimes it can help to be aware of how some things might be related

First of all, you have to have a goal so that you can make up a plan (short term and long term). It's good if the short term plan is reasonable demanding, this is because moderate challenges makes us wanna try to solve the problem (if it's far too hard it just gets overwhelming and there's a risk that we give up) and, because we are able to solve the problem who comes up it feels very rewarding, a sense of capability occurs (which is really important). Maybe you are to hard on yourself on what you want to achieve so that it feels like you fail?? (when you infact don't)

What's also important for the motivation is to experience the practising as varying (so it wont bore us too easy). Like people here say:compose, play different types of pieces, improvise, listen to records or even try to switch instrument! Practise in different ways, don't just repeat what's beeing practised (I don't say that you do, but you can see what my point is ). Maybe look if you can find a new practice method? Search the forum. Reflect over the way you practise.

If you don't have a teacher - considering to get one. Feedback is good, and development in a dialouge can often be more rewarding, dynamic and interesting

If you try to find out why you don't have as much motivation as you used to, maybe you'll be able to make a change and find a way to getting through.

Hope this helps a little bit

Best, josefine

[chopinmozart7]

Take a break.You don´t need to play the piano EVERY SINGLE DAY.
When i play the piano and get tired i always take a break and look at pianovideos on for, example youtube. It gives me inspiration and soon i wan´t to play again.