Do you ever take a break from a piece for a couple of days?

[larapool]

I've noticed lately that if I take a break from a piece for a couple of days and return to it (after several straight days of practice) that I can usually play the piece better than before.  I don't know if this is muscular or psychological but it has really helped my playing.

Specifically, I'm talking about the tremolos in the first movement of Beethoven's Pathetique sonata.  After a day or two of rest (sometimes completely taking a break from piano itself), I find that I can not only play the tremolos faster and more comfortably, but my stamina increases drastically.  I can now play the entire first fast section (the first tremolos, through the hand crossing, through the fast passage that follows) with little trouble and no fatigue.  I am stunned at this progress - I first began studying this piece mid-February and even the first part of the piece looked impossible to me, nevermind the fast passages, and now they seem so simple!

While spending about three months on this piece (and I'm only halfway through) seems like slow progress sometimes, I keep thinking about just how much I have learned from practicing this piece alone as well as how much my stamina/technique has improved and it makes me giddy!  I really do think taking an occasional day-or-two break helps...

[j_menz]

I find the same thing.  An alternative to taking a complete break from playing is to just play other pieces that don't use the same movements (eg, if your working on the tremelos from the Pathetique, don't use your "break" to play pieces that have lots of tremelos in them).

Athletes use a system where they don't practice the same things or concentrate on the same muscles day after day, so it makes sense that the same would work for your piano muscles.

[landru]

I don't do it every few days, but I have noticed that after a week's absence from the piano due to a vacation that the pieces are better overall in terms of technique, but not in terms of up-to-speed where I have to go slower. What I think happens is that your mind/body retains the main overall motions that you have ingrained with practice and doesn't remember the little inefficiencies that were popping up while practicing before the break.

Of course this only works with pieces where I have been making good progress - if I'm going the wrong way on a piece, a break is worthless!

[zezhyrule]

Chang said something about that in his book iirc.
Yep, found it here https://www.pianofundamentals.com/book/en/1.II.15

But anyway, I find it happens to me as well. I guess it's psychological from what that section of the book said, but I feel there's some physical rest involved also.

[pianoplunker]

I've noticed lately that if I take a break from a piece for a couple of days and return to it (after several straight days of practice) that I can usually play the piece better than before.  I don't know if this is muscular or psychological but it has really helped my playing.

Specifically, I'm talking about the tremolos in the first movement of Beethoven's Pathetique sonata.  After a day or two of rest (sometimes completely taking a break from piano itself), I find that I can not only play the tremolos faster and more comfortably, but my stamina increases drastically.  I can now play the entire first fast section (the first tremolos, through the hand crossing, through the fast passage that follows) with little trouble and no fatigue.  I am stunned at this progress - I first began studying this piece mid-February and even the first part of the piece looked impossible to me, nevermind the fast passages, and now they seem so simple!

While spending about three months on this piece (and I'm only halfway through) seems like slow progress sometimes, I keep thinking about just how much I have learned from practicing this piece alone as well as how much my stamina/technique has improved and it makes me giddy!  I really do think taking an occasional day-or-two break helps...

I have taken a break for a couple of decades on some pieces !  I think it is very common to play better and feel better if you take a break - AFTER it has already been well rehearsed for a time. 

[natalyaturetskii]

Yes, I agree. Sometimes I take a break - meaning that occasionally I take the day off. I think someone said that this was because it allows all of the practice that you've done recently to 'sink in'. I also feel that the movement in your muscles becomes more comfortable in you hands, wrists and arms.

[ajspiano]

Chang said something about that in his book iirc.
Yep, found it here https://www.pianofundamentals.com/book/en/1.II.15

But anyway, I find it happens to me as well. I guess it's psychological from what that section of the book said, but I feel there's some physical rest involved also.

Nuerological maybe a better word than psych. The idea is that your brain cells develop post practice, as in actual growth. Which can't possibly happen during practice simply on the premise that it take days weeks or months to occur. And, happens most effectively during REM sleep... AND that you don't have to practice tomorrow in order for your brain to develop from todays practice.

Or in other words, its not so much days of rest, just the several days since practicing the piece at all allows time for growth. And perhaps you notice it more than if you'd been playing everyday because you see a sudden leap rather than smaller chunks each day.