2 days

[chopin2015]

Has anyone gone without playing piano for more than 1 day? For example 2 to 3 days. Perhaps longer? Please tell me about it and what that was like. Did you have a terrible time getting your hands to flex enough again? I am really worried. I am thinking of getting up at 3 or 4 in the morning the day of my airplane trip and getting a couple of hours in, and I could say it was only just a day without playing then. I was thinking of going hard core, playing all of the difficult pieces as fast as possible once or twice, just to give my arms a work out that I am accustomed to. Do you have any tips for keeping your hands active and ready? Also, do you do this often? I am wondering if famous pianists spend a day traveling across country and how they cope with it. Does anyone have any information about this? Thanks!

[p2u_]

Has anyone gone without playing piano for more than 1 day? For example 2 to 3 days. Perhaps longer? Please tell me about it and what that was like. Did you have a terrible time getting your hands to flex enough again?

Three weeks in hospital. And no, I didn't have any physical problems getting back into my regimen, no stiff hands, nothing. Wherever I am, I try to do exerices away from the piano of the kind that are in my signature.

I was thinking of going hard core, playing all of the difficult pieces as fast as possible once or twice, just to give my arms a work out that I am accustomed to.

I'm afraid that's the worst thing you can do. When you don't practise, you don't lose speed; you lose clear images of movement, everything becomes blurred with time. That's why SLOW practice would be a lot better to refresh the image of movement (and resulting sound) in the brain.

Paul

[hfmadopter]

Don't be at all concerned about two days away, it may even work towards gelling some loose ends you may have. That's almost a perfect amount of time away for that sort of thing. You will be glad to get back at the keys though !

[tdawe]

2 days?! That may even be beneficial... when I'm learning a particularly challenging piece it can help to step back for  a couple of days.

I've been on holiday for a week and come back and felt no appreciable difference.

This summer I was away on holiday for a month. When I came back it did take me a while to get back to the standard I was at before. It was more like I was forgetting my repertoire rather than losing any technical ability though... I lost a lot of the progress I'd made on pieces I hadn't yet finished.

[evitaevita]

2 days?! That may even be beneficial... when I'm learning a particularly challenging piece it can help to step back for  a couple of days.

Yeah! I agree!

I usually practice about 2 hours at weekdays and 3-4 hours at weekends.
A short break (1-3 days) gives the opportunity to you (your brain and your hands) to relax.
Also, after 2 days without practice, you may enjoy practice even more.