Observation about illness

[bronnestam]

Some 10 days ago I had the misfortune of catching a cold which turned out to be really nasty. Since then I've been trying to overcome high temperature, coughing and general fatigue. (Getting tired of it, to say the least,  so I spend my time writing useless posts like this one.)

I have tried to play the piano as well, but at the moment I have given up as I only seem to get worse from it. First recover, yes yes. Then practice.

One sad thing I discovered when I tried to practice, what that I played terribly bad. Not technically bad, my hands moved just like before ... but ... MUSICALLY. It sounded ice cold and stone dead, like I was working at a manufacturing machine in a factory or something. I have always been proud of my musical interpretations. I am not technically that advanced, but I seem to understand the music quite well; I can hear it within me. Now I just could not, and the result was so terrible that I stopped playing.

Has anyone else experienced that you lose the music when you are not feeling well?

[hfmadopter]

Definitely, yes. It's why I stopped playing piano for a lot of years, I wasn't well and put on a prescription drug too that kind of fogged my mind a little bit. It took that nice edge off my music and also ability to learn more advanced pieces freely. You also have read my recent account about my hospital trip etc. etc. ( you replied to that one) and rhythm being messed up. It will come back to you when you feel better, give yourself time. Illness drains the emotion from your music, you just want to feel better.

You probably have the flu. Colds don't sport fever. When I get fever I'm in trouble, have to watch out for seizures when that happens and try to stay really well hydrated. I swear the flu will kill me one day, it takes months and months to feel normal again for me, if it throws me into a seizure.

Hope you feel better really soon !

[bronnestam]

It was probably a mild flu, yes. I believe the virus itself is gone by now but I feel very weak and I fear that I will develop pneomonia instead, which happened to me once before, when I "bravely defeated" a hard flu and did not take care of myself enough. (Really stupid, DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME, FOLKS.) When you're ill, you really must take care or it may end up in disaster.

Yeah, you describe it very well - the "edge" is gone.

But somehow this is an interesting experience. As a Swedish proverb says, you don't miss the cow until the box is empty. Now I may be better at understanding what this cow, this musical feeling, really consists of, now when I experience the absence of it.

[timothy42b]

If your nasal passages are stopped up, your hearing may be affected.

You might be playing just as musically, but not realizing it because what you hear sounds so strange, and is lacking the finer nuances. 

[faa2010]

Yeah, right now, I am having the flu and I had to stop playing piano.

Sometimes it is because you cannot listen nor move . And sometimes it is because you aren't in the mood to play.