Is it normal to have bad piano days?

[rovis77]

Is it normal to have bad piano days?, there are days when I can play my pieces very well and my fingers fly and there are days when my hands don't respond very well and feel stiff and I don't play very well . Is this normal?

[pianoplunker]

Is it normal to have bad piano days?, there are days when I can play my pieces very well and my fingers fly and there are days when my hands don't respond very well and feel stiff and I don't play very well . Is this normal?

Perfectly normal for me

[superman1980]

Sadly, yes.

[theholygideons]

Sadly, yes.

depends how many. If you had 99 bad days, and 1 good day, then perhaps you're just a crappy pianist.

[outin]

depends how many. If you had 99 bad days, and 1 good day, then perhaps you're just a crappy pianist.

I have at least 7 or so every month, so I guess I'm kind of semi-crappy 

[cbreemer]

Of course! There are Bad Days for everything. Nothing to worry about unless it persists.

[iansinclair]

Good heavens, yes!  There are days when I play very poorly.  There are days when I don't even want to go near the darn thing.  Fortunately, both are moderately rare, but they sure do exist.

[Bob]

Of course.

It's interesting when good or bad aspects go along with other good or bad things, a global effect that way.

[billyfisher100]

Oh yes!!

I seem to have quite a few bad days (once, occasionally twice a week) often when I'm very tired, my fingers seem brittle and immovable and I can hardly learn basic passages.

On such days, I don't bother at all and try and get some sleep!

[Bob]

Continue practicing.  Maybe just ease back, but keep things going.

[invictious]

Everyday is a bad piano day for me.

[Bob]

I jinxed myself by posting on this thread.  Yesterday and today it's like all my energy was sucked away.

Sleeping all day for a couple days can be good though.  But it happened out of nowhere.... Ich werde alt.....

[michaeljames]

ABSOLUTELY, yes!!!! Much like handwriting! I normally have very nice penmanship, but there are days I cannot write at all....even writing out a check seems difficult.

And piano playing is no different.  Now, granted, level of difficulty comes into play here...if I am accompanying vocals, no bad days...at least not discernible. But works of substance..most definitely.

Not to worry.  But I've often wondered about concert pianists and their "bad days."  Wouldn't it be awful to fly to a sold out venue and have an "off" day?  Talk about pressure. 

Like others have said, on those days when I cannot seem to get in step, I usually either play things that don't require much from me or hang it up all together and read a good book! haha

[Bob]

I do remember a masterclass where the presenter said they never have bad days.  They always make them good days.

I got more of an "f-you, I only have good days" vibe from the presentation for that.  Maybe there's a point still there.  Figure out why it's bad.  Prevent that.  Only have good days then possibly.  I would imagine if you threw enough time at practice, a lot of days would be good days though.

[j_menz]

even writing out a check seems difficult.

People still do that? 

I prefer to think that I don't have bad days, just days when my piano is having a bad day.

[amytsuda]

I wish one day I will have a good piano day!!!

But for me it doesn't seem to change based on days, it seems I make tons of mistakes every one of days, and every day I have memory lapse in the middle of pieces... They just happen in different places on different days....

[outin]

People still do that? 

In some backwards parts of the world yes