Posted by Aubrey Foard on March 13, 2001 at 00:26:44:
In Reply to: How do you deal with this? posted by bumfuzzled on March 09, 2001 at 13:40:47:
Oddly enough, taking time off does not help me at all. I took a day off yesterday for the first time since December and it took five hours of practice today just to get back on par with myself. One of the most detrimental things (I think) you can do to yourself when you're in a slump is to play in a bad room. Take some time and try to find a room with really good acoustics, even if it means waiting until night. I did this today and it led to immediate improvement. Also, before you play a piece, go through it in your head, sing it aloud, etc. so you can have a really good idea of how you want to play it before picking up the horn. Finally, as mentioned below, play some fun and enjoyable music. I really really have fun playing Berlioz excerpts, so I spent an hour on that today.