Burned Out? Here’s 5 Ways to Bring Play Into Your Playing.
As musicians, it’s so easy to get stuck in a practice rut. You’re often practicing and performing the same pieces for weeks, sometimes months and years on end. It’s common to lose your sense of joy and find yourself burned out. When you get to that point—where the idea of practice is either just so boring, daunting, or otherwise negative—what do you do? I recommend incorporating play into your playing!
I can hear you now, “but I’m already playing!!” and yes you are. Play is a funny word with many different definitions. I’m talking about play by means of playfulness, being childlike in how you go about your playing.
So before we dive into those 5 tips, let’s briefly acknowledge some of the elements of play.
First and foremost: it’s fun and enjoyable.
Play can be serious, focused, and structured by a construct of rules. Many people this play is nonsensical and frivolous, but watch any child play and you’ll see this is not the case at all. Wonder why children cry when you take them away from their play? It’s because to them it’s incredibly serious stuff!
Speaking of rules, they often create the conditions for creativity. Working around the constraint of rules can make for really interesting and fun problem solving.
Play often employs your imagination, whether that’s creating characters, scenarios, situations, etc. Imagination for children also doesn’t necessarily mean fairy tales and superheroes. Children are very good at imaging using real world ideas, such as playing doctor.
Play fundamentally is:
Experiential: it develops through experience
Experimental: it hones experience through trail and error
Exploratory: it’s not confined to any one way of doing or being
Without further ado, here are my 5 tips for bring play into your playing.
Get comfortable
Play is enjoyable. If you’re stress out, then chances of enjoying what you’re doing are slim. Start by asking yourself a simple question:
What can make this more enjoyable?
Obvious, I know… Sit and listen inwardly for a moment. Is there something that comes to mind about how you could make your practice more enjoyable in this moment? Maybe it’s opening a window. Getting a drink of water. Taking off your shoes. Maybe it’s sending that email that’s silently nagging you, or taking a break for the day. It doesn’t have to be a huge deal, but every little bit helps when it comes to your comfort and joy. If it’s not something that you can feasibly tackle this moment, put on your To-Do list, so that your brain can let it go.
This may not seem like play, but remember that play is enjoyable. If you’re uncomfortable and not enjoying yourself, then none of the rest of these ideas will do you any good.
2. Do It Wrong
Have you ever seen an anglerfish? They’re a carnivorous fish that uses bioluminescence to lure their prey in the deep dark sea where they dwell. As a musician, I’m sure you pride yourself on your perfectionism, but perfection is a beautiful trap. Perfection is like that bright glowing dangly thing that is not anything you’ll ever be able to reach. But while you’re distractedly trying so hard to reach it, there’s a big, scary fish about to eat you. Pessimistic? Yes. But perfection truly is not attainable. Believing in perfection is believing that there is only one way to do something and that’s just not true. Music is subjective. There are as many opinions about what’s “good” as there are people on this planet. If you get stuck in the cycle of thinking there’s only one way to do things, you lose your sense of creativity. So ask yourself this:
What’s the worst way I can play this?
This question is a great jump start to your silliness and gives your perfectionism a much needed break. You can muck up your interpretation: maybe change all notes marked staccato to a drastically different articulation. You can exaggerate what might considered “bad” posture: what’s the worst posture you can have while playing? You can mess up your technique: how wrong can you play technically, but still make a sound (not even a good sound?)
Of course, this is just for fun. None of these are meant to necessarily be incorporated into your performances, but they open the doors possibility and creativity. Doing something wrong can be just as (if not MORE) informative than doing something right. And if you’re nervous about practicing in “bad habits,” it’s okay! You’re consciously choosing these “mistakes” which actually helps you be more aware of your unconscious habits.
3. Creating Characters
Imagine 3 different people. They can be people you know, people from literature/film/gaming, or people of your own creation. How would each of them play the piece you’re working on?
You can be as detailed as you want in these characters. Put yourself in their shoes. Do they even wear shoes? Feel how your body has to reorient itself to play as these people. What can this tell you about how you play? Are there places in your piece that you can relax or let go more? Are there places where you can have more fun? Are there places where you can express more with less effort? What can these characters teach you?
4. Break The Rules
Music has rules. Performing has rules. Playing a specific instrument has rules. Rules, while necessary, can become very limiting. Some of the best musicians are rule breakers. So go ahead and break some!
Pick a rule and find a way to break it. For example: most instruments are played either sitting down or standing in one place. (I honestly can’t think of one that does something different, but there totally could be.) How can you break this rule? Can you play while lying on the floor? Can you play while standing on one leg? Can you play while walking backwards? (Make sure to do this safely) I realize these ideas may not be physically possible for everyone, so play around with what works for you and your instrument.
Obviously, there aren’t many stage opportunities that will allow for these shenanigans, but there’s no reason why you can’t experiment with any of these and more while you’re practicing.
5. Find More Options
Pick an excerpt that you’re having difficulty with. What can you do to find 2 more ways to play the same excerpt? It can be as small or as large an aspect of the excerpt as you want. Some examples of this could be changing slurrings, phrasing, emphasis, fingerings, breathing, bowings, string crossings, the sky’s the limit here. Finding one new way is great, but having two total ideas can feel just as limiting as only one idea. If you can have three (or more) options for how to play something, that can feel very freeing. The best kind of play feels open-ended, because feeling trapped is not enjoyable.
Don’t get bogged down thinking that they have to be good ideas. I know this seems eerily similar to #2 on this list, and to a certain degree it is. But the intention here is different. #2 was all about intentionally doing something wrong. How can you make it the most wrong? That’s about breaking the bonds of perfection. #5 is about quantity of ideas, regardless of whether they’re good or bad. Can #2 help inform #5? Yes it can. All you’re looking to do is find different ideas. You can’t come up with good ideas if you don’t have ideas. If you’re coming up with any ideas, then you’re bound to come up with some bad ones. And you might find that some of those bad ideas end up becoming good ones.
Parting Thoughts:
You don’t have to do any or all of these well. The point of all of this is to shake up your practice; rekindle some joy for playing your instrument; and remind yourself that you are a badass musician who loves making music!
Did you try any of these ideas? Let me know how it went on Facebook or Instagram!
Interested in learning more? Learn more about my upcoming group course: The Unpractice Experiment.