Taking a Break

[TromboneSam]

What did you do during your longest break from playing?

What was different when you returned to playing?

[hyperbolica]

I obsessed on my career, traveled a lot, and wrote a couple of books. I took 10 tears off, so I aged a little too.

When I came back, my low pedal range was gone. My power and endurance were shot. I used to have great flexibility, and that has never returned either. I had been playing a lot prior to my break, and much less after returning.

[ArbanRubank]

It was about 48 years and during that time, I did what most guys did in the process of living.

When I decided to play again late in my life, it took some time and excellent professional instruction, but I have far and away surpassed anything I was able to do the first time.

I believe that as long as I have a clear mind, can pick up the horn & blow, I can continue to improve. Extreme range, flexibility and speed may be somewhat problematic - as any aging athlete would tell you - but I don't think there is any limitation to improving my musicality.

[ExZacLee]

First long break I took was about 4 months due to a lip injury (my face got in the way of a fist at a party i had no business being at in my late teens.) It would've been sooner but i tried to play on it before it was healed and it re-split. Once healed, it took about 1 month to feel like i did before endurance-wise, but probably a good year or more until I had the "power" i'd had. The endurance thing is always issue number one coming off of a long break.

A few years later I took another long break, that time because i was considering another career. Came back after realizing i didn't want to do anything else (and couldn't.) Endurance took a few weeks to get back, my "mental dexterity", especially while soloing, seemed to increase - i was less shackled by previous thought patterns/devices.

Last year after the birth of my daughter, i had an injury involving some hot coffee on the way to work - tongue swole up so bad i could hardly play for a couple of months. Had to get back in a week for a gig with some guys who kicked my a$$. Got my butt kicked... still trying to get back into the swing of it. As I age, it seems the recovery time gets longer.

[Bassbonechandler]

I took about two months off last summer while I was working full time. I was simply too tired some days to pick up my trombone.

Like others have said, my endurance was not very good, and my high range was not quite as stable and focused. But it helped clear my mind, and allowed me to not think as much about what I was doing.

[Vegastokc]

...injury involving some hot coffee...

They really should put some sort of warning on those hot drinks.
Sir, you may need to contact Lloyds of London to insure your face based on all your unfortunate events.

25 year lay off for me. Some things surprisingly felt natural but even after 2 years back, flexibility and air flow stamina still works in progress. Not to mention when I stopped playing I think I had all my teeth; now my embouchure is different. I find bigger mouthpieces more comfortable now vs the 12C & Gardinelli 6D I played in college.
Guess I know what my practicing will be focused on with all the rehearsals and concerts cancelled. My group just cancelled the rest of the spring. Hoping we can resume in June for our annual July 4th commitment.

[gbedinger]

I took a 20-year hiatus. During that time I was in the Air Force and defense contracting business.

When I returned to playing in 2005, the partials didn't feel the same to my embouchure as I remembered, but fortunately muscle memory took over after a couple of weeks. I also took some lessons with an Air Force trombonist in town and came back just fine to playing. If there was an age-related deficit after such a long time away, I don't know what it was. But...bass trombone is my main gig so I never had to deal with endurance issues. Put me on a tenor trombone playing above the staff and I'm a wimp.

The difference in playing was my attitude and appreciation of the music, but the overwhelming characteristic was the plethora of choices in instruments, as in, trombones are now modular?

[afugate]

I laid my horn down after college. Didn't see any opportunities to play the kind of music I enjoy playing. (Big Band Jazz) So I lived life.

When my father passed away, I dusted off my horn to perform for his funeral. Decided I wanted our kids to know I played something and I kept going. That was almost 18 years ago now. Music soothed my soul then and it still does today.

What changed for the better is that I got some individual instruction to fix bad habits. I played with so many, from faults in my embouchure to fundamentals like pitch/intonation. I play better today than I ever have -- as long as I am conscious not to let my old habits creep back in.

--Andy in OKC

[bigbandbone]

Spent 40+ years repairing and building band instruments and wishing I was still playing! What changed - tenor straight horn back then and now bass.

[Tarkus697]

Spent almost 20 years on and off playing keyboards and singing in a Grateful Dead cover band in northern NJ.

When I moved to Philly in 2014, my (now) wife encouraged me to join a community band, which I did. That led me to a gig playing with a wedding/events band and I have barely touched piano/keyboards since.

Much easier load-in and load out for gigs too!

[Cathbad]

When I came back, my low pedal range was gone. My power and endurance were shot. I used to have great flexibility, and that has never returned either.

Same. Never really got back to the playing standard I was, but perhaps I gained a little in musical maturity/insight.

[BurckhardtS]

Taking a break can be productive or detrimental, depending on your level of development, mental clarity, and understanding of your playing skills.

[Cotboneman]

I took off a couple of years after graduate school because i couldn't find a full-time teaching job in the Chicago area. I'd also gotten married, which meant I was not going to able to lay around the house. So I took a job in the mortgage services industry for three years. I didn't play much during that time, mostly because I was on the road covering five states in that job.

When we'd had enough of Chicago winters, ice-caused accidents, and my son was born, we decided to just throw everything in our car and drive to Southern Arizona, where I still live. I found a band job almost immediately and stayed put for the next 31 years. During that time I began playing again, joining community groups and doing some paid gigs.

I found that my upper and lower registers were affected most by the layoff. I had limited pedal range and struggled in the upper registers. What helped me to regain that back and more is going to be surprising to some; playing trumpet every day with high school students. I think the layoff had caused me to lose some lip flexibility and use too big an aperture, especially on bass trombone. Playing trumpet re-focused a lot of my mechanics. Now in retirement, my range is better than it ever was before. And I still get in a little practice on the trumpet.

[imsevimse]

Took a break 1996-1999 (four years) when I was 33 and studied to change carrer. Then I started again 2000 and played 2nd trombone in a brass sixtet for a couple of years. I had not much hope to return to professional playing but gradually hooked up with the professionals I had played with before. I noticed I was better than before and a lot more relaxed. I took another rest 2004-2008 to do more studies. I took it easier with playing. I came back to once again in 2008 and noticed I had become much better. As I now got a safe job I noticed I could relax more as a musician. It helped me a lot. Even though I now have a carrier in computer science I practice and play a lot and I meet and play with a lot of professional musicians in Stockholm, most jazz but also some classical gigs too. For me the breaks were nessecary for many reasons. I had no idea I should return as a better player after the breaks, but that's what happened.

/Tom

[harrisonreed]

I stopped playing completely from 2010-2013. During that time I was an infantryman in Alaska and Afghanistan, and did not touch my horn. It wasn't so difficult to get back in and playing again, although I realized that once you aren't in any groups or professional organizations, you also likely will have nowhere to practice to get back into it again. I had to beg at the chapel to let me practice in there during weird hours.

People who can own their own home without adjoining neighbors, and have a practice space with reasonable accoustics are extremely lucky and have no excuse.

Even today, I am unable to practice at home and I'm wondering how I'll be able to solve that issue when I'm retired. Hopefully I can get a large enough property that I can install a large shed or similar structure with HVAC and good accoustics and electricity, so I can work on what I actually want to work on.

[MKtuba]

What did you do during your longest break from playing?

What was different when you returned to playing?

This previous summer (summer of 2022. Between my freshman and sophomore year of college) I took basically the entire summer off of practicing. This was not really my choice, but let me explain.

During the semester I was practicing more than I EVER have in my life - as much as 6-7 hours a day. I am primarily a tuba player, and was preparing for a recital, a pro audition, teaching 5-6 lessons a week, as well as a busy performance schedule both in and out of the college of music. I was having a lot of pain in my right arm, and assumed it was just overuse (which it was, but some underlying problems were revealed). I initially took a week off, which I tend to do at the end of a semester/ prolonged period of intense practice. When I came back to the horn, not only was the pain still there but it was worse. Mere minutes of practicing technical exercises I used to be able to breeze through left me with intense pain. I took another week off, and it didn't get better. During this time, I was playing with a community brass band and unfortunately had to cut down to only playing in the rehearsal, and concerts. I wasn't even playing in lessons with my students anymore. While I am not scared of doctors, I had a lot of anxiety about this and put off seeing a specialist for longer than I should have. At the end of it, I found out that I have developed arthritis in my right hand, and some nerve damage from an accident I was in was starting to manifest itself. While this isn't fun I suppose that of all the possible outcomes Arthritis is probably not the worst thing that could have happened. Now, I have to wear a copper tone arm sleeve to bed, I oftentimes have to ice my wrist, and have had to modify my posture when I play the instrument. I have more or less solved this issue but still have to be careful when I practice, and VERY careful when I play other instruments that I am not as familiar with.

While this was obviously a big set back (and caused me to lose several months of practice, as well as a lot of facility on the instrument) I had the unique opportunity to come back to the instrument and really reinvent my playing.

Immediately, I noticed that the only thing I didn't really lose was my sound. I am very comfortable with the way I produce sound on the instrument (as long as my head is in the right place and I am intentionally thinking about it) and I didn't really experience any loss in this department. However, the predictable losses where all evident: My lip slurs weren't as quick, my connections weren't as smooth, my range wasn't as secure, and the speed of my multiple tonguing was significantly reduced. While this was hard to cope with, the silver lining is that I was able to really finely tune the way I do these things on the instrument. My body forgot all of my bad habits, and I was able to rebuild these aspects of my playing from the ground up.

My advice for coming back to the horn is twofold: Take it slow, and be comfortable with struggle. It will be difficult to come back to the horn, and in my experience the second day is actually the worst. This is mostly a mental exercise, though it is achieved by controlling physical process'. Go slow and low, and really focus on fundamentals. Even if you have never done it, be intentional about "warming down": I like to start in the medium register (on CC tuba around G2-C3, the notes on the bottom of the bass clef staff) and play descending scales until I reach the extreme low register (G0 or there about on my CC tuba), about two octaves lower than where I started. After this, noodling around in the extreme low register at a Mezzo Forte dynamic, and loosening the embouchure as you go.

The last thing I like to do is lip trills: not the brass player ones. The vocalist ones! Flap your lips (like when you make the horse sound) and hum a little bit behind it. (this video explains it fairly well:

I know this was an incredibly long comment, but I thought I should share parts of my journey. Plus, I am going to add this as a blog post on my website so I suppose it is was beneficial for me to type it out.

[henri77]

I never took break from playing. It's the best thing in my life.

[calcbone]

My longest break was exactly 6 months.

The year after I finished my DMA, I did some substitute teaching as I figured out what to do next. During this time, I was still playing assorted church gigs and playing as I subbed for band directors here and there.

After that year was over, I spent the summer job hunting and finally found my first job teaching high school math (it’s now my 11th year). We moved to a new town with an 18-month-old, and proceeded to dive into this new life. Being a new teacher in a small school (not many colleagues to go to for help) with a very, shall we say “hands-on” principal was super stressful, then coming home to help with my son… I had no time.

On the night of my birthday, in November of that year, my wife and son were at her parents’ house (we were celebrating over the weekend), and I realized that it had been 6 months, since May, that I had picked up my horn. Why not get it out of the closet since I’m here by myself? It felt very strange. Just after that, I was offered a Christmas gig at a church by a band director I had met while subbing. From then on, I learned to play for enjoyment.

I’m now working in a much better environment and my kids are older, so I do actually get to practice on occasion, and I also have been playing regularly in a local big band.

[Kbiggs]

My apologies in advance for the over-long post. I’ve taken several breaks from playing during my life for various reasons like injuries, time- and energy-demanding jobs, and mental health. I’m currently in the middle of a break that has last 6+ months…

Differences were like many above described: limited range, poor tone quality. Also, difficulties with articulation, rapid tonguing (single, double and triple), flexibility, dynamics… the gamut.

Although you didn’t ask, a lot of people described what they did when coming back. This might be basic to some, but this is what I’ve found works for me:

Be patient. It will take a while. Don’t demand too much of yourself, and don’t set yourself up for failure by doing something ridiculous, like scheduling or agreeing to a show/concert/recital/whatever two weeks from your start date.

Be curious. Things will be different. Look for the differences and enjoy/exploit them. You aren’t the same person physically, mentally, emotionally, that you were before you put the horn down. Some things may have improved, some might have degraded. Learn to work with what you’ve got, not what you think you should be.

Take it easy. Never play in pain. Practice in small chunks several times a day, if your schedule allows it. I found that three or four 15-minute sessions per day worked much better than one or two half-hour sessions.

Set reasonable goals (SMART goals). If journaling helps, keep a practice journal or log. Focus on the stuff you can’t do (now) or the things that are more difficult, but be sure to play things that are easier, where you feel confident and competent.

Take time to warm up and warm down. If needed—but only if needed—use ice and some sort of NSAID. But don’t use them all the time: only if you over-do it.

Listen. A lot. Use a metronome. Get a tuning recording (Schwartz, Sauer, etc.) and use it daily. Play scales. Avoid using a tuner until your ear/brain is up to snuff.

If you feel you need it, take a lesson(s) with someone who you respect and who respects you. Be clear about why you want to study with them.

As much as you can, set aside judgment and criticism. There is time for that later, once you’re back in shape.

[robcat2075]

What did you do during your longest break from playing?

My regular career pursuits were were challenging and interesting... and more rewarding than trombone playing was going to be. The trombone playing got edged out by better uses of my time.

I wasn't missing it nor was I missing the bonkers people one has to interact with as a musician.

What was different when you returned to playing?

An increased recognition of my out-of-tune playing and sloppy technique. Was I always this bad? Maybe... but there isn't much record of my playing when I was seriously pursuing it.

Now that I've been playing again for some years I find there is about one day out of twenty where I can pick up the horn and sound good like I want to sound. The other 19... no amount of warming-up or other diligence is going to make it right.

[Cotboneman]

I know many musicians had enforced layoffs due to the pandemic shutdown, but I am fortunate to live amongst a community of retired trombone and brass players in Southern Arizona. Four or five of us got together and began building a very decent library of music, which we played as trios, quartets and quintets several times a week throughout 2020, and even played several garage concerts that summer, when nothing else was going on. So in that sense we never really suffered any layoffs. We still get together a couple of mornings a week, even though we are back with our ensembles.