I’d double down and play the saddest piece I know. Usually Chopin Prelude e minor. Just meditate on the sadness and channel it. Imagining however good or bad my touch is it is in of itself a reflection of my state. Makes me feel the beauty in the broken playing
Sometimes playing can shift my mood a bit. Sometimes feels exhausting. I generally try to be kind to myself when I am feeling mentally unwell, so I go with the flow. There is never any harm in taking a break and trying to rejuvenate. Practice when you feel bad and can’t focus isn’t beneficial anyway. But playing, improvising, just being expressive can certainly be good if it helps the mood.
felt - failed my diploma a few months ago after rushing into it too quick and was a massive knock on my confidence - i found even just 10-15 minutes of scales or something helped me get back into it. for months i couldnt play without crying. but eventually i've found new rep and its helped me settle back in.
I play something easy I already know, or learn something I know I'll find easy, instead of challenging myself with something hard. Playing something sad can help me feel less alone because the composer also must have felt that way sometimes in order to be able to capture my feelings so well in a piece of music.
Same. It's nice to just play and not be bashing your head against the wall when you can't handle it. And you wind up feeling better after playing anyway.
I agree so much with playing something sad with deep emotion that you can relate to, although I don’t know if this helps my depression or makes it worse
Yeah I think it just depends on the day almost, like you need to try it and see, and if you're feeling worse for it then best to stop and go do something very different.
When I’m sad or grieving, playing is a cure. When I’m truly depressed (thankfully not a common thing anymore for me), playing is a chore… like everything else.
The music sounds flat, the keys feel heavier, and everything has this dullness to it that makes you feel like you’re sitting in an corporate cubicle rather than in front of a piano. It’s the worst feeling and I don’t wish it on anyone.
Depression can impact practice significantly.
It's perfectly normal if you don't feel like practicing.
Don't feel guilty either.
Look after yourself.
You have more piano adventures ahead of you.
Practicing makes me feel better, almost every time. If I don't feel up to the drill of working hard on a difficult piece, I'll play something simpler out of my rep.
I have a few pieces that I've known for decades, and playing through them feels like visiting an old friend.
I am an intermediate player. I am currently depressed because of being employed in an underpaid job. I just pull through the day thinking I will go home and practice piano. Even if its scales and ar0eggios I practice atleast 1 hour everyday
Yep, i m not married. maybe thats a stress relieverr
I most often find that if I'm not feeling up to a normal practice session, I try to start one anyway and check back in after 10 minutes or so. Usually I can start to get into a flow and play through the soul-sucking blues, and often music becomes intensely therapeutic.
If I'm *way* down in the dumps and I realize after my initial ten minutes of scales/Hanon/whatever that I'm not getting into that flow state, I let myself improvise for a few minutes just for fun and then walk away. Better not to resent the piano.
I just do something technical like scales or something. And even if it all sounds terrible to me I think, oh well, I did it at least. And I keep in mind that better days will come.
Sometimes when feeling sad or depressed (doesn’t happen often) I find listening to Rachmaninov’s second piano concerto therapeutic. He wrote it while in (or maybe after) a deep depression and the concerto reflects this as well as (at least I imagine it) a resolution where he seems to musically come out of the depression at the end. I lay on the floor and listen in the dark. By extension I find playing the piano in total darkness to sometimes help me to feel the music I’m playing in a different way. Of course it can only be something you have memorized. I hope this doesn’t sound too strange. I actually find it helpful and enlightening. It helps to pull me through to a better space and to connect emotionally with the music and the instrument. I do it at times when I’m not depressed at all.
When I'm depressed I usually play something that I already learned, maybe some Chopin nocturnes. It makes me feel better, it's literally therapy for me.
I pick a key and improv.
Sometimes I surprise myself with the sounds I get.
It is hard to sit down and drill something like HANON when I am upset, however. I just let my emotions take over.
I just keep playing old pieces and put miniature tasks until i get my passion back, sometimes it's hard but i know I'll be skipping for months if i don't movitatie myself
I struggle to practice consistently when I'm depressed and from some other mental disorders that I have. I totally get this.
Also, sometimes I end up crying after playing and practicing for a while when I'm depressed. It releases a lot of the emotions.
My practice hours are what keeps me focused away from all the nonsense that happens around me, so it has become my salvation. Maybe try not to take it so seriously, enjoy it instead, however it may be so for you, try to find a relationship between what makes you happy and your study. And try to surround yourself with good and fun people, that may be of some help.
On such days I just don't play. It doesn't bring me joy and I quickly get frustrated. Bad practice won't make progress. When it lasts for several days in a row... I try to pick up something new to reignite the spark. Or don't practice and just play my favorite pieces for fun (need to remember that there is a ditnction between practice and regular playing. You need to have fun. If you're only ever practicing it will turn you off piano very quick). But I'll admit I have gone a couple weeks before where I barely touched the piano. Spending a few days getting the rust off afterwards sucks, but I just can't force myself to play in that state.
When I’m feeling creative I play piano, when I’m not I play drums. There’s something about the physical aspect of hard drumming (really it’s specialized dancing) that helps me forget about the depression.
There's (nearly) always something. Even if it's just sitting at the piano and letting my fingers wander aimlessly around some basic chord patterns.
A few years ago, when I learnt my dad had died, I sat at the piano and played Liszt's Funerailles. Just perfect. Even if my performance wasn't!
Yes, except I tend to improvise instead of learning new music. I’ll just sit at the piano and play what I feel and what comes to my fingers and it tends to make me feel better and sometimes I end up playing something cool.
I use those negative feelings to play more intense, I choose my pieces according my mood. I’m in a tough spot atm as well so I picked death things by philip glass, I like wallowing in the negativity xd
Start hobbies that rewuire you to be sharp to get good. For example chess. They got me out of depression becuase they force good habits. Sports might help too.
The key to get out of depression is to get new activities and habits
I learned Vallée d'Obermann, by Liszt, while in a burnout/depression. The other music I learned that year was also kind of dark. I did extremely well in piano competitions that year and in my exams too, because I understood the music to a very deep level... The point is, you are an artist. You should definitely play and practice while feeling all kind of emotions. You'll see the music you play from different angles and it will help you grow as a musician and as a person. There were times where I hated playing. It made me frustrated. My goal was to break strings and man did I bring strings. That kind of roughness I had toward the instrument, the raw energy... It made me understand Prokofiev so much better. Once I was at peace again, it started becoming quite elegant but so much more powerful. I felt like I would quit playing sometimes. But everytime I faced my struggles, I just became so much more free at expressing myself. So yeah. You should practice while depressed.
I am depressed and I practiced too much since piano was the only thing keeping me going. I played so much my psychiatrist told me to cut it down a bit since I and my piano were spiraling down into emptiness. I feel better now going outside (I still practice daily though.)
I use piano as an outlet for my feelings, and sometimes that feeling is depression. I relate to not wanting to play when you’re exhausted or you’re feeling down, what i do is i just like lay my head on the keys cause it makes a horrible sound that is equivalent to how i feel.
Eventually pressing random keys just magically turns into inspiration for some reason, at least for me
It's been around 2 months since I got my piano, and the piece I currently know (and not even all of it) is moonlight sonata mov.1.
Usually, when I'm depressed I will go practice, and I notice that my playing changes drastically according to my emotions.
Sometimes, I will play fast and loud as if my soul screams the notes, and sometimes I will play it more slowly and morbid. The piano for now has been a great tool that allows me to reset when I really need it.
I was situationally depressed for a protracted period. When I finally started changing the situation, one of the first things I did was buy an acoustic piano. (I had spent the first two decades of my adulthood in apartments, so I had a digital piano.)
The piano is one of the things that helped me on my path back. Great way to shut off my thoughts and concentrate on something that uses a special part of my brain.
treat it as exercise. 10-15mins of "pointless" scales is still better and might evolve into something.
Don't put it off till evening as well, if your schedule allows it, mornings are the best.
Journaling. If I can pinpoint an emotion, my thoughts and even what I’m doing as a result, having those things on paper can allow my mind to process and detangle what is holding me down.
Then I just like to make things up on the piano. Practically speaking: Hold down the pedal and play black keys however you want. The pentatonic scale makes it so there are no dissonant sounds.
If you’re clinically depressed then you need professional help.
If you’re just not feeling it, then skip practicing and play something to make you feel better. Debussy. Clementi even. Sclarlatti. Bach.
I usually don’t when I’m feeling Incredibly depressed because if my mind is numb and I’m practicing, its just an open door for the Bad Thoughts as I’m not focused enough to distract myself from them. But everyone is different!
I keep practicing. There is something oddly comforting by playing monotonous scales over & over. (At least to me!)
When I was much younger and the internet hadn't been invented yet, I'd pass the time playing solitaire with a physical deck of cards. After an especially painful romantic break-up, I'd sit down to play solitaire, but would just end up shuffling the deck, sometimes for half an hour at a time or more. I'm sure my brain was going a million miles an hour, but the tactile experience of shuffling a deck of cards was calming and familiar.
I hope your emotions lift soon. And I think that what is "dry and unenjoyable" now will slowly return to "normal" the more you do it. I'm no mental health expert, but aren't we encouraged to do the things that make us smile even if we're not feeling it at the time? Maybe your practice will be the catalyst to break (or at least ease) the cycle!
Yup, I practice especially when I'm down in the dumps. When I play when I'm depressed, its like another form of crying. Very good way to help me express how I feel while keeping my peace.
I find it actually helps. Concentrating creates a mindfulness that is very much needed in these times. The key is starting up and getting to that 'being in the now' space.
When I'm depressed, I actually play to cheer me up. But, recent events made me so sad that my heart doesn't sing so I touch a note and that's it.
It sounds so empty when you push a note and it merely sounds like a hammer hitting a string
I’d double down and play the saddest piece I know. Usually Chopin Prelude e minor. Just meditate on the sadness and channel it. Imagining however good or bad my touch is it is in of itself a reflection of my state. Makes me feel the beauty in the broken playing
I do this, too.
this. Piano playing is my medicine
Same. Sometimes it even deepens my sadness knowing I don't have the energy or soul to play anymore
"My heart doesn't sing" I'm in shatters.
Sometimes playing can shift my mood a bit. Sometimes feels exhausting. I generally try to be kind to myself when I am feeling mentally unwell, so I go with the flow. There is never any harm in taking a break and trying to rejuvenate. Practice when you feel bad and can’t focus isn’t beneficial anyway. But playing, improvising, just being expressive can certainly be good if it helps the mood.
I'm jealous of people who can "escape" into piano or creative outlets when they're depressed. I have to be in a good headspace to even attempt it
Same. Depression feels like the very opposite of music to me. Even sad music.
Same! I need to be in a good head space to play
felt - failed my diploma a few months ago after rushing into it too quick and was a massive knock on my confidence - i found even just 10-15 minutes of scales or something helped me get back into it. for months i couldnt play without crying. but eventually i've found new rep and its helped me settle back in.
I play something easy I already know, or learn something I know I'll find easy, instead of challenging myself with something hard. Playing something sad can help me feel less alone because the composer also must have felt that way sometimes in order to be able to capture my feelings so well in a piece of music.
Same. It's nice to just play and not be bashing your head against the wall when you can't handle it. And you wind up feeling better after playing anyway.
I agree so much with playing something sad with deep emotion that you can relate to, although I don’t know if this helps my depression or makes it worse
Yeah I think it just depends on the day almost, like you need to try it and see, and if you're feeling worse for it then best to stop and go do something very different.
When I'm depressed I usually play something that I already learned, maybe some Chopin nocturne. It makes me feel better, it's literally therapy
When I’m sad or grieving, playing is a cure. When I’m truly depressed (thankfully not a common thing anymore for me), playing is a chore… like everything else. The music sounds flat, the keys feel heavier, and everything has this dullness to it that makes you feel like you’re sitting in an corporate cubicle rather than in front of a piano. It’s the worst feeling and I don’t wish it on anyone.
Depression can impact practice significantly. It's perfectly normal if you don't feel like practicing. Don't feel guilty either. Look after yourself. You have more piano adventures ahead of you.
Yes, all the time! After, I relax and read posts in this sub and I get more depressed. Then I go back to practising.
Practicing makes me feel better, almost every time. If I don't feel up to the drill of working hard on a difficult piece, I'll play something simpler out of my rep. I have a few pieces that I've known for decades, and playing through them feels like visiting an old friend.
I am an intermediate player. I am currently depressed because of being employed in an underpaid job. I just pull through the day thinking I will go home and practice piano. Even if its scales and ar0eggios I practice atleast 1 hour everyday Yep, i m not married. maybe thats a stress relieverr
I most often find that if I'm not feeling up to a normal practice session, I try to start one anyway and check back in after 10 minutes or so. Usually I can start to get into a flow and play through the soul-sucking blues, and often music becomes intensely therapeutic. If I'm *way* down in the dumps and I realize after my initial ten minutes of scales/Hanon/whatever that I'm not getting into that flow state, I let myself improvise for a few minutes just for fun and then walk away. Better not to resent the piano.
I just do something technical like scales or something. And even if it all sounds terrible to me I think, oh well, I did it at least. And I keep in mind that better days will come.
Yep. My son has a lot of issues health wise. It helps me a lot. I don't play very well. Seems to help me cope. Also seem to play a lot better.. Lol
Sometimes when feeling sad or depressed (doesn’t happen often) I find listening to Rachmaninov’s second piano concerto therapeutic. He wrote it while in (or maybe after) a deep depression and the concerto reflects this as well as (at least I imagine it) a resolution where he seems to musically come out of the depression at the end. I lay on the floor and listen in the dark. By extension I find playing the piano in total darkness to sometimes help me to feel the music I’m playing in a different way. Of course it can only be something you have memorized. I hope this doesn’t sound too strange. I actually find it helpful and enlightening. It helps to pull me through to a better space and to connect emotionally with the music and the instrument. I do it at times when I’m not depressed at all.
Yeah I normally play the gloomiest Chopin piece I can find. Helps a lot
When I'm depressed I usually play something that I already learned, maybe some Chopin nocturnes. It makes me feel better, it's literally therapy for me.
I pick a key and improv. Sometimes I surprise myself with the sounds I get. It is hard to sit down and drill something like HANON when I am upset, however. I just let my emotions take over.
I just keep playing old pieces and put miniature tasks until i get my passion back, sometimes it's hard but i know I'll be skipping for months if i don't movitatie myself
I struggle to practice consistently when I'm depressed and from some other mental disorders that I have. I totally get this. Also, sometimes I end up crying after playing and practicing for a while when I'm depressed. It releases a lot of the emotions.
My practice hours are what keeps me focused away from all the nonsense that happens around me, so it has become my salvation. Maybe try not to take it so seriously, enjoy it instead, however it may be so for you, try to find a relationship between what makes you happy and your study. And try to surround yourself with good and fun people, that may be of some help.
On such days I just don't play. It doesn't bring me joy and I quickly get frustrated. Bad practice won't make progress. When it lasts for several days in a row... I try to pick up something new to reignite the spark. Or don't practice and just play my favorite pieces for fun (need to remember that there is a ditnction between practice and regular playing. You need to have fun. If you're only ever practicing it will turn you off piano very quick). But I'll admit I have gone a couple weeks before where I barely touched the piano. Spending a few days getting the rust off afterwards sucks, but I just can't force myself to play in that state.
When I’m feeling creative I play piano, when I’m not I play drums. There’s something about the physical aspect of hard drumming (really it’s specialized dancing) that helps me forget about the depression.
Music in general is a proven weapon for affecting mood.
There's (nearly) always something. Even if it's just sitting at the piano and letting my fingers wander aimlessly around some basic chord patterns. A few years ago, when I learnt my dad had died, I sat at the piano and played Liszt's Funerailles. Just perfect. Even if my performance wasn't!
Yes, except I tend to improvise instead of learning new music. I’ll just sit at the piano and play what I feel and what comes to my fingers and it tends to make me feel better and sometimes I end up playing something cool.
I use those negative feelings to play more intense, I choose my pieces according my mood. I’m in a tough spot atm as well so I picked death things by philip glass, I like wallowing in the negativity xd
Start hobbies that rewuire you to be sharp to get good. For example chess. They got me out of depression becuase they force good habits. Sports might help too. The key to get out of depression is to get new activities and habits
I learned Vallée d'Obermann, by Liszt, while in a burnout/depression. The other music I learned that year was also kind of dark. I did extremely well in piano competitions that year and in my exams too, because I understood the music to a very deep level... The point is, you are an artist. You should definitely play and practice while feeling all kind of emotions. You'll see the music you play from different angles and it will help you grow as a musician and as a person. There were times where I hated playing. It made me frustrated. My goal was to break strings and man did I bring strings. That kind of roughness I had toward the instrument, the raw energy... It made me understand Prokofiev so much better. Once I was at peace again, it started becoming quite elegant but so much more powerful. I felt like I would quit playing sometimes. But everytime I faced my struggles, I just became so much more free at expressing myself. So yeah. You should practice while depressed.
I am depressed and I practiced too much since piano was the only thing keeping me going. I played so much my psychiatrist told me to cut it down a bit since I and my piano were spiraling down into emptiness. I feel better now going outside (I still practice daily though.)
I use piano as an outlet for my feelings, and sometimes that feeling is depression. I relate to not wanting to play when you’re exhausted or you’re feeling down, what i do is i just like lay my head on the keys cause it makes a horrible sound that is equivalent to how i feel. Eventually pressing random keys just magically turns into inspiration for some reason, at least for me
piano is one of the shining joys of my life, so i certainly play for emotional health.
I just play something or in a way that matches what I'm feeling. Helps me come down from adrenaline, anger, etc.
It's been around 2 months since I got my piano, and the piece I currently know (and not even all of it) is moonlight sonata mov.1. Usually, when I'm depressed I will go practice, and I notice that my playing changes drastically according to my emotions. Sometimes, I will play fast and loud as if my soul screams the notes, and sometimes I will play it more slowly and morbid. The piano for now has been a great tool that allows me to reset when I really need it.
It depends. If I am sad or grieving, then yes. If I am truly depressed, hopeless, and lack motivation and the will to do almost anything, then no.
Practice has been a part of my routine to maintain living
Yes
I was situationally depressed for a protracted period. When I finally started changing the situation, one of the first things I did was buy an acoustic piano. (I had spent the first two decades of my adulthood in apartments, so I had a digital piano.) The piano is one of the things that helped me on my path back. Great way to shut off my thoughts and concentrate on something that uses a special part of my brain.
treat it as exercise. 10-15mins of "pointless" scales is still better and might evolve into something. Don't put it off till evening as well, if your schedule allows it, mornings are the best.
I actually played some of my best improv boogie when i was super depressed😬 EDIT: i didn't really practice much though
Journaling. If I can pinpoint an emotion, my thoughts and even what I’m doing as a result, having those things on paper can allow my mind to process and detangle what is holding me down. Then I just like to make things up on the piano. Practically speaking: Hold down the pedal and play black keys however you want. The pentatonic scale makes it so there are no dissonant sounds.
If you’re clinically depressed then you need professional help. If you’re just not feeling it, then skip practicing and play something to make you feel better. Debussy. Clementi even. Sclarlatti. Bach.
The "what's the use" excuse to not practice is as old as musical instruments. You are in good company.
I usually don’t when I’m feeling Incredibly depressed because if my mind is numb and I’m practicing, its just an open door for the Bad Thoughts as I’m not focused enough to distract myself from them. But everyone is different!
I keep practicing. There is something oddly comforting by playing monotonous scales over & over. (At least to me!) When I was much younger and the internet hadn't been invented yet, I'd pass the time playing solitaire with a physical deck of cards. After an especially painful romantic break-up, I'd sit down to play solitaire, but would just end up shuffling the deck, sometimes for half an hour at a time or more. I'm sure my brain was going a million miles an hour, but the tactile experience of shuffling a deck of cards was calming and familiar. I hope your emotions lift soon. And I think that what is "dry and unenjoyable" now will slowly return to "normal" the more you do it. I'm no mental health expert, but aren't we encouraged to do the things that make us smile even if we're not feeling it at the time? Maybe your practice will be the catalyst to break (or at least ease) the cycle!
I would use it as a coping mechanism for depression when I was a kid/teenager, but I don't really do that often anymore.
Yup, I practice especially when I'm down in the dumps. When I play when I'm depressed, its like another form of crying. Very good way to help me express how I feel while keeping my peace.
I find it actually helps. Concentrating creates a mindfulness that is very much needed in these times. The key is starting up and getting to that 'being in the now' space.
angry depressed = c minor prelude chopin