Violin Practice: The Upside of Downtime

January 11, 2026, 1:46 PM · I took close to two weeks mostly off over the holidays.

I played a little here and there – enough to teach, or record something – but there were stretches of several days where I didn’t touch the violin at all. And even when I did, I never played more than about half an hour at a time.

Now I’m getting ready to start the season again, and that feeling is back: the strange mix of curiosity and dread that comes with picking up the instrument after a break.

But there are also some real upsides to time away – if you let them be upsides.

Keeping the pressure ON all the time is damaging. Mentally, you need a break from the constant evaluation and self-recrimination. Physically, you need to give sore or overworked areas a chance to calm down. And oddly enough, taking a break can even help shake loose habits – both mental and physical – that have become too ingrained.

When you come back, things will feel different. Fingers can feel rubbery. The strings feel unfamiliar. The left hand often wants to move more slowly – well, everything wants to move more slowly. Things that were previously on autopilot suddenly require attention again. That can be frustrating – but it can also be useful. If something feels new or unfamiliar, it’s often a good moment to notice it rather than fight it.

With a bit more playing, most things drift back toward where they were before. Often that’s exactly what you want. But occasionally, you notice something new and interesting – and those moments are easiest to work with right after a break.

One small example: after some time away, I noticed how often my left hand wanted to adjust finger shape after the note was already down. Not pitch (I’ve trained myself to lift and replace) but shape, especially in relation to vibrato. As a newer sensation, it stood out more clearly, and that made it easier to observe (more on this to come – I need a bit more time to observe and experiment).

All of that noticing is useful, so long as you don’t undermine it by trying to "test" yourself right away.

I used to have certain benchmark passages – spots I’d try immediately to see whether I was "back." "If I can play this passage at this speed, I’m playing as well as I was before the break." This is neither true nor helpful.

I’ve read that in strength training, after a certain number of days off, you can expect to lose a predictable percentage of strength. Knowing that actually reduces the judgment factor, because you know it will take a specific amount of time to regain the lost strength. If I haven’t trained a muscle in this number of days, I will have lost this percentage of strength. And it will take this amount of time to get it back.

The violin isn’t as easily measurable, but the same principle applies. Muscles and coordination need time to re-acclimate. There’s just no way to rush it.

What does help is starting earlier than you think you need to, keeping sessions reasonable, and stacking a few good sessions over several days rather than cramming everything into the first day back.

Getting back in shape can make you feel like you should never have taken time off in the first place – like now you have to catch up just to be where you were. Instead, approach the discomfort as an expected outcome of intentional rest, and use it as an opportunity to reset.

Play music you like. Touch on some scales or studies. Avoid the temptation to jump straight into the hardest passages you were working on before the break. And resist the urge to immediately measure yourself against your old standard.

Happy practicing,
Nathan

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This essay originally appeared in my weekly e-mail newsletter, "From the Stand." Click here if you would like to subscribe.

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Violin Practice: The Upside of Downtime

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