Maybe the secret is DON'T relax...

I'm off work from today. With the customers our company's factory supplies mostly shut down this week and next, the two days I did work this week were slow and uneventful. I guess you could say, I went into shut down mode as of last week.

And I think that's why I haven't been able to wring a single decent tune out of my piano in two days.

I tell you, I have really sucked playing since Sunday afternoon. I can't make anything swing. I can't put Maiden Voyage together, still haven't gotten halfway through the Ornithology licks, just...nothing. I can't play any songs from memory all the way through. Can't even make a simple tune like It Don't Mean a Thing sound straight up. Just...nothing. The only thing I can figure is that, since I play the piano mostly for relaxation, if I'm already mentally and physically relaxed, the playing doesn't go for me. Maybe that's it. I don't know. I know there are waves and that every musician will go through a phase where they can play well and then a phase where not so, and then a phase where they play poorly. I'm just wondering: why now? "Over relaxation", or call it, an altered mental state, is the only reason I can think of.

Anyway, my folks will be arriving in Alabama today to spend the Independence Day holidays with me and Mrs. S, so today I've got to focus on straightening the guest bedroom, vacuuming the house, and sundry details such as those. Maybe I'll play better this evening.