Piano playing tricks

[cuckoo]

Hello,

I am new to the PianoStreet and I hope I post my question in the right place.  I learned piano when I was little, stopped for years but now I am passionate about picking it up again.  I am not an advanced player or anything, I keep wondering why is it so difficult to remember how to play the songs despite after years of practice?  why is it not like learning how to skate, or ride a bike?  Now if I don't practise religiously, those songs will slip away!!  What's the tricks?  Is it age? Is it practice method?

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and insights.

[thinkgreenlovepiano]

Even with skating and riding a bike, if you don't do it for a long time, you will get a bit rusty.
I find that when I play a piece I haven't played for a long time, I except it to be as polished as the last time I played it, with good dynamics, expression, tempo etc. But it isn't, and sometimes I get discouraged because I have such high expectations... But I realize I have to sort of try and relearn the piece- maybe play very slowly or hands separately, practise the piece with certain exercises, or even figure out the fingering again because the fingering doesn't work for my hands anymore. With lots of practise, you will be as good as you were before, and then even better. =) Be patient, and I think what you learned before will come to you...

This is an interesting post, because I've been pulling a lot of my old pieces and trying to relearn them, and how to approach the relearning process has been on my mind quite a bit...

[birba]

Interesting post.  I recently retired and decided to bring back really old repertoire.  And I mean old.  For example, the Bartok suite that I haven't touched for 35 years at least, I took out and started practising.  In 4 days it was in shape.  The chopin scherzo, idem, in a day I had it even better then I remember playing it.  why?  because these were pieces I learnt when I was in my 20's.  I can't emphasize enough how important it is to learn as much repertoire as possible when you're young.  And  the older you get the faster they come back to you. 
I also try to learn new repertoire, but it's soooooooo slow.  The difference is amazing.

[cuckoo]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!  So I guess this is common to most people perhaps? 

[stevebob]

I think it's the norm, and is something that goes with the territory for all musicians.  Think of it as similar to language study:  if you don't use and practice a foreign language regularly, your proficiency becomes rusty.

The consolation is that you can "bring back" something (i.e., relearn) you once knew with far less time and effort than it would take to learn it from scratch.

[carbe]

Which pieces are they?

[cuckoo]

I love Beethoven and the pieces that I suffer from "memory lost" are op49, 79, 14 and other random pieces from Mendelssohn, Mozart and Bach.  I keep wondering it is not the pieces but somehow related to my practise habits, or how I learned the pieces initially that is incorrect. Which now I have to relearn them altogether!      

Thanks everyone for sharing your thoughts!

[birba]

I think also your age and how long you've been playing has a lot to do with it.