Combatting dementia

[birba]

So i stopped practising after my last recital.  I mean really stopped.  I  didn't TOUCH a keyboard for 4 months.  I don't know why.  I guess if i don't have anything to work towards i'm not inspired to practise.  I just can't bring myself to play just for the hell of it.  (We won't go into this now as many doubts about my worth as a musician begin to rise...). Anyway, i found myself sort of "spacing out" at times.  Forgetting things,  misplacing important documents,  going into a room and forgetting why, etc, A colleague of mine said it's dangerous business for an instrumentalist to leave off practising.  Dementia could set in!  I can see his point.  We're used to focusing during practise time.  Training our mind to be here now.  Needless to say, i'm back at the keyboard...

[timothy42b]

Plus, you didn't post at all in August or October.

What's up with that? 

[birba]

I forgot?

[pianoplunker]

So i stopped practising after my last recital.  I mean really stopped.  I  didn't TOUCH a keyboard for 4 months.  I don't know why.  I guess if i don't have anything to work towards i'm not inspired to practise.  I just can't bring myself to play just for the hell of it.  (We won't go into this now as many doubts about my worth as a musician begin to rise...). Anyway, i found myself sort of "spacing out" at times.  Forgetting things,  misplacing important documents,  going into a room and forgetting why, etc, A colleague of mine said it's dangerous business for an instrumentalist to leave off practising.  Dementia could set in!  I can see his point.  We're used to focusing during practise time.  Training our mind to be here now.  Needless to say, i'm back at the keyboard...

I believe practicing does sharpen the brain, and like you ,have experienced the same "dementia" setting in.  I have even sat down at the piano and forgot what I was going to do! That is where mindless improvisation comes into play. My profession of running a computer network means I cannot be making mistakes at work, so I practice piano in the morning before work and leave all my mistakes right there at the piano waiting for me when I get home.  It seems to work, I dont make very many mistakes other than at the piano

[j_menz]

I practice piano in the morning before work and leave all my mistakes right there at the piano waiting for me when I get home. 

I have a cleaner come in and mop them up during the day.

[ted]

Might dementia not be an overly drastic self-diagnosis, birba ? Dozens of things can produce those symptoms. Have you actually been diagnosed with dementia by a medical professional ? Memory is a peculiar thing at the best of times. A while ago, at a reunion I could recall every name in all my primary school photos from sixty years ago, but I struggle to remember what I had for dinner three days ago. When I was a kid I was just as absent minded as I am now. My parents would send me to the shops for a packet of cigarettes and I'd come back with a cabbage.

Can you reason intensively, i.e. solve a mathematical puzzle ? Can you learn a new piano piece and remember it ? Do you struggle with vocabulary ? It's all very complicated, and I don't see why you should assume the worst.

[outin]

I was born with dementia...thought piano playing might do some good for that, but no...I find exactly the same issues there as I do in the daily life. But maybe I just haven't practiced long enough, lets see in 10 years...of course I will then be a bit closer to the age where normal people would start worrying about their memory failures