Playing again after 20 years

[20yearbreak]

Hello all!

I rediscovered the piano again after almost a 20 year break.  Crazy Eh?  I played for about 5 years as a child.  I've been having a great time lately practicing about 1 hour a day since mid July.

I'm really into ragtime.  Memorization has always been my strength so I'll tend to memorize pieces well before I can play them decently.  I'm getting ready to start learning my 5th Rag.  (Sensation)  So far I've learned:

The Entertainer
The Maple Leaf Rag
The Athlete's Rag
Kansas City Rag

A part of me thought maybe I should take lessons again but I'm not really sure.  Maybe someone can give some guidance.  For me, the most difficult thing is accuracy.  I'm not looking to become a concert pianist.  I'd just like to improve my skills.  I'm not a great sight reader but that doesn't really matter much to me as if I want to learn a piece I'll just memorize it in no time.  After that it's a matter of speeding up and accuracy.

I can tell I've been slightly improving on each piece as time goes on.  The Maple Leaf is especially challenging.  I definitely make some errors when playing that piece.  I'm hoping they will eventually fade away.  I've read that it's best to just slow down and play accurately then speed up.  It is not nearly as fun though that way.  At times, it feels like I get more accurate when I'm just enjoying the music playing at an appropriate speed.  It's odd.

[awesom_o]

I'd just like to improve my skills.  I'm not a great sight reader but that doesn't really matter much to me as if I want to learn a piece I'll just memorize it in no time.

You may find that once you start wanting to learn more complex pieces of music, you won't be able to memorize them very quickly, and your lack of sight-reading skill will hold you back from being able to assimilate things.

Good to hear you are interested in piano again after such a long hiatus! I'm curious....What prompted this joyous turn of events?

[20yearbreak]

You may find that once you start wanting to learn more complex pieces of music, you won't be able to memorize them very quickly, and your lack of sight-reading skill will hold you back from being able to assimilate things.

Good to hear you are interested in piano again after such a long hiatus! I'm curious....What prompted this joyous turn of events?

A friend's piano and viewing youtube got me going again.  There are so many great videos on youtube.  If only that existed 20 years ago. 

[hfmadopter]

Slowing down is your key to success on those pieces where you lack accuracy and want to gain it. You slow down to absorb the correct movements through those rough passages as a practice exercise, not to perform it. You need to form some sort of routine for this that works for you, if you just keep flying through it will not improve and may even fall apart worse when you go to perform it for someone. It is your weak point in the given piece. Try it, I assure you it will help. Take those rough spots and make them temporary studies of their own, they will become your strong points in the given piece.

Welcome back, I too was away for many years and returned some 19 months ago now. There are a lot of us returnees here at PS !

[20yearbreak]

Slowing down is your key to success on those pieces where you lack accuracy and want to gain it. You slow down to absorb the correct movements through those rough passages as a practice exercise, not to perform it. You need to form some sort of routine for this that works for you, if you just keep flying through it will not improve and may even fall apart worse when you go to perform it for someone. It is your weak point in the given piece. Try it, I assure you ill will help. Take those rough spots and make them temporary studies of their own, they will become your strong points i the given piece.

Welcome back, I too was away for many years and returned some 119 months ago now. There are a lot of us returnees here at PS !

Thanks for the advice.  Rediscovering the piano is great.  I think I just need to strike a balance in my practice sessions.  Leave time for "slow play" and some time for "fun play" just enjoying the music.

On a side note, right now I only know a handful of songs by memory.  So I can run through them all pretty easily in my session + continue learning a new song.  Is there any good way to maintain muscle memory once I get several pieces under my belt?  I mean, there will come a time when there's just no way to practice them all I imagine.  Muscle memory is really weird.  It's like for the Entertainer I don't really even know the notes anymore.  My hands just make it work.  For me, there's 3 stages:

1. Sheet reading (very slowly).  With ragtime this is fun because there's always something weird in each ragtime piece that makes you go what the?  Or just figuring out what fingers to use where is sometimes a challenge.
2. Piece is memorized, I know the notes but still play it very slow.  I sometimes question if the notes are right at this stage.  It doesn't sound correct until played a little faster a lot of times.  But not too fast.
3. My hands know the notes but I don't. 

[20yearbreak]

BTW, if anyone is curious this is a video of me playing.  This is about where I'm at right now.

[hfmadopter]

BTW, if anyone is curious this is a video of me playing.  This is about where I'm at right now.

I give you credit for getting through it with all the background noise going on ! You have a bunch of work done that you deserve credit for. And a bunch to do though. You can't continue to play with your hands tight like that and you never will get speed that way either. You will be needing some basic study in finger and hand control. I'm  not knocking what you have done, just this is a matter of fact.

[d3boy2002]

You can't continue to play with your hands tight like that and you never will get speed that way either. You will be needing some basic study in finger and hand control.

Yeah I agree, form is the first thing anyone in anything they do should try and master, because it is the foundation that links the body and the instrument. The better your form, the better your consistency, and this is how you can easily judge what to work on to get better.

But for 20 years break, seems like you're doing pretty well! Rhythm, relaxation, all just comes with practice. But things like missing notes can be fixed right now, as it is just simple muscle memory. Depending on how "perfectly" you want to play the piece, the way I started getting back into piano was by practicing slowly (not once at normal or fast tempo) for weeks, until you get it right, then slowly increase tempo. Not sure if this is the proper way to "get back into the groove" though.

I also heard somewhere that a lot of your subconscious is built from age 0-6 so it might come easier to you than normal through your subconscious!

[20yearbreak]

I give you credit for getting through it with all the background noise going on ! You have a bunch of work done that you deserve credit for. And a bunch to do though. You can't continue to play with your hands tight like that and you never will get speed that way either. You will be needing some basic study in finger and hand control. I'm  not knocking what you have done, just this is a matter of fact.

Thanks for watching.  Feedback is good.  Yeah, I think I'm kind of stiff by nature.  What would you recommend for me to improve my finger and hand control?  BTW, my right index finger is permanently bent.  It adds a little extra challenge to the mix.  Good for mouse clicks...  bad for the black keys.  I cut a tendon when changing a hubcap a long time ago. 
 

[20yearbreak]

Yeah I agree, form is the first thing anyone in anything they do should try and master, because it is the foundation that links the body and the instrument. The better your form, the better your consistency, and this is how you can easily judge what to work on to get better.

But for 20 years break, seems like you're doing pretty well! Rhythm, relaxation, all just comes with practice. But things like missing notes can be fixed right now, as it is just simple muscle memory. Depending on how "perfectly" you want to play the piece, the way I started getting back into piano was by practicing slowly (not once at normal or fast tempo) for weeks, until you get it right, then slowly increase tempo. Not sure if this is the proper way to "get back into the groove" though.

I also heard somewhere that a lot of your subconscious is built from age 0-6 so it might come easier to you than normal through your subconscious!

Interesting.  I wondered about that.  Like am I doing damage if I practice it slowly then turn around the next day and play it fast for fun (with more missed notes of course).  Maybe I'll try that for a month on a piece and see what happens.

[hfmadopter]

Thanks for watching.  Feedback is good.  Yeah, I think I'm kind of stiff by nature.  What would you recommend for me to improve my finger and hand control?  BTW, my right index finger is permanently bent.  It adds a little extra challenge to the mix.  Good for mouse clicks...  bad for the black keys.  I cut a tendon when changing a hubcap a long time ago.  
  

The bent finger will have a natural hook in it for the black keys, don't worry about that one LOL, but overall just slow practice and relax. I think I'd need to be with you in person to get your finger/hand position corrected or improved at least. You could start by relaxing your hands, get your wrists up a little bit from where they are now and get that High second knuckle position down a little bit, you have an acute angle in your bend fingers with a low wrist. Do this away from the piano, stand up straight, let your arms relax at your sides, do not tense up let everything relax including your grip of your hands. Observe your finger position or natural curve if you will. That is what you want your hands and fingers to look like out in front of you as you place your fingers on the keys. At least as a starting point. It may take some height position changes in your seating or it may not. Play some pieces that don't require octave work or so much octave work, add those in as studies to your ragtime you love. Do your study work with the intentions that this will all eventually improve your rag. You are going back to foundation work in all this but once corrected you won't need heavy revisits of that. And again, the work you have done is good but it includes this basic error, not in notes played but form.

Something I do is to loosely shake my hands out periodically as if they are wet. I also do five finger drum rolls with each hand on a desk top or any flat surface during the day. Anything to make all the fingers work independently of one another while away from the piano.

There probably are several Youtube videos on this subject of hand positions , relaxing for pianists etc, search them out.

[20yearbreak]

The bent finger will have a natural hook in it for the black keys, don't worry about that one LOL, but overall just slow practice and relax. I think I'd need to be with you in person to get your finger/hand position corrected or improved at least. You could start by relaxing your hands, get your wrists up a little bit from where they are now and get that High second knuckle position down a little bit, you have an acute angle in your bend fingers with a low wrist. Do this away from the piano, stand up straight, let your arms relax at your sides, do not tense up let everything relax including your grip of your hands. Observe your finger position or natural curve if you will. That is what you want your hands and fingers to look like out in front of you as you place your fingers on the keys. At least as a starting point. It may take some height position changes in your seating or it may not. Play some pieces that don't require octave work or so much octave work, add those in as studies to your ragtime you love. Do your study work with the intentions that this will all eventually improve your rag. You are going back to foundation work in all this but once corrected you won't need heavy revisits of that. And again, the work you have done is good but it includes this basic error, not in notes played but form.

Something I do is to loosely shake my hands out periodically as if they are wet. I also do five finger drum rolls with each hand on a desk top or any flat surface during the day. Anything to make all the fingers work independently of one another while away from the piano.

There probably are several Youtube videos on this subject of hand positions , relaxing for pianists etc, search them out.

Thanks for the info.  I'll give this a shot.  I was thinking of picking up a few easy holiday songs so I can use that as practice.  I'll probably also check out youtube.  I appreciate all the feedback.  This should get me moving in the right direction.  Reading between the lines, it sounds like if I find the right instructor it could potentially help me a bit.  Maybe I'll explore that path also.