Getting back in the groove

[ynos1000]

Hello everyone I need some advice, i am 26 years old and have been on a break from piano since high school. Now, that i am settled down with a job and i am out of school; i was wondering how i should  approach getting back into piano. I started playing around 8 years old took real lessons in middle school every week, i have played a few Rachmaninoff, Chopin preludes, Beethoven sonatas,  1 concerto A minor Grieg. I was thinking of starting out with  Jane Smisor Bastien Multi Key Reading to polish my sight reading skills, and perhaps start practicing one piece Rachmaninoff Elegy, thoughts? Thanks

[j_menz]

Quickest way to get back into the groove is to go back to your old repertoire, starting with some of the easier stuff, and bring it back up to speed.

[indianajo]

There is a muscle and coordination barrier after a 10 year layoff.  I took 16 years off.   I used Scott Joplin rags to build up muscles in fingers 4 & 5.  Magnetic, Paragon, Maple Leaf.  You could also return to exercise books like Edna Mae Berman (the higher number ones)  or Czerny etudes school of velocity.  But EMB and Czerny don't have that many octave exercises, IMHO.  Octave chord arpeggios might be another strength and coordination builder, although i didn't do that. I may some day.  Czerny gets you the turn under skills, although scales can do that, too. 
I repeated things I had done for fun, and after I had some strength back, the memory of the movements was still there.  I also bought a couple of pieces that were way too hard for me and jumped in. I didn't make a lot of progress with working and all, but had a lot of fun during the 6 months I was in a motel with my piano and didn't have a house to repair. Later I had a rent house, but when I bought a house, practice time went way down until unemployment/retirement.  I'm making a lot of progress now.   

[pianoplunker]

Hello everyone I need some advice, i am 26 years old and have been on a break from piano since high school. Now, that i am settled down with a job and i am out of school; i was wondering how i should  approach getting back into piano. I started playing around 8 years old took real lessons in middle school every week, i have played a few Rachmaninoff, Chopin preludes, Beethoven sonatas,  1 concerto A minor Grieg. I was thinking of starting out with  Jane Smisor Bastien Multi Key Reading to polish my sight reading skills, and perhaps start practicing one piece Rachmaninoff Elegy, thoughts? Thanks

Perhaps sight reading Chopin Preludes would be a good place to start. I find a good challenge in trying to sight read pieces you learned long enough ago not to have the memorized anymore.