Cognitive (?) problem

[downtownpiano]

I've been playing professionally for decades, and have no problem playing solo and in chamber settings.  And until recently, played with a number of conducted ensembles in contemporary music.

But a couple of years ago, I began noticing I was having trouble following a conductor; i.e. I would get lost easily.  When I saw a neurologist for a numbness issue, I had all sorts of tests done and my old brain is just fine, but I was low in Vitamin B-12, so I started taking that, and that solved the numbness problem, but not the problem "following."  By the way, I don't have a problem with stage fright.

Has anyone ever experienced such a thing, and have you any ideas for solutions?

Many thanks.

[lostinidlewonder]

I'm sorry for your situation. Can you elaborate how you have trouble following conductor and get lost? Can you not see the conductor or hear the orchestra? Are you still ok playing duets with piano or other instruments outside of orchestra setting?

[downtownpiano]

Hi.  It's hard to describe.  It's probably between looking down at the music and looking up at the conductor.  Sometimes when I look at the music and then back at the conductor, he's on a different part of the bar than I think he's going to be.  Maybe I misinterpret the conductor's gesture.  Probably if I were able to memorize the part there would be no problem.  Also these are contemporary scores that may involve changing meters and difficult figurations.  Maybe I'm rushing or slowing internally?  I've heard about beta-blockers, wonder if these would help.

It's odd, because I used to have no trouble with this.

Also, no trouble with nonconducted music, ensemble or solo.

[timothy42b]

Are you losing the pulse when playing with others?

I think that I've noticed this with both organists and pianists as they age.  Timing is one of those things we lose, like muscle mass, memory, the speed at which we can acquire information, and the ability to multitask.

Just a possibility, some concentrated metronome work might help.  Experienced pianists don't usually spend much time with one after the student years, but later on in life I think we need to recalibrate. 

[indianajo]

I've developed a bubble at the back of my eyes age 63 1/2, that has dramatically lowered my ability to notice things.  I see the reflection of my optic nerve, a big black spot, right in the middle of the center of interest. So the difference between dark and light, colors, is overlaid by this black blotch.   The opthamaligist said "every old person gets that", "there is no treatment for it"  and gave me a free brochure on "floaters".  I miss a lot of visual cues that I never would have before. I'm even having trouble spotting differences in screw sizes when they are mixed in the same bin, something I never had trouble with before.   
I am having no trouble with my rhythm, and my memorization is getting to be as good as it was when I was a teenager, after a 47 year break in serious practicing  to work for a living.
I am continually amazed at how professional orchestras stare at the music stand.  Perhaps they don't give professionals enough rehearsal time to memorize everything?  In high school band, after a few weeks of rehearsal, we were expected to watch the director every minute.  If he threw in a pause, a new tempo change, or removed a stinger or added an extra one, we were expected to follow without mistake.  One of the advantages of unpaid amateur musicians, I suppose, plenty of rehearsal time.  Pop bands, they have a standard book they play a standard way on one tour; that would get to be so boring I imagine.  

[iansinclair]

It happens.  What you are describing sounds to me like a short -- fractions of a second -- lapse in concentration.  It is something which, regrettably, does sometimes happen as we get older (ask me how I know...!)(I was just using that pencil -- where did I put it?).

The vitamin B-12 -- and the rest of the B group vitamins -- may help; you might ask your medical man about it, and see if perhaps the dose can be raised safely.

[indianajo]

This article just came up on bbcnews.co.uk about the cognative problems of middle age:
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-31849855
Apparently some changes are to be expected. 
I do a lot of aerobic exercise (bicycling mostly) to create enough endomorphine that I don't feel the bone spurs in my knees caused by lack of cartledge. (Army damage from running in combat boots 18 years).   I also am on a sort of mediterranean diet, with canola oil substituting for the mono-hydrogenated olive oil. I also eat about 30% vegetable matter by weight anyway, plenty of starch (low sugar wheat bread instead of pasta) and very little meat. I'm down to about 1.2 ounce per meal, or 2 oz if I'm eating wet tuna fish.
My chloresterol and tri-glyceride numbers are way down compared to the last year I was working, third shift which led to poor diet because of the poor choices available out of the machines at work.  Food taken in was just stolen out of the refrigerator. 
So my lack of symptoms I can detect at age 64.7 may be explained be these proactive things. I'm no good at remembering names and I can only distinguish about 80 types of faces, but these are problems I had as a child and a teenager, so they are just types of intelligence I don't have.  I have plenty of musical memory and ability to do mechanics and engineering, so my intelligence pallette is a bit warped from normal.  But I can't see it is deteriorating any.
But the guy that wrote the bbc article is, and he says this is rather normal.  My sympathy. I was hoping deterioration might happen in the 80's or later, when it hit one grandfather and one grandmother.  Both deteriorated markedly after physical problems stopped their ability to exercise.  My grandmother stopped walking up the mountain because her companion went in a nursing home.  Then her mind got stuck in a rut with poor short term memory. My grandfather got imobilized by foot and leg damage caused by poor sugar control for diabetes, and then his mental ability fell off a cliff in a couple of years between age 88 and 90.  So, read the bbc news and keep doing what they say- mediterranean diet and plenty of aerobic exercise, in 25 minute bursts to follow Dr Cooper's Aerobics plan in his books.  I'm doing so. I hope to see you posting here cogently for 30 to 40 more years.   

[falala]

I've been playing professionally for decades, and have no problem playing solo and in chamber settings.  And until recently, played with a number of conducted ensembles in contemporary music.

But a couple of years ago, I began noticing I was having trouble following a conductor; i.e. I would get lost easily.  When I saw a neurologist for a numbness issue, I had all sorts of tests done and my old brain is just fine, but I was low in Vitamin B-12, so I started taking that, and that solved the numbness problem, but not the problem "following."

Are you sure you haven't just been playing with worse conductors?