Relearning pieces

[tmjorden]

So i won a competition in early november and stopped practicing everything until now. I have to relearn them for the next stage in January. I'm really struggling with them and was wondering if anyone could help like give me tips to know what to do. I still have it all memorized but my muscle memory is really bad now. It's like i've never practiced them! Tips would be great!

[lostinidlewonder]

So you've lost so much in a month? That should not be the case if you learned them well. You can't have it all memorised but then say your muscular memory is bad, it's a contradiction. Your ask for help is super vague, I suggest you work with a teacher to get you on track. Why are you struggling to relearn them if a month ago you were playing them at competition winning standard? Seems strange as you have not really explained why it's difficult for you this time.

[tmjorden]

Yes I did learn them well so I'm just as confused as you are! Last year I had a couple bad performances because of muscle memory so i've really focused on seeing the notes in the head. So maybe i shouldn't say lost muscle memory but i feel very very uncorfortable playing these pieces 20 ticks lowers even. Thanks for responding if anyone could give me ways to practice it'd be great!

[bronnestam]

Learn the notes again, as if you had never seen them before, and learn them backwards, starting with the final chord ...

That is what I am doing and it works! But the work is surprisingly hard considering that I now relearn pieces I could play very well ... from the sheet. Don't touch the piano keys until you really can play the bars from memory in your head, then you will get rid of the muscle memory dependence.

[visitor]

i'm in the same boat as above and op. the skills are versatile and conditionally 'essential'. I had a drastic schedule change that sidelined some of the newer pieces I have been working on w / my teacher and a last minute recital opportunity sprang up, I was given up to a 10 minutes of music window, no way I could learn new or current pieces in enough time to make it so I pulled out a book I worked through about 4 years ago, surprisingly, a lot the ground work was still there so far as musical ideas but the mechanics had to be dug up and re hatched.

I found the above strategies effective.  More than anything, I have found that approaching it 'as new' that is, through the learning processes, finding opportunity to find new expressive elements and ways to execute it even better than you did in the past has helped. The 'familiarity' of the piece can be a killer, but trying to find a new 'freshness' to it allowed me to put fourth the effort needed to shore things up. i'm still on the wire on if i will be ready in time or not (i dropped one of the '3' and focused on the better 2 remaining). So it's  learning process for me too.

OP, if you focus on how you used to play it you'll frustrate yourself and that has an effect on how you currently play it. Set a goal/deadline and work towards it, use a metronome, etc. Get back to basics, the clean up process should move fast once you put in the necc. ground work, it's a grind, but it's necessary.