Restarting the piano after a long absence

[psipsi8]

Hello, I'm a new member and I wanted to share my experience with restarting the piano after a 15 year absence. Due to frequent moving and professional interests, I consciously decided(?) not to play the piano as I refused to just play for fun e.g. 1/2 hour a day, but I needed a purpose. I used to put in hours a day in order to achieve my ARCT diploma (Canada) alongside my university studies. After that, I had no purpose sadly but continued to play and learn new pieces while still living in the same city but after finishing my university studies I moved frequently for work and I didn't imagine that my hiatus from the piano would be this long: it just happened...To make a long story short, I acquired a piano three months ago and this was my first experience playing it on the first evening: I played my favourite piece which I had learnt very well previously (Bach Toccata in E minor) and strangely, I remembered even the deviations from the free score I printed out (Peter's edition, which was wrong in places) and within a few days, I was playing it almost as well as before.  The only really annoying thing, which took a couple of weeks to get over, was my change in pitch perception. It annoyed me very much and I was constantly checking what note I just played. But I've since gotten over it. In short, I have to say that I've learned 3 more Bach toccatas from scratch to a reasonable technical level so far. I went over to Beethoven's Tempest sonata, which I also had played at my ARCT exam and I found that I remembered where the hand crossings go. I think piano is really like a bicycle if one's gotten far enough. The only thing I had to look up was fingering for scales. I couldn't remember them properly.

[anacrusis]

Thanks for sharing! Hope you enjoy this new phase of your piano journey.

[psipsi8]

YES! Thank you. I want to encourage others not to give up. Any problems will eventually get straightened out. It was a bad idea to quit in the first place though. For many reasons.

[pianistavt]

Thanks for sharing.  I have a similar story.  For years after graduating from college, where I studied piano as a minor, I didn't have easy access to pianos and couldn't practice consistently.  But I never lost my intention to eventually resume piano studies.  Years later, after I had achieved a decent income, I bought a piano, and even though I was still working full time, I could practice a few  pieces, slowly.  I managed to do some collaborative projects with other amateur musicians and put together a solo recital, all performed here in my home.  Was good times.  I've taken early retirement now and can dedicate a lot more time to piano pursuits.  If you keep the flame alive, give it some fuel once in a while, eventually can become a true fire.