Memorization and mechanical abilities get better with age?

[rovis77]

Memorization and mechanical abilities get better with age?. I heard there are some people memorizing faster and playing better than when they were younger. What is your opinion on this?

[transitional]

I certainly am, but I'm only 16. I find that some Schubert sonata movements can be memorized after reading through about 20 times, though this doesn't account for the technical aspects of any pieces. I'm not great at working with technique, but the more I play, the better my technique gets even if I don't intentionally try to train it. As long as the fundamental principles are down, it's really not unrealistic to try to learn anything.

[brogers70]

Memorization and mechanical abilities get better with age?. I heard there are some people memorizing faster and playing better than when they were younger. What is your opinion on this?

Memorizing and playing are both learned skills which improve with practice, practice takes time, time makes you older, so definitely my abilities have gotten better with age. It does seem, though, that to get to the very highest levels of virtuosity, it may help to have started when very young, and maybe not just because doing so gives you more time to age.

[rovis77]

How old are you?

[brogers70]

How old are you?

Sixty-six.

[rovis77]

Sixty-six.

Very nice man, so you feel you memorize and learn faster now than when you were young?

[lelle]

I'm 32 now and am better technically and memorization wise than ever. I have a better skillset for memorization that enable me to remember larger chunks of music quickly in a way I couldn't when I was a teen, for example. My base technique is better so I can play easier, faster and with more control than before.

I'm sure it'll change at some point. There is no stopping the march of time after all.

[brogers70]

Very nice man, so you feel you memorize and learn faster now than when you were young?

I certainly learn and memorize faster now than I did 20-25 years ago, or even five years ago. There's no way of comparing how fast I learn and memorize now to how fast I'd be able to do so had I started when I was five years old, instead of at 40. (I did start classical guitar at 12, and played for many years until switching to piano, so I had some early training in music).

[martinn]

This has been discussed before. At some age the neuronal abilities start to decrease and keeps decreasing, at a rate differently for different people. This because the neuronal system, and cells in general age. However, you certainly can have much better learned skills and abilities, which means piano tasks are more efficient, and certainly everything learnt is helping you to do the tasks. Even learning completely new skills can be done with more or less effort. However, counteracting the aging body is not always easy.

[martinn]

For example, I have much much more problems with learning a new language at my middle age, than it was in primary school.

[martinn]

And well, some studies say, that if you tell yourself you can, and if you tell yourself you can’t then you can’t. The real difficulty in studyuing something so complex, is how to study it how to get a sensible answer, or was even the question or methodology appropriate.

[jonslaughter]

You cannot generalize like this.

With age you you develop wisdom. Your experiences make you better. But you are decaying and your strength, enthusiasm, biology, etc are all working against you. It depends a lot on the person. Everyone will be different.

You will again a lot from age. Everything you learn stacks. But it also decays. It's best to learn all you can when you are young because you have a very long time for it to work for you. There are things in youth that you have at your disposal that you simply won't have when you are old. It's not necessarily that you won't be able to do the same things when you get older but they will be much more difficult and so most people will give up before they achieve it and it will never be the same if you learn it in your youth.

You will find out when you get older. It is not something that can really be expressed or communicated. It is something felt. I wish I would have worked harder when I was younger because now it is more difficult but it is also easier in some ways. Harder to concentrate and remember but easier to understand. I think kids typically want things so bad they distract themselves from achiving them or they never try because they've been told they can't do it.  A life time is a very very long time. You can't imagine how much you will have have done until you get to look back on it and see. It's like climbing a mountain. At the bottom all you see is something very difficult but when you are at the top you can look down and see how far you've climbed. Of course the air is thinner, you are exhausted, and very sore but you have a perspective that you cannot fathom when you are young. When you are young you can only look up. When you are old you can only look down. (not entirely true but almost) Again, it means nothing until it means something. Some young people have more wisdom for their age than average. It is not a fault of age so much that our society isn't good at climbing mountains. I do think that is changing to some degree due to the "information highway" and over time, as long as humanity isn't destroyed by psychopathy, I think the youth will realize how much they can achieve and they will start to pass that down to their children. This is already done to some degree by a few but it will accelerate both in speed and size exponentially. It's already turned the cusp.

E.g., to be more specific. Take memorization. Memorization isn't a single thing. It is many things and depends on many factors such as health, experience, desire, etc. Because there are many variables all working to create the overall effect you can have some factors getting worse while others get better and the overall effect depends on all of that. It might increase for some and degree for others. Being chronically sick or unhealthy can destroy your memory and/or body. Depression can also cause major issues with memorization and other abilities.