If you used to play an instrument to a high standard and then haven't played in a good while, what is the best way to get back into things? I am not exactly going to be able to jump straight back into preparing the Hoffmeister, but I'm not exactly "Tune a Day" either. What sort of level do you pitch back in, and any suggestions for particular things to practice in studies, etc.? I'd love to go back into orchestra but that's a non-starter for all sorts of reasons just now. I keep getting my treble and alto clef confused again.

Hey there...

I'm new too and have only just started getting back into the piano after 20 years. I used to be at grade 8 level and before I started lessons I would play through peices that were at grade 5 and slowly increased the level so that by the time I started lessons I was stumbling through a grade 8 piece. I wouldn't pitch it too high to start with or you may end up feeling defeated, start on something you know you can play and then you'll get a bit of a boost and the confidence to tackle something a bit trickier.

However, it was and still is frustrating to realise how much I have lost over the years but I'm so focussed on getting back up to that level and far beyond that.

But it's not only the practical side, music theory has totally gone out the window for me. I'm sure it's all stored away somewhere and when my teacher said 'the sub-dominant key' the other day at first I wondered what he was on about, and then there was some faint familiarity and then it all came back to me!

I think the key things are patience, time and of course practise. Oh yes and get back into your scales!

Good luck

Zoe

Everything Zoe J has said applies to me aswell. I re-started clari at Christmas 23 years after getting Grade 8. While I was encouraged by the fact I could still remember how to put it together and which end to blow in all else was a mystery to me.

I have started off going through Grade 5 stuff to get back into it and it is still stored up in the old brain it's just a matter of finding where I've put it amongst all the other rubbish I've managed to amass over the years.

Scales, scales and more scales really helps aswell.

I find I have weeks where I don't seem to make much progress then suddenly a technique seems to pop into my playing from nowhere.

I have also found going back to studying theory has helped with my playing too.

I got a teacher quite quickly after re-starting as there is a danger that you may find poor technique creeping in and you don't realise.

Lois

Hi Rose,

when did you start/stop playing in the Army? I wonder if I ever marched behind you!

Did you ever do Edinburgh tattoo? If you ever yelled at a piccolo player who fell down after getting smashed in the face by some bagpipes... I can't remember the years, everything has gone blurry. Technically I was Lowland TA band, then some FTRS service, and the standard pretending which went on for the tattoo, bands which were unable to field a whole band would send spare uniforms and the Edinburgh resident bands would don them and march for whoever! I think I have pretended to be the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in my time. Not that anyone knows that.

Nope, never did Edinburgh. I'm so old that I marched at Wembley for the Queens Jubilee Review in 1977. That was a superb event, massed bands and something like 150 plus pipers. Something you never forget...

I think firstly you have to determine how much time you can dedicate to your instrument. The danger for anyone returning to something that they were previously good at is that they might try to start from where they left off. I think once you have decided where you want to be in terms of playing & if it is in a serious capacity you set yourself some goals. If you try to much to soon you could burn out whatever desire you have to get back to where you once were as a player. You just have to remember that it does not happen over night & that can be a bitter pill to swallow for someone that might have been at a very high standard.

I am not saying that I was at a very high standard when I finished playing yrs ago but one thing I had was a very nice tone on the flute. When I went back playing I found this to be the most frustrating part of going back,as it has taken a lot of hard work to get my tone anywhere near what it was.
I use to spend way to long working on tonal exercises & it really took a lot out of me,so much so that when I finished practising these exercises I use to put the flute away. This in turn meant that I was not getting anything else done. I think you can see where I am going with this! I was beginning to loose heart.

I think once you set yourself some realistic goals and decide how much time you can set a side for practising then you can work out a programme of practise. I try spend time practising where I am weakest playing without over doing it and then move on to other areas. Once I have finished doing all the graft IE scales,arpeggios,dominants sevenths and diminished sevenths I practise my pieces. If you can work out a schedule to get some of this done while incorporating some time to play pieces that you enjoy playing you will be on the right track. The enjoyment factor has to be paramount & anything else you accomplish along the way is a bonus.

I totally agree with Zoe, patience and allowing yourself the time to improve are the key to success.

Best of luck,

Philip.

My advice is dig out some old music of a standard approximately 2 grades below where you were when you stopped. Play through some of it; if it's too hard drop down another level, if it's too easy go up. When you find something you feel confident sight-reading, work through that and gradually raise the bar until you've regained your confidence and refreshed your skill. This does of course depend on you still having all your old books lying around! If you don't, borrow some from a friend/library or find some cheap second-hand books on Amazon or eBay for this process.

I gave up piano three years ago and started again a couple of weeks back. I was about grade 4-5 standard, and picked up the books I was playing when I left off. This was an utter failure, I could barely stumble through a few bars. I found some old books going all the way back to grade 1 and went through them until I found something I could sight-read comfortably. On day 1 I was stumbling through my old grade 1 pieces, by day 4 I'd started working on some grade 3 pieces. I intentionally chose pieces I didn't previously study, so I could get a better idea of what I could sight-read and how long it was taking me to learn things. It took me about a week to piece together one grade 3 piece from an old grade selection, and I've now got about 2/3 of three pieces in that book running fairly smoothly. I'm aiming to be back at my prior standard within a few months, and will be finding a teacher in a month or so (I would have done so already if not for a short-term cash flow issue).

How far back you need to go and how long it takes you to get back depends on what standard you were at before giving up and how long you'd been having lessons. With violin I'd been playing for ten years and was around grade 8 standard when I gave up, and can still make a reasonable attempt at grade 7 pieces (I haven't made a serious attempt to re-start violin, I just dabble occasionally). With piano I'd been playing for half that time before the break and so the piano wasn't cemented in my brain so well, and I also found the co-ordination and dexterity required for piano was harder to recover - though this may be due to the reasons above.