If you've played an instrument in the past and like many people, have given it up because of your young age and lack of dedication there are times later in life when you have the urge to give it another shot.
We all know how that goes. You pick up your sax, trumpet, guitar, piano- play for a week and give up again. Why do we do this? I don't know =( and I'm having the urge to play the piano again. Sure you could say I'm following the same pattern as others when it comes to that cycle where I say "hey I want to do this! (IMMA BECOME A PRO GAMER MAN)" make a blog, look for motivation, go do it for a few weeks, and quit. But here I want to deviate from that a little bit, forums are for discussion after all.
Has anyone successfully picked up their old instrument after like a decade of inactivity and actually followed through with becoming good at playing it? Any tips on doing it? It's terribly easy to become unmotivated. In fact I've been sitting here trying to figure out how I've stuck to SC2 for a year, well maybe it's just a good game. ANYWAY- I really want to give this a real shot and do it properly. Usually when you try to make a comeback at something, you fall into a trap and lose focus too quickly and it becomes a huge waste of time.
If I were to equate this to SC2 I guess you could take a someone who hasn't played for months as an example. So how should he get back up to speed? Things like reviewing replays, catching up onto the meta game, practice your build order vs a computer to get used to playing an RTS again-etc. I'm not quite sure how to do that for the piano... Of course its a song I'm listening to that has inspired me again, but if I jump right into practicing that song, aren't I bound to fail? I just don't have any experience at successfully relearning an instrument and doing well, hopefully you guys can enlighten me.
Well, I am not old enough to have a decade of inactivity in anything, but I did use to play the violin for a while when I was younger, quit, and then went back to it after about 3 years or so. Still playing now. So I guess it might be a bit similar.
To begin with, I think if you played the Piano long enough while you were younger, you still might have some of that muscle memory left in you to play properly. My mom only had one year's worth of lessons when she was younger, stopped playing for about, I dunno, more than a decade, and then went back to it after she got married to my dad. She still plays pretty well, and the way she approached it was to just start off with scales. Just playing scales for maybe 30 minutes a day. Simple stuff like C major, A minor, etc etc, and some etudes (which by themselves sound like songs themselves).
Jumping into practicing a song of any difficulty above Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star is not only gonna make yourself sound pretty terrible, but also might cause you injury. My teacher always warns me never to practice any song after even a week of inactivity until I have warmed up properly. While playing scales and the like might be a bit boring (who wants to play arpeggios all day?) I know there are a few exercises that sound great, and are long enough to constitute a song.
And find stuff you want to play! If you quit because you didn't like the repertoire that your teachers threw at you as a kid, now's the chance to find stuff that you will enjoy. Try playing stuff by ear. Let loose. Enjoy yourself.
In my opinion, the key to relearning an instrument you used to play is to realize that the way in which you learn is drastically different from the way you used to learn. When you're a kid and your brain still has a remarkable level of plasticity, it seems like you can just absorb new skills like a sponge. You just play, and you get better. That's the strength of a young brain. You've seen all the child prodigies on YouTube.
As we get older though, we need to change our approach. It's sorta like the age-old debate about old progamers and how they just can't play like young progamers. Which is true in that the way in which they approach the game must change. For example, its hard to say that MarineKing's micro isn't downright sexy at times. One might be tempted to say "dat micro" or something like that when watching him play. But when SlayerS`BoxeR` is on fire, his games really are beautiful. Classy even. But its not about dodging Lurker spines with Marines and Medics anymore. Not that he can't micro, he's the Emperor. But when watching his games these days, at least I tend to think "wow, I've never seen anything like that before" instead.
As long as you are okay with the fact that it will take longer to reclaim your skills and learn new ones, and that it'll take slow and deliberate practice instead of carefree noodling, I think you can definitely pick up an old instrument successfully.
Execution-based exercises like playing an instrument and Starcraft 2, are annoying because you have to "use it or lose it." It's kind of lonely to practice by yourself so I recommend getting a teacher if you are serious about improving. Having a good teacher just helps you stay motivated and makes sure you are always getting challenged by new pieces. It's just the same way that athletes need the team environment to avoid getting burnt out from the amount of training. Also, a fun alternative might be to start a band with your friends.
A typical practice routine might go like: 1) Technique (Scales, Chords, Arpeggios) to warm up your fingers and train your general dexterity. For more interesting exercises, buy the exercise book by Charles Hanon. SC Equivalent: UMS maps or playing macro only versus AI.
2) Choose a song then play through it once or twice. SC Equivalent: Choosing a build-order and then laddering.
3) Then you want to start viewing the piece in chunks, breaking it into each distinct passage. Then identify (from listening to your run-through) the part you are having difficulty with. SC Equivalent: Watching your build order and finding your mistakes.
4) Play through the problematic passage slowly, one hand at a time until you can get it right. Pay attention to your fingering, preparation from the previous passage, preparation for the next passage, posture, hand-positioning. There are a lot of tricks and exercises for this that tend to be passed down orally from teacher to student only. SC Equivalent: This is hard to do in Starcraft but it's like when you play a ladder game while focusing on one aspect only, like not getting supply-blocked.
5) Then finally, when you can play the piece through without (too many) technical errors, you can start playing through larger sections of the piece to fine-tune your performance. SC Equivalent: Like... custom games that progamers use to prepare for an opponent in a tournament.
PS: I don't know how hard the song that you like is but definitely go for it, even if it is a bit tricky. And if you get a teacher, tell him or her to teach you the songs that you like. Practicing can be shitty sometimes but its a joy when you are playing your favorite songs.
Interesting and nice comparison Suichoy. I guess I'll have to look into scales and whatnot and give them a try. I did them when I first started playing the piano as a kid, but I hated them because it was so boring. But now that I think about it, neglecting to perfect those scales and developing the muscle memory to go across the piano would explain the road bumps I had when trying to learn increasingly difficult songs.
I'm not looking to play some amazing beautiful classic music, but just my favorites. I'm a huge huuuuge fan of Final Fantasy piano pieces, it's those kinds of songs you never get tired of. If anything my end goal would to play a song like this-
PERFECTLY LIKE THIS GUY.
Hopefully with my new mindset I gained from SC2 I'll be able to plow through the tough passages rather than just giving up too soon...
secret is you gotta love playing it, surprise surprise. That's why sometimes you can comeback to it later after you've matured/changed whatever and then get good at it because suddenly you love playing it. And yeah I did this with the piano about a year ago
I dropped my piano major after a cycling accident, but started trying to pick it up again after a few years. I was surprised at how well my fingers remembered how to play certain pieces, but also dismayed by how much less fine control I had over them. The most discouraging part to me is having to "grind" your way back to a level of skill you already achieved before. Easing myself back into practice with simple exercises and pieces was also difficult when I want to jump back into big pieces.
All that being said, if you get your basics down, it's a lot easier to come back. Whether you're learning it for the first or fifth time, improvement will only come with consistent, focused practice, but having the right foundation can speed up the "recovery" time.
EPT
