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Took about 7 years out of the piano. After starting again I found the same issue. It was frustrating and awkward to try to play old pieces. I kept one because i

Took about 7 years out of the piano. After starting again I found the same issue. It was frustrating and awkward to try to play old pieces. I kept one because it was just the right level to re-engage. After a few weeks of playing things started to come back and old pieces would just flow from the fingertips if I let myself go and stopped overthinking things. If I rationalize it, there's what your brain thinks, what your eye sees, what you want to play and what your body is doing. And once I'm warmed up these are all connected better and when in the flow state I can dig out old muscle memory from 15-20 years ago

haswell 3y ago
The body knows how to do stuff. The more I pay attention, the more I realize that I (the thinking I) don’t get involved in most of it. This has been a very liberating realization. Really cool to hear that you’ve had a similar experience.
- djtango 3y ago
  Yep. Don't know if you're a programmer but I think it's ultimately abstraction. When you watch kids learn to walk it's super difficult. It's a whole body act and requires a bunch of coordination/timing of the core with the legs and hips. Similarly with piano if you start having to do things like arpeggios or scales very fast, you no longer have time to be 100% cognizant of the minutiae of what you're doing and the higher level action takes over. As a programmer I love to analyze and overthink so I enjoy physical activities as they ground me and remind me to let go and trust myself.
  - haswell 3y ago
    Yeah, I've written code my whole life, and spent most of it focused almost exclusively on that analytical way of thinking. The thing that Piano (and Yoga) has helped me see is how much intelligence is not of the thinking/analytical variety. I've gradually transitioned from seeing analytical thought as the only "valid" way of looking at the world to analytical thought being another tool in a toolbox and just one aspect of intelligence. How does my heart know how fast to beat? How do my vital organs function? Certainly not because I'm thinking about it :)

haswell 3y ago

The body knows how to do stuff. The more I pay attention, the more I realize that I (the thinking I) don’t get involved in most of it. This has been a very liberating realization. Really cool to hear that you’ve had a similar experience.

djtango 3y ago
Yep. Don't know if you're a programmer but I think it's ultimately abstraction. When you watch kids learn to walk it's super difficult. It's a whole body act and requires a bunch of coordination/timing of the core with the legs and hips. Similarly with piano if you start having to do things like arpeggios or scales very fast, you no longer have time to be 100% cognizant of the minutiae of what you're doing and the higher level action takes over. As a programmer I love to analyze and overthink so I enjoy physical activities as they ground me and remind me to let go and trust myself.
- haswell 3y ago
  Yeah, I've written code my whole life, and spent most of it focused almost exclusively on that analytical way of thinking. The thing that Piano (and Yoga) has helped me see is how much intelligence is not of the thinking/analytical variety. I've gradually transitioned from seeing analytical thought as the only "valid" way of looking at the world to analytical thought being another tool in a toolbox and just one aspect of intelligence. How does my heart know how fast to beat? How do my vital organs function? Certainly not because I'm thinking about it :)