Gary and Carol Happy Anniversary, I wish you many more!

On the subject of losing skill playing with age there's a couple of ways I look at it. I certainly have lost the technique that I once had playing piano. In the last 5 years since I started playing arrangers, my left hand has become real lazy the result of just playing chords on the arranger in the left hand.

I have always been a mediocre musician which is why I chose another career path. So I probably never really had the skills that many everyday working pros have. Nevertheless I still love playing and always will and hope to as long as I'm alive. It does get frustrating when sitting at a piano and not being able to play a piece as well as I once had. For me the sure sign of that is my hands getting stiff while playing.

Quote:
Originally posted by cgiles:
Ian, too bad you had to make all those sacrifices at the young age of 29 , but I guess all's well that ends well.

chas


I walked the same path as Ian except fast lane partying stopped at 32 years of age for me. Chas for this 55 year old as crazy as this may sound it was a gift. I know that if I didn't make the sacrifice when I did I most likely would not be sitting here participating in this forum, because I most likely would have wound up dead, in jail or an asylum.

I find I have as much energy and maybe more than I was 30, before changing my life style. I have run about a dozen marathons ( 26.2 mile road races and competed for 18 years in short distance triathlons. My typical day starts at 5:15 AM reading the newspaper. By 7 AM I'm on my way to the office, hit the gym 2 or 3 days during my 1 hour lunch break. By 6 PM I'm back home for dinner a little R and r with the family. By 9 PM when the others calling it a day, I sit at one of my keyboards and play till about 11:30 to 11 midnight PM. Most nights I have to force myself to quit playing, 12 midnight is the absolute cut off. I can live easily on 5 hours sleep any less than that and I'm toast the next day.

One comment here really struck me and I gotta tell ya it was by Zuki.
Quote:
I memorize everything I play and receive comments about that.


That's very impressive and I admire that. I'm sure I don't work at it hard enough but I don't seem to have the patience to spend the time memorizing,( never did as a youngster either) when I do it's a real struggle to get the memorization down. I'd welcome any suggestions or tips you have for memorizing music.



[This message has been edited by Stephenm52 (edited 10-01-2007).]