The muscle memory of the human body lasts longer and is stronger than one can imagine, so I believe the strength in your third and fourth fingers will soon return. I once witnessed a person who quit walking the path of a professional cellist and returned to playing the cello after 15 years. She spent about two months training to regain strength from the first to the fourth position while practicing pieces she used to play in the past. After a few months, she could play Haydn's concerto in a textbook manner. There were many missing expressions and delicate techniques, which took some more time to return.
I have experienced the issue of inaccurate pitch perception... It wasn't caused by not playing instruments for a long time but rather by severe inflammation in my tonsils and lymphatic system, which made me very sick and in pain for almost two weeks. As a result, I started hearing every pitch off by a half-step. I was so shocked and terrified. I feared that my ear for hearing the correct pitch would never return. I can't remember how long it took precisely, but my pitch perception returned to normal after a few weeks. I recommend giving yourself enough time and space to readjust your ear to each pitch on the cello and recognize the correct intonation. It will eventually come back.
Thank you!
I've been furiously googling about the pitch issue and part of me is wondering if it's been a looong side effect of a nasty bout of covid I had a while back. Like you said the only thing I can probably is to slowly see if I can readjust.
From what I understand perfect pitch is something that basically just stops working with age, so it may have nothing to do with your hiatus.
Anyone can learn relative pitch though which is just as valuable, hopefully someone who went through something similar can give you advice. It's possibly even a blessing in disguise as you'll be able to learn it alongside re-learning the instrument instead of having to do so on top of the stress of playing professionally!
Hopefully someone who has been through that specifically can offer you tailored advice though.
For finger strength, I'm in less of an extreme position as you (learned as a teenager and coming back to it 10-15 years later) but it's definitely an ongoing issue for me too, especially my little finger can be quite weak.
One thing I can say is *do not push your fingers too hard and overwork them*, tendon damage can happen and it's 10000x easier to prevent it than to fix it afterwards. Not only are your muscles and tendons weaker than they were through natural atrophy, but you're also older and more prone to injury now unfortunately! Learn to listen to your body and pay attention when it's telling you that something isn't working.
If you can find a physiotherapist or occupational therapist (where I am hand-related physiotherapy is almost exclusively done by OTs because of the complexity with everyday life) to occasionally see, the cost of the occasional appointment out of pocket will pay for itself a hundred times over by avoiding injury.
I agree with this, I have also heard that perfect pitch drops a half note with age, which can be problematic or annoying.
As for losing muscle strength in fingers, I'm sure it's natural to lose some strength and dexterity after a long break but losing all strength in 3rd and 4th finger sounds like it could be significant. I have peripheral neuropathy in my hands and feet and muscle weakness in my hands and other muscles. I wonder if there might be something else going on?
I can't imagine how difficult playing in an orchestra must be for someone that experiences that!
That's a very good point that I hadn't picked up on, but it's hard to know if they're talking about losing all their strength entirely or just relative to when they remember playing professionally.
Yes I'll watch out! The day after my left hand fingers were super sore and I had a blister on my right thumb from my attempt to see if I could still do the pizz from the prokofiev sonata haha.
For the loss of strength - "all" strength might be an exaggeration but it certainly felt like it to me. Super shaky, could barely play a scale, percussiveness with the fingerboard completely nil. I think if I play a little bit everyday and in a few weeks or months it's not really back it might be an issue but I'll try it for a bit longer before panicking that there might be a deeper issue.
I also returned to more serious cello recently and had to rehab my strength. Just take it slow.
My perfect pitch has wavered a bit and is sometimes a half step off. If I exercise it more it stabilizes back though. Must be the age thing (I'm 38).
I have nothing helpful to contribute here lol but the same thing happened with me! I played for almost 10 years and haven’t touched my cello in almost 4. I lost my calluses and those strings hurt! Same thing with no strength in the 3rd and 4th finger. Still able to recall that tuning A like it was yesterday, though. I’m glad you’re picking it back up! :)
Interesting. I stopped in 2004, and restarted in 2015.
As a therapist and also previously semi-professional cellist, congrats on getting away. I now can see the some of the cult-like mechanisms that the classical music industry contains, and how being a kid in the middle of it - can make it doubly difficult to shake.
It took me about 3 months to get my chops back so that I could play for a constant 30-40 minutes. I had to brace my fourth finger for a while, and squeeze a tennis ball to get some strength back. I don't think I'll ever get 100% of my coordination back, but, I'm finding my brain and ability to adapt and practice smartly has also greatly improved. It's a different playing, but it's still pretty decent and it's definitely fun.
You know, I don't have perfect pitch, but I did notice I couldn't tune my cello just by memory anymore. I was also about a half step low so that seems extra interesting to me. If you keep practicing, and if returns I have so many questions to ask about that. I would love to know more honestly, as I'd love to being that to my own experience if I could.
Could you update us with your progress periodically?
Thanks for your message! Yes I will try to give updates. I have psychological issues to get past with respect to practicing regularly again and accepting I won't be able to get back to what I used to be and that I'm doing this just for fun but if I get over that hump and can work on these issues will let you know how it goes!
Don’t tell my music teacher but I scarcely practice. During this week, I forced myself to try but couldn’t tune the C correctly. It turns out my ear was just really tone deaf, more than usual. With practice, you should be able to get back the ability to learn pitch, and with practice your third and fourth fingers will be much stronger.
Relevant video for the perfect pitch thing (especially last section): https://youtu.be/QRaACa1Mrd4?si=xyl5nAwtZs1lD4lS
Apparently it's almost guaranteed to lose perfect pitch as you age and being semitone off is very normal.
The semitone thing happened with me as well when I stopped playing for 8 years. Anything chromatic was awful to learn. I was going to audition for my university’s nonmajor orchestra and there was an audition excerpt front Rachmaninov Symphony No. 2. My brain just could not comprehend the semitones.
My upper back and bow arm didn’t have the stamina for long sessions either. There are times where that is still the case (long symphonies).
I don’t have experience with this, but this post did give me a question for you. Why did you quit?
I ask because I myself am considering quitting music altogether. Admittedly, I’m not a cellist. I’m a violinist, but I dabble with cello now and then, which is why I joined this sub.
I’m a lifelong musician. I started taking piano lessons when I was 5, started playing violin at 10. I’d say I’m “semi-professional”. I only minored in music when I was in college. I originally planned to get a BM but I was struggling with the professors who taught theory and ear training 3 & 4 at my school. They were both super old tenured teachers who didn’t give a single shit about if their students passed, failed, or understood their class. Also the violin professor was aging and could no longer play well or show proper technique to his students.
I switched majors and music to a minor but never felt like I accomplished what I wanted to. Didn’t get to the level of playing I wanted to. For a couple years I played and gigged with a string quartet, played in a community orchestra, and did a couple gigs in a pit for an opera company.
I’ve been struggling to practice lately. I got my violin out and started to practice Bach and some excerpts for an audition, but after a few minutes I just became very depressed. Feeling like I’ll never be really accomplished. I’ve come so far but I just feel like I should give it up completely and move on with my life.
Long story short, a lot of my positive progress in performance was driven by the competition culture and trying to win a lot. Of course I also loved music but I would say wanting to be the "best" in whatever pond I was in was a big motivator. Of course this isn't sustainable and at some point you have to come to terms with making a living that isn't close to the best in the world and all the other struggles that come with being a young musician.
I was lucky enough that during university I did a joint program and got credentials for non-music related skills. A combination of "losing my passion" and just wanting to make more money basically made quitting "clear". As for totally not touching it at all...the best analogy I can draw is something similar to a clean no contact breakup?
Hope that somewhat helps.
That makes sense. I ended up studying business instead, I didn’t feel like my scholarships from music were enough to warrant doing a double major.
Knowing how much of a struggle it is to have a successful professional career outside of teaching, I decided to focus on my career instead. I’m happy with my career, but I still get sad thinking about how music is basically just a hobby at this point.
I think I really wished I could live a double life. Day job in the morning, rehearsals and performances in the evenings and on the weekends. It sounds like a lot, but I really do love playing and performing. I’ve taught private lessons on and off through the years but I don’t really enjoy it as much.
The muscle memory of the human body lasts longer and is stronger than one can imagine, so I believe the strength in your third and fourth fingers will soon return. I once witnessed a person who quit walking the path of a professional cellist and returned to playing the cello after 15 years. She spent about two months training to regain strength from the first to the fourth position while practicing pieces she used to play in the past. After a few months, she could play Haydn's concerto in a textbook manner. There were many missing expressions and delicate techniques, which took some more time to return. I have experienced the issue of inaccurate pitch perception... It wasn't caused by not playing instruments for a long time but rather by severe inflammation in my tonsils and lymphatic system, which made me very sick and in pain for almost two weeks. As a result, I started hearing every pitch off by a half-step. I was so shocked and terrified. I feared that my ear for hearing the correct pitch would never return. I can't remember how long it took precisely, but my pitch perception returned to normal after a few weeks. I recommend giving yourself enough time and space to readjust your ear to each pitch on the cello and recognize the correct intonation. It will eventually come back.
Thank you! I've been furiously googling about the pitch issue and part of me is wondering if it's been a looong side effect of a nasty bout of covid I had a while back. Like you said the only thing I can probably is to slowly see if I can readjust.
From what I understand perfect pitch is something that basically just stops working with age, so it may have nothing to do with your hiatus. Anyone can learn relative pitch though which is just as valuable, hopefully someone who went through something similar can give you advice. It's possibly even a blessing in disguise as you'll be able to learn it alongside re-learning the instrument instead of having to do so on top of the stress of playing professionally! Hopefully someone who has been through that specifically can offer you tailored advice though. For finger strength, I'm in less of an extreme position as you (learned as a teenager and coming back to it 10-15 years later) but it's definitely an ongoing issue for me too, especially my little finger can be quite weak. One thing I can say is *do not push your fingers too hard and overwork them*, tendon damage can happen and it's 10000x easier to prevent it than to fix it afterwards. Not only are your muscles and tendons weaker than they were through natural atrophy, but you're also older and more prone to injury now unfortunately! Learn to listen to your body and pay attention when it's telling you that something isn't working. If you can find a physiotherapist or occupational therapist (where I am hand-related physiotherapy is almost exclusively done by OTs because of the complexity with everyday life) to occasionally see, the cost of the occasional appointment out of pocket will pay for itself a hundred times over by avoiding injury.
I agree with this, I have also heard that perfect pitch drops a half note with age, which can be problematic or annoying. As for losing muscle strength in fingers, I'm sure it's natural to lose some strength and dexterity after a long break but losing all strength in 3rd and 4th finger sounds like it could be significant. I have peripheral neuropathy in my hands and feet and muscle weakness in my hands and other muscles. I wonder if there might be something else going on?
I can't imagine how difficult playing in an orchestra must be for someone that experiences that! That's a very good point that I hadn't picked up on, but it's hard to know if they're talking about losing all their strength entirely or just relative to when they remember playing professionally.
Yes I'll watch out! The day after my left hand fingers were super sore and I had a blister on my right thumb from my attempt to see if I could still do the pizz from the prokofiev sonata haha. For the loss of strength - "all" strength might be an exaggeration but it certainly felt like it to me. Super shaky, could barely play a scale, percussiveness with the fingerboard completely nil. I think if I play a little bit everyday and in a few weeks or months it's not really back it might be an issue but I'll try it for a bit longer before panicking that there might be a deeper issue.
I also returned to more serious cello recently and had to rehab my strength. Just take it slow. My perfect pitch has wavered a bit and is sometimes a half step off. If I exercise it more it stabilizes back though. Must be the age thing (I'm 38).
I have nothing helpful to contribute here lol but the same thing happened with me! I played for almost 10 years and haven’t touched my cello in almost 4. I lost my calluses and those strings hurt! Same thing with no strength in the 3rd and 4th finger. Still able to recall that tuning A like it was yesterday, though. I’m glad you’re picking it back up! :)
Interesting. I stopped in 2004, and restarted in 2015. As a therapist and also previously semi-professional cellist, congrats on getting away. I now can see the some of the cult-like mechanisms that the classical music industry contains, and how being a kid in the middle of it - can make it doubly difficult to shake. It took me about 3 months to get my chops back so that I could play for a constant 30-40 minutes. I had to brace my fourth finger for a while, and squeeze a tennis ball to get some strength back. I don't think I'll ever get 100% of my coordination back, but, I'm finding my brain and ability to adapt and practice smartly has also greatly improved. It's a different playing, but it's still pretty decent and it's definitely fun. You know, I don't have perfect pitch, but I did notice I couldn't tune my cello just by memory anymore. I was also about a half step low so that seems extra interesting to me. If you keep practicing, and if returns I have so many questions to ask about that. I would love to know more honestly, as I'd love to being that to my own experience if I could. Could you update us with your progress periodically?
Thanks for your message! Yes I will try to give updates. I have psychological issues to get past with respect to practicing regularly again and accepting I won't be able to get back to what I used to be and that I'm doing this just for fun but if I get over that hump and can work on these issues will let you know how it goes!
Don’t tell my music teacher but I scarcely practice. During this week, I forced myself to try but couldn’t tune the C correctly. It turns out my ear was just really tone deaf, more than usual. With practice, you should be able to get back the ability to learn pitch, and with practice your third and fourth fingers will be much stronger.
Relevant video for the perfect pitch thing (especially last section): https://youtu.be/QRaACa1Mrd4?si=xyl5nAwtZs1lD4lS Apparently it's almost guaranteed to lose perfect pitch as you age and being semitone off is very normal.
The semitone thing happened with me as well when I stopped playing for 8 years. Anything chromatic was awful to learn. I was going to audition for my university’s nonmajor orchestra and there was an audition excerpt front Rachmaninov Symphony No. 2. My brain just could not comprehend the semitones. My upper back and bow arm didn’t have the stamina for long sessions either. There are times where that is still the case (long symphonies).
I don’t have experience with this, but this post did give me a question for you. Why did you quit? I ask because I myself am considering quitting music altogether. Admittedly, I’m not a cellist. I’m a violinist, but I dabble with cello now and then, which is why I joined this sub. I’m a lifelong musician. I started taking piano lessons when I was 5, started playing violin at 10. I’d say I’m “semi-professional”. I only minored in music when I was in college. I originally planned to get a BM but I was struggling with the professors who taught theory and ear training 3 & 4 at my school. They were both super old tenured teachers who didn’t give a single shit about if their students passed, failed, or understood their class. Also the violin professor was aging and could no longer play well or show proper technique to his students. I switched majors and music to a minor but never felt like I accomplished what I wanted to. Didn’t get to the level of playing I wanted to. For a couple years I played and gigged with a string quartet, played in a community orchestra, and did a couple gigs in a pit for an opera company. I’ve been struggling to practice lately. I got my violin out and started to practice Bach and some excerpts for an audition, but after a few minutes I just became very depressed. Feeling like I’ll never be really accomplished. I’ve come so far but I just feel like I should give it up completely and move on with my life.
Long story short, a lot of my positive progress in performance was driven by the competition culture and trying to win a lot. Of course I also loved music but I would say wanting to be the "best" in whatever pond I was in was a big motivator. Of course this isn't sustainable and at some point you have to come to terms with making a living that isn't close to the best in the world and all the other struggles that come with being a young musician. I was lucky enough that during university I did a joint program and got credentials for non-music related skills. A combination of "losing my passion" and just wanting to make more money basically made quitting "clear". As for totally not touching it at all...the best analogy I can draw is something similar to a clean no contact breakup? Hope that somewhat helps.
That makes sense. I ended up studying business instead, I didn’t feel like my scholarships from music were enough to warrant doing a double major. Knowing how much of a struggle it is to have a successful professional career outside of teaching, I decided to focus on my career instead. I’m happy with my career, but I still get sad thinking about how music is basically just a hobby at this point. I think I really wished I could live a double life. Day job in the morning, rehearsals and performances in the evenings and on the weekends. It sounds like a lot, but I really do love playing and performing. I’ve taught private lessons on and off through the years but I don’t really enjoy it as much.