(1) pick up instrument; (2) play poorly on purpose; (3) now that your worst fear is already realized, move on and enjoy it:-)

Alternatively, give up. No, not the instrument! Rather, the unrealistic expectation that despite zero practice for a long period of time that the level of ability would somehow remain the same. But it will be re-learned, much more quickly than the first time.

A teacher told us what he thought was a funny story about his wife, who was on track to julliard or something playing piano as a kid, and then he bought her a nice piano when they were married and she discovered she couldn’t play anymore and basically never played again --they’re in their 60s now. I just felt so awful for her. You need good friends to help you over something like that.

I’m this way with sex. I haven’t had sex in six years, and I haven’t had decent sex in like fifteen.

I used to be so sexually confident. Now I avoid it because I’m scared of being shamed for sucking at it.

When I was 13, I decided I wanted to learn piano because I heard Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata and became obsessed with it. I already knew how to read sheet music from performing in choirs since the 3rd grade, so I just had to figure out where middle-C was on the piano and pluck out the rest of the keys from there. It only took me 2 weeks to completely decipher and memorize the Moonlight Sonata, without any instruction or lessons.

I was a natural at the piano, and I taught myself more complicated pieces over the next handful of years. My wife is super jealous of my skill because she had to take 4 years of piano lessons for her music college degree, and I, without any formal lessons, can play better than her.

Fast-forward a few decades. I haven’t been around pianos for so long, I’ve forgotten most everything I learned. I just bought a fancy electric piano at an estate sale (normally costs $5,000; family was willing to sell it for $240!) and I’m excited to play again, but I’ve been afraid to just sit down and figure out where my skill level is at now. Gonna be a lot of hard work just to get back into it. And I’m old now, so I’m hardly the impressive “teen piano genius” I used to be. Now I’m just an old guy who might remember how to pick at a few simple songs on the piano.

Getting old sucks. Especially if you don’t keep up your skills. You’re special if you have great skills as a kid. But if you’re old, people just assume you’ve had a lifetime of practice. And that’s if you kept up with it over the years.

Dang, this MFer called me out.

And then your middle aged and your body parts don’t keep up with your mind so you’ll never “get it back when you make the time to be consistent again”

Yeesh, don’t remind me it’s been nearly half a decade since I lost my instrument and would be super rusty if I tried playing again…

This is working out for me. Need to get back on it, but there is a lot of anxiety around figuring out how much strength I’ve lost .