Fluency from old days

By Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene (get free updates of new posts here)

Do you sometimes find that even though you haven't played a piece or two in 23 years, you can play them much better than others which you are just sight-reading?

I experienced this some 10 hours ago.

Today I practiced 3 preludes and fugues by Bach: in C major (BWV 547), in C minor (546), in C minor (549) and Adagio from C major trio sonata, BWV 529/2.

​I have played all of them before, BWV 546 some 20+ years ago. Surprisingly, today I was able to do it slowly but quite fluently. Definitely better than BWV 545 in the past which was new to me.

​What's the deal with this?

I think it depends on how well you have mastered your pieces before. It's like riding a bicycle, remember? Once you learn it, the old skill comes back quite quickly regardless of how many decades you haven't touched it.

One more reason to be very precise in learning new music today, isn't it?