Embedded memory and forgotten learning

stufisher

Had a bit of a breakthrough tonight and I'm absolutely buzzing.

I decided to learn some new stuff rather than practice what I have been working on for the last few months, and when I was walking the dog at tea time I thought 'Thin Lizzy ... haven't really played any for ages'.

Now, my fave tracks are Emerald and Black Rose and as I can scrape through the former I thought I'll have a go at the latter, remembering that I used to be able to play it acceptably when I was 18-ish (apart from the fast but, where I was ropey).

Feqqme! Within an hour I was playing it reasonably well, quite fluid and certainly recognisable (apart from the fast bit ... which is now top of my 'to learn' list). 40+ years of not playing that track and within an hour I'm back to where I was    

So, after reflecting on this, I just wonder who else has experienced this? Is it a common thing? A trait of our human brain to compartmentalise stuff until it's needed? Just a fluke of circumstances? Is it a good way to learn/re-learn/practice?

Apologies if I sound like a babbling schoolkid but right now I feel like I've just left the stage with Phil, Scott and the two Brian's  

Roland

It’s likely that, over the years, you’ve assimilated a lot of the techniques needed for the song. Not necessarily by playing Black Rose, but by listening to and playing similar songs. When you started playing all this learning flooded out. 

A couple of years back I had a similar experience with Wishing Well. I don’t remember ever playing it, and I hadn’t listened to any Free stuff since the early 70s. Someone suggested it, and the whole thing came out of nowhere. Not just the chords and verse/chorus structure, but many of Kossoff’s mannerisms. Alright, it’s not a difficult song, but it felt so good playing something from my teenage years.

BillDL

I have heard it said that we remember everything we have seen, heard or experienced.  It's not "memory" that fades or causes issues for some, it's the ability to "recall" those compartmentalised memories that matters and can be affected as some of us get older.  Some people have better recall than others, but the actual memory will still be in there able to be retrieved.

I absolutely agree with what @Roland said in the first paragraph.

Similar things have happened to me recently when I have been reminded of a song I haven't heard or tried to play for many, many years.  Decades ago I might have struggled to pick up a chord sequence or struggled to try and slavishly learn a guitar solo verbatim from a badly tabbed book, yet when I have recently heard those songs again and later picked up a guitar I have been able to get back to where I had previously given up remarkably quickly, and have been able to take it to the next level I never managed to reach remarkably quickly.  I believe this is because my ear is now more attuned to hearing intervals and I can find appropriate chord inversions and scale fragments much more readily.  In some cases I have started playing the song quite differently and not just the exact copy as I had tried many years ago, and I think that is due to having a better and more intuitive feel for where to locate suitable chords and note intervals over the years of learning.