[Don W]

One of the more complicated songs in my repertoire is Ed Gerhard's "Water is Wide"...also it is almost a 5 minute piece...there are 6 others that I have learned that are similar fingerstyle pieces (Shenandoah, Si Beag Si Mhor, Ashoken Farewell). Since starting this thread I have played all 7 songs in my "recorded" repertoire about 10 times over the course of a week... and they are back...with a few mistakes that don't worry me...but the memory (generally muscle memory and a few peeks at the notation) came back. PHEW...for a while there I thought I would have to learn them all over. When I first learned these song I played them for 3 months to get them right then another couple months to memorize without the use of notation. Prior to recording I would play a single song at slow speed 10-15 times daily for a week before recording. Now I realize I need to play these songs at least weekly while I continue with new pieces. Thought I was loosing it. I recently had major surgery and thought that the anesthesia had done something to brain function that affected my memory. Thank you all for your input...made me feel as if I was not alone.