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I used to play pretty seriously and had some fairly difficult repertoire. I stopped playing and practicing for a few years and have decided to start practicing again. All of a sudden, scales going up the keyboard (4 octaves, 16ths) are fine, but coming down is harder. My right-hand thumb lifts up too high and my hand slightly collapses. I've pulled out the old Czerny School of Velocity and am working on a few exercises slowly. Any suggestions?

My first suggestion is a caution : Don't expect to play as well as you did "a few years" ago until you have invested some time and intelligent practice into getting your technique back. Any skill - and particularly one as involved as playing the piano well - will deteriorate to some degree when it is no longer practiced.

That also means that you should expect to take a few steps back from the level where you were "a few years" ago - you don't so how long "a few years" is - and work back up gradually and sensibly to where you were when you stopped playing.

Slow practice with a physically relaxed body is an excellent starting point. Play your descending scales with the right hand only, quite frequently, making a concentrated effort at keeping the hand in a "normal" and relaxed position as you play.

Regards,

BruceD is right in that you need to regain your former proficiency, but gradually, and that means concentrated practice with prepared thumb and with very conscious and precise strokes to assure the accuracy you wish and slow practice as well. Work up your speed gradually. Do not expect to play a scale at top speed because you could at one time. Leaving practice for several years has let your mechanism fall into disuse so you need to revive it by various exercises and repertoire. Fully conscious preparation of each move is necessary until the tactile senses are revived and regain their former facility. Don't rush into it either. The Op. 299 is good but some Schmitt, Hanon, or similar exercises carefully done should get you on the road to restoring your technical ability.

My exact situation this summer, I hadn't practiced seriously in about 2 years. My major problem however, was ascending scales. Could not get my thumb to cross under my fourth smoothly. Descending was fine however. (Funny how everyone has his own unique problems.)

I started at about MM 84 as awful as that was, and went a bit faster every couple days. I also pulled out some passing of the thumb exercises, but those were torture, and I'd start them but never play them all the way through... That aside, in about 3 weeks the ease had started to come back.

Best of luck!

The main problem is that your thumb position. Make sure your thumb is about 45 degree against the key. I used to have that problem. I had several teachers, none of them told me how to fix the problem. They did not even see the problem. My current teacher (a real concert pianist, and I pay big bucks) fixed my scale problem within a few minutes. I really feels that it is really worth paying a lot of money as long as the teacher can help us. It saves me a lot of headache and frustration. My improvments are like day and night.

Thanks for the tips - - they are very much appreciated. The 45 degree angle is making a difference. I pulled out the Hanon too. I'm actually slowing down to MM = 60 so I can really watch my hand and finger movements. Thanks again!