Older PSG players and memory becoming a playing problem.

[Stuart Legg]

My father Bo who is PSG player well past retirement age went into a bar and saw a nice looking lady, got a drink walked over to make small talk and says to her “So! Do I come in here often?”
I’m joking about the bar thing of course but is this a real and prevalent situation that PSG players are all dealing with in later life?

[Don R Brown]

Who are you again?

[Stuart Legg]

Stuart Kevin Legg son of Stuart Bo Legg
Most here would label me a Narcissists.

[Don R Brown]

Who am I again?

[Larry Jamieson]

Seriously, this very condition happened to a friend of mine.
He was a good player, worked with many bands, called square dances while playing and was a great person to be around.
Now, he doesn't remember who people are, can't remember how songs start, and can't drive because he would get lost. He can still fumble through a song if somebody gets it started,
but his playing out days are done.

[Jack Stoner]

I'm still OK on memory and I'll be 80 this year. Still playing weekly (not weakly) in a band. Still have my home recording studio. Basically doing everything I did 20 years ago.

But, being in Florida with all the retirees I know about those that have issues.

[Barry Blackwood]

Most here would label me a Narcissists.

You're a Narc?

[Richard Sinkler]

It's an issue for me. Early last year, I had a mild stroke. Along with problems with the right side of my body, including weakness in my right hand, and leaning to the right when I play, it has affected memory. Several tmes it comes time for me to kick off a song and I draw a complete blank. I've done it twice on "Someday Soon" which I have been playing for at least 40 years. I'll forget they key of the song and never find it during the song, although that is pretty rare.

[Stuart Legg]

Richard, Bo had the same thing happen to him and it affected his balance and memory.
He just quit playing.
When he and I went to Branson and picked up the Stage One we ordered, Bo sat down at it to try it out and he had such a struggle and couldn't play anything on it.
The Stage One was an answer to a prayer. It was so lite and compact that he didn’t mind taking it to Jams.
It would make you cry! By the time it was his turn to take a ride he could only remember the last part of the song that was sang and everyone expects you to play the verse on the ride so he would play some non-descript something for the ride and believe me you don’t make a lot of friends at a jam doing that.
He took his lumps and ridicule and came back from it with a lot of hard work and he plays every weekend at dances, but he still at times will go blank on the verse and at times during a ride forget what key he is in but he has learned to fake his way through it with some comment like “I just thought I’d throw in a little Jazz”.
But he is constantly improving and I think in the long run he will become a better player than he could have before because of practice which he did little of before.

[Richard Sinkler]

I also have trouble with balance. Every so often, I fall. Most of the time there is a wall or something to catch me and keep me from hitting the ground.

I still gig fairly regularly, although I can only play at about the level I was a couple of years ago.

[Stuart Legg]

Richard I’m beginning to get a little suspicious about Bo’s falling.
He fell at a gig and cut his arm on an amp stand he was carrying and the women there nursed and bandaged him up and now he always seems to stop himself from falling by grabbing hold of the nearest women.
He doesn't seem to have a balance problem when women are not around.

[Dale Foreman]

Anyone else,get,the yips where you can't tell whether it's you or everyone else,that's not playing in tune and you chase the bar all night?

[Rick Abbott]

I just got home from rehearsing with a band I play with a few times a year. Some of my playing was better than I've ever played. Then there was a song that every time the D chord was played my brain reset to the key of D...the song is in A. I was completely lost about 5 times during the song. It scared me...I'm 47.

[Bill Moran]

What's a PSG ?

[Rick Abbott]

http://www.psg.fr/en/Accueil/0/Home

[Charlie McDonald]

[Bo] doesn't seem to have a balance problem when women are not around.

Women throw me off balance too.

It's an odd thing: Jack is fine at 80, others not so much.
Lots of research is done, but we're so individual that common traits don't seem to give answers (there are so many shared traits).

Rick, it's possible that the particular song doesn't make sense to some part of you. I would say, in those cases:
don't worry about it. Do like Bo, tell them “I just thought I’d throw in a little Jazz”. You know, chord substitution.
Humor helps memory.

[Floyd Lowery]

I think you will find most of the older steel players will remember how to play everything, and probably play it as well as a lot of younger pickers.
Of course if some type of dementia has started, that would make a difference. You don't have to be "old" to have this get you.

[Pete Burak]

When I lay out for the parts where another instrument is playing, when it is my turn to come swooping back in, sometimes I'm like, shoot, what key are we in???
Uugg.