help with memorising

[chopet]

Hi,
Basically, as the title suggests, I need help/ advice on memorising. I can usually learn new pieces pretty quickly, but am completely lost with out sheetmusic. It gets kind of annoying when im out and friends ask me to play stuff but I cant. I obviously have other reasons too, but can anyone suggest anything? What should I do?

[danyal]

Correct me if I am wrong but...

I think it's because you have learnt the pieces to quickly and didnt practise them properly while learning them. You didn't spend enough time on them to truly know them well.
By practising properly I mean, taking every section, phrase by phrase, bar by bar, and not just skimming over it until it is sort of right, but working every single detail into your head and fingers. I find that the more you practise a section and critically analyse it, until you can practically write out the notes from memory, the less chance you have of forgetting it while in a performing situation. Constant repetition. Regardless of how boring this may sound, it is effective. Work out the boredom, develope your own little techniques and tricks while practising. Ie, keep your mind occupied then you will not get bored.

There sounds like there is more to the problem then you have posted so if I can help anymore, just ask.

[chopet]

Yah, that probably has something to do with it.Hope people dont take this as showing off or anything of that sort but, when I started I did progress quickly, picked up technique quickly but was kinda careless with it at the same time, I suppose thats going against me now. Also, dunno if im putting this right, I tend to get kinda worked up about detail and can get extremely tense when I cant play something as I want which has also been causing problems for me (with repetition, If I dont like how something sounds I always end up goin back and correcting it, even when performing even though I know I should just play on). Ive also had to put off going to music college for a few years and have little contact with other musicians, or other classical music enthusiasts and all that so I supposose my motivation levels are pretty low right now.......If youve more advice do let me know, and thanks a million 

[lava]

My personal experience with memorising is that fast pieces (too fast for turning the page) are easier to remember than slow pieces. I always need sheetmusic for slower pieces.

Some tips:

- Memorising is not a goal in itself, it's a means to learn a piece very well.

- Don't focus too much on playing each single note correctly in the right sequence. Look at the piece as a whole. Know where your hands should move to.

- Know how it should sound, listen to some recordings.

- Think of the piece in chords and which notes come in which chords. If you forget which particular note to play, you will probably still stay in the right chord and you can go on. Nobody will notice the omission.

- Study hard and play it often. To memorise well, study without the sheets before you, only look when you really get lost.

[chopet]

thanks all!!! will think about all that

[ramseytheii]

thanks all!!! will think about all that

One more simple exercise.  when you are playing a piece with the score, for G*d's sake, just look away from the *** score.  And if you start freaking out, go back to the score.  It's the only way.  Soon you'll start to be able to predict where your memory "abysses" are, then you can identify and solve them in practice, and have no problems to play something outside for your friends.

Walter Ramsey

P.S. That's funny... pianoforum automatically blanked out D  ... A... M.... N....