Memorization

[quebec75]

This is probably kind of a stupid quesiton.  I'm a new student of the piano and wanted to validate an observation.

Somehow I always thought that when one learns to sight read and becomes accomplished at the piano that you can just sit down with a piece of music and play.  I'm thinking now that that's not quite true.

Although I'm very green and have only learned a few bach minuets, it seems that memorization and sound have a bigger part than actually looking at the music.
I mean the first few times I have to really focus on the music, but after a while it is the sound and the feel that keeps me on track. At parts of the music I am watching the sheet music but only in a very general way watching the ups and downs and generally keeping my place. Some more difficult parts I find it's easier to look at my fingers.  After a while I can close my eyes and play it.  At times, if I focus too much on the sheet music, in fact, I screw up.  My teacher says I'm doing fine and I should look at my hands even more. She says if I do nothing but look at the music I'll be addicted to having a piece of music with me in order to play.

Does this all make sense?  Is learning to play a lot about memorizing the sound, feel etc of a piece rather than getting really good at quickly converting notes on a page to actions with the fingers?  It just seems that the more I play a piece, the less important the sheet music becomes.  I'm wondering if you all think my teacher's right in telling me to not worry too much about looking at the sheet music as I learn a piece or if you think in the earlier stages it is important to concentrate on seeing the written notes as you play a piece.

I apologize in advance if this seems like too basic a question for this forum.  

Thanks!

[eddie92099]

I think it is important to remember that the sheet music is far from the be all and end all - it is merely a map of the realisation of the sound. Therefore it is not only lacking in detail compared to what the realisation sounds like, it does also not take into account (to a reasonable extent at least) things like the emotional tension created, rubato etc. While it is important to give all the details of the score in the "perfect" realisation (if the composer has bothered to write it, it is the least we can do to play it that way) we must be looking to achieve far more than how a computer would play it. It is therefore imperative that one moves away from the score once all the details are secure and begin to play some music! Hope this helps,
Ed

[quebec75]

Thanks Ed. I appreciate your taking the time to give me some input!

Philip

[shas]

Yeh man,
you teacher has got a good point. I know to manny "strictly classical" players how are scared of playing without music.  It is inperitive that you learn to be free whilst playing (lol).
I think you should practise your pieces without the score at all (which might seem hard at first but will get easyer) and don't wory about getting it all right either (oviously do in preformance). Also try improvising  and making things up. get to know first hand the capabilitys of your piano. even things as  simple as dooing arpedgios through differnt keys  and mixing up scales.
any way have fun .
Sharma

[eddie92099]

I think you should practise your pieces without the score at all (which might seem hard at first but will get easyer) and don't wory about getting it all right either (oviously do in preformance).

But make sure you look at the score regularly to make sure you don't miss any details,
Ed