memorizing bach

[nervous_wreck]

does anyone have any tricks when memorizing polyphonic music (such as bach for me right now) (besides playing all voices seperately, that's a given) any magic formula's that everyone should know about or anything?

[pianistwannabe]

Funny to have an answer coming from me since I don't memorize piano music much but I do analyze and memorize music for other purposes, and working on a polyphonic piece now, and I'm trying to memorize it (again not for piano, but some other purpose).  This is what I'm starting to do with my piece, and it helps.

How about remembering the theme, and noticing what is going on with it?  Analyze the form so you know what it is - what the shape is.  With each entry, see if it has modified and to what?  Relative minor, dominant, etc.  See if there is a pattern for the different entries - are they getting closer together - how far apart and is there a pattern for each entry in terms of pitch of first note?  Try analyzing for large patterns and apply that across the whole piece of music rather than element by element.  With each entry - is there a different mode?  Did he move from major to minor?  Maybe natural minor, instead of harmonic or melodic?  That helps you remember the melody. 

That's what I have started to do with a polyphonic piece I'm working on now. 

[mike_lang]

I don't know about tricks, but one can do several things for memory.

1: Play voices seperately, memorizing each
2: Play hands separately, memorizing each
3: Harmonic and formal analysis
4: Copy score by hand
5: Work from the end, in order to constantly come into familiar material
6: Listen to it mentally, away from the piano
7: Play very slowly for muscle memory

Best,
Michael

[wako_kato]

hiya. im only 13, but go to the JRNCM. i have been performing Bach Invention 12 in a number of places recently. i found i naturally was quite good at bach n didnt have too much of a problem at home playing it from memory once i had got it into my head. im really bad at memorising, and its my biggest problem with playing. once i had played it many many times it sunk in thought. i played it at a very important concert last week and just after i had started, my memory completely went, but since i had found 4 easy pick up points before hand i just picked it up from the nearest one, and apparently it sounded fine. if you are performing and ur memory goes, jus dont panic and NEVER lift your hands of the keys, because if you do, you have no hope of getting back into it!! also my piano teacher informed me that if u look in concerts that profesional pianists do, you will realise that hardly anyone performs Bach since it is SO hard 2 memorise, so they steer clear of it!! just try youyr best and it will come!!  good luck! kat

[musicsdarkangel]

Try doing it in phrases.

Memorize one voice, memorize another, put them together.

Do this for every pair of voices.  You will have such a thorough understanding of the piece and will be able to pick up if you messed up.


I have done it measure by measure previously.  Really, you just have to focus, listen, and do small sections.

[nervous_wreck]

yes, that isn't really news to me... i'm working on prelude and fugue XXI for a competition, and i only have 1 month to completely memorize it and have it perfect, so i was just wondering if anyone had any like... miracle tricks that could cut time on memorizing (besides the basic ways you are supposed to learn bach)

[Appenato]

the advice given here is pretty much the "only" way through memorizing bach. and it's the "best" way.  if there is an instant way of memorizing him, may we all be the first to be enlightened! my teacher once suggested blocking notes into chords... but i haven't exactly benefited much from that practice. it's one further suggestion to try out, though, if you're stuck in a spot and can't remember how the next group of notes sounds/looks, etc.

good luck!

[lostinidlewonder]

i'm working on prelude and fugue XXI for a competition, and i only have 1 month to completely memorize it and have it perfect, so i was just wondering if anyone had any like... miracle tricks that could cut time on memorizing (besides the basic ways you are supposed to learn bach)

Make sure you mark on the entire score when the hand moves to controls a new group of notes and which note acts as the balance point for the hand. This might be obvious  to you just by looking at the music but make an effort to highlight it. It makes it overall easier to memorise your music if you make this conscious observation and mark it on the score. It makes you realise which hand is easier than the other in the given section and thus which hand can be easily be played while we focus our full attention on getting the other hand together with it.

When learning Bach I always make it a habit of playing together straight away. But how? One hand should cue the other, one hand should be your solid guide while the other you fully focus to weave between it. Of course the guide hand is constantly changing hands, it is never just one hand all the time, it depend on the notes. To me the guide hand is often the hand which doesn't have to move as much during the passage, or it could be something which is a repeated pattern or a particular voice.

The "guide hand" is understood by your inner ear, it is controlled with sound memorisation, which is your evolved muscular memoristation of the passage. Simply this means you can play the guide hand without thinking of the notes but rather the sound you produce. You hear if you are playing the guide hand correct rather than put any focused conscious effort on the physical action of the notes. You must be able to listen much more carefully to the guide hand while practicing so that you can use it to queue the other hand.

This mastery of listening to your guide hand should extend to the other hand as well, however the difference is that the other hand never has a chance to be appreciated seperately but rather as a body working within the other hand. So that when you learn to attain ear memorisation of the other hand it is done by observing how it interacts with the other hand, not alone.

This is a different realisation when you play Bach, to forget about the notes, which in reality they are very simple (in terms of amount of notes). But the sound produced is extremely complicated and we do find it difficult to forget about the notes with Bach and appreciate the sound. But as soon as we start appreciating the notes that our hands play as one body of sound we find we memorise passages much quicker. As soon as we observe how chunks of sound in one hand weaves togehter with the other and forget about the actual notes we realise, wow I can play it now. This is so hard to put in words! arrg. 

Which book from the WTC is ur prelude and fugue from?

[pianoperfmajor]

I don't know about tricks, but one can do several things for memory.

1: Play voices seperately, memorizing each
2: Play hands separately, memorizing each
3: Harmonic and formal analysis
4: Copy score by hand
5: Work from the end, in order to constantly come into familiar material
6: Listen to it mentally, away from the piano
7: Play very slowly for muscle memory

Best,
Michael

All these things are pretty much the definitive way to memorize Bach, and what most good teachers would tell you  (copying score by hand may help, but may be a little much and unnecessary for some). I would just add visualize yourself playing it away from the piano with and without the score using correct fingering.  Also, when you are first learning Bach it is important to get a solid fingering down as soon as possible and memorize that fingering.