About memorizing

[go12_3]

This has been on my mind lately.....about memorizing.  How some people can memorize easily and some have a more difficult time to memorize.  One member posted that he didn't have a hard time to memorize.  Is it by audio or motor memory?  I know that this topic has been posted elsewhere.  I used to memorize all right as a piano performance major while I attended college.  Is it because I spent hours upon the piano each day?  Doing repetitive passages most of the pieces? Was it a combination of both visual, audio and motor memory?  How many of us can memorize quickly?  What is the average time length for a professional versus an amateur pianist?  Does it help to teach young students to memorize as a beginner?  What is the motivation to memorize?  I don't memorize anything much anymore, unless the melody appeals to me.  However, it is easier to memorize pieces for the violin.  And that is interesting for me to discover as a musician.  I wonder how the piano that I have worked on so hard, and then to find how the violin pieces are easier to memorize;  I cannot memorize the lengthy pieces though,  only up to 4 pages.

best wishes,

go12_3

[iroveashe]

As far as I know, memorizing is all about your brain making connections. A simple example is when I was a kid and had to learn which way is right and which left, and to remember I thought about which hand I use to grab a pencil. I tend to memorize simply by logic, how the melody fits with the chords and the harmony, etc, after all the notes have been put there with logic and by following (or breaking) some rules, so it's a matter of following that and how the piece fits with those already established rules rather than just memorizing the notes.

Edit: About the motivation to memorize, I personally don't consider a piece learned if I haven't memorized it, and even after memorizing it I don't consider I've learned it fully just because I have all the notes in my head.

Also, I'm not sure but I think listening to music, not just playing, helps too. I usually "memorize" symphonies, I don't know the notes, instruments or any part of the actual score, but I can play them in my head, even if they're around 40 mins long.

[omar_roy]

There are many techniques to memorizing pieces.  I don't have much of a problem at all memorizing pieces regardless of length, but my downfall is that I'm not a good reader, so I rely on my ear and my ability to memorize quickly.  I'd rather be a good reader than a good memorizer.

There are three parts to memorization that are independent of each-other but also rely heavily on one another.

Muscle Memory
Aural Memory
and Theoretical Memory/Knowledge

Muscle Memory has to do with having the music "in the hands." Have you ever noticed that even if you haven't played a piece in ages, if you don't concentrate on the notes too much, your hands can find their way to the general area of the right notes? That's where muscle memory comes in.  Your hands remember the motions, but not consciously.

Aural Memory is your memory of how the piece sounds.  This can lead your hands to the right pitches should your muscle memory not be exact.

Last, but not least, is Theoretical Memory and Knowledge, and I don't know many people who rely too heavily on this when memorizing, though it is very useful to put into use should you have a memory slip.  This pertains to Music Theory and Harmonic Rhythm.  If you know the progression of the chords, you know generally where you "should" go in the piece, however this is more often replaced with Aural Memory.  The benefit of having this knowledge of harmonic rhythm is that if you lose concentration and you know where you are harmonically, you can improvise around the chord structure to buy you a little bit of time to get where you need to be, or even just jump to the next chord.  Again, this can be replaced by creating "checkpoints" in the music that you can jump to should a catastrophe occur.

Much of the time, this is all done subconsciously.  If you practice a piece enough, it will become ingrained into your ears and your hands.  For me, this comes naturally, but others have to work at it section by section implementing each of the above parts of memory.

I'm sure there's more to it than what I just said, but from what little experience I have, it seems to make a bit of sense...to me at least.

[jazzyprof]

In addition to what omar_roy listed there is also visual memory.  Some people have a visual memory of the patterns the hands make on the keyboard and so there are visual cues to what comes next.  A few also have a virtually photographic memory of the score and so can actually "see" the printed notes as they play from memory.

[practice]

I think I memorize mostly using muscle memory. Probably some visual and aural too.

[csharp_minor]

I think I mostly memorise with aural and muscle memory. As a beginner I can’t rely on knowing anything to do with the theory or the harmonic structure of a piece I only have a basic idea of what keys it’s in , sometimes I can improvise around a mistake but not very well.
 
It doesn’t take me long to memorise but it’s the technical aspects I need to practice over so that’s why I usually memorise without wanting to do it.

Funnily enough, I can’t seem to memorise Chopin’s E minor prelude, I need the music to see when and how those chords change! Even though my sight reading is rubbish .

[omar_roy]

It took me almost a week and a half to memorize that (longer than it would usually take me to memorize a piece of that length) after getting everything smooth.  It's the chord changes that make it difficult to memorize.  They're very subtle.

[db05]

It took me almost a week and a half to memorize that (longer than it would usually take me to memorize a piece of that length) after getting everything smooth.  It's the chord changes that make it difficult to memorize.  They're very subtle.

Wow, that's something. I take more than a month to memorize anything, even if it's just 1 page. I guess I am quite slow. Some of my classmates memorize these stuff in just days, but it takes much longer to be able to play cleanly, no stopping.

I would usually have all the notes in my head aurally before I can play anything properly, especially if I have a recording and I've been listening to it. Building muscle memory takes so long, that by the time I'm able to play the piece I hate the composer! Right now I hate Chopin. (I've hated Bach First Lessons for so long, that I'm immune to it.)

There was a time when I had to spend a couple of days without a piano, when I was at my sister's home. I packed my clear book in case I get super bored. I did, and learned the notes and some fingering for Bouree in Em. I have heard it before not more than 5 times, and I was surprised that by reading the notes I could remember the entire top melody. But then when I got to a real piano, it was of little help because the piece was technically too difficult. I struggled with it for a few more weeks, until I realized that my RH was pretty much solid, and I just have to focus on my LH. That worked out, but now I can't play the piece without staring at my LH. 

[alexis_]

I'm more or less the same as csharp_minor I'm a beginner too, I memorise with aural and muscle memory (principally). This prelude, I can't play it without a score but I never tried to memorise it anyways.
I guess for me the aural memory is the most important. For exemple the Valse op.69 No.1 de Chopin, I sightread it during ~1-2 hours for fun and the next day I realise that I had memorised it.... it's because of I heard it so many time before that the melody was perfectly clear in my head so the notes were in a sense logical.
But now I'm learning the Invention 14 of Bach and I find it a little more difficult to memorise it as the melody is not as clear as in other pieces I have played.




PS : Excuse my bad english... 

[pianochick15]

Memorizing, I think, is something that you can get better with over time and should also be something that pianists are very capable of. For me, I memorize visually, aurally, technically, and with muscle memory. I use it all and I can memorize pretty quickly. It is so much easier for me to learn a piece if I memorize as I go along. Like with Chopin's Ocean etude, I already have the first page memorized after just getting it last night. By memorizing, I can focus on accuracy too and the piece just comes together faster. Also, if you learn a piece completely and then start to memorize it, you will get sick of it and it takes twice as much time.

Having pieces memorized ensures that if some random person asks you to play something at any given moment, you're able to. That happens all the time to me.
Getting in the habit of memorizing as you go will also help. The more you do it, the more natural and easier it gets.

I am still astounded at how concert pianists can play so flawlessy from memory pieces that will last half an hour. You know they memorized as they went!

The best thing about memorizing is that anyone can do it. Mind over matter is all it takes.

[dr. j]

We learn music and learn to memorize music in three ways - through "seeing" the score in your mind (visual), "hearing" the music (aural), and "muscle" memory (tactile).  All three play a part in how one learns a piece and ultimately memorizes a piece of music.  Each of us, however, leans on one of the three senses more than the other two, but a memorized piece that stays with you has been memorized using some of all three learning styles.

Dr. J