Order to learn something in sonata form

[vandermozart3]

For something in sonata form, do you simply learn it in order (Exposition, development, recapitulation) or is there a better way?
Should I do exposition - recapitulation - development, because that makes sense with the recapitulation being so similar and will therefore make it quicker, or would learning the exposition and recapitulation one after the other make it too confusing, because they're so similar? (This particular movement I'm learning is this way...I know not ALL are)

Please help me!

[inafferrando]

There is no right or wrong way to learn repertoire: there is only time and that which is thought about: Although you have pointed out that the exposition & recapitulation are similar and therefore one could save time by learning them together....how on earth is one EVER going to understand the recap without "learning" the paths that lead to its discovery? In a sonata, I look to the development to clarify material that may become available for me to understand---but I don't try to make the form hold together like...a Barbie doll, maybe?? I let the sonata create itself...if possible & if not possible, then I will, too, hold onto limbs of trees for life & support... So: to answer your question Just No: That is not the way I would want to go about learning a sonata: I would sleuth it out more.....smell the thing......enjoy the ambiguities....destroy and reconstruct. You "may" find something you understand & you may not find something you understand. A bit Schoenbergian....but to look for something you know already you are looking for--is not necessarily the sort of thinking that will bring something worthwhile. You must go within & beyond the "form" to really learn a sonata and even then, you may not feel totally comfortable.

[vandermozart3]

Thank you so much for that, it helped me a lot. That is kind of what I have been doing...I've been enjoying the subtleties that make music beautiful, while trying to do the memorising. It's really the first big work I've started learning so I wanted to make sure before I ruin it - so thanks for the advice.

[schubertiad]

When learning pieces with a lot of repetition (sonatas, many etudes, or other works in sonata form) I always make sure to only learn contrasting bits concurrently, and only introduce similar material when those bits are completely mastered.
In the case of a classical sonata, I may start with the recapitulation as it often introduces more embellished (i.e. difficult) material, and only learn similar bars (i.e the earlier versions in the tonic) when they are throughly learnt. By doing so, these new bars are learnt in a fraction of the time, yet I don't suffer from different fingerings, hand positions or chords all sloshing around my brain, which happens if I try them all at once.

Just as an aside, effective methods of learning (see Bernhard or Chang for some great advice) make the getting-things-under-your-fingers stage very very quick and painless, so in fact the order the material is learnt in is nowhere near as the way the various bits are actually being practised.