Building a good musical memory

[bernadette60614]

As an adult beginner, one skill I'd like to develop is a good musical memory..at some point I'd like to be able to make memorizing a piece a part of my practice routine.

What are some approaches?

In the two years I played on my own, I did get to the point through repetition that I could play some sections from memory, but I know that this is just a default "approach."

Thank you!  You've all been so helpful and I've already begun to integrate many of the thoughts I've read here into my practice. (My teacher said at my last lesson: That wasn't terrible. ...which for her is considerable praise.)

[lloyd_cdb]

This is a hard question to answer as memory is extremely variable between individuals. There are many types of memory. Physical, visual, logical, auditory (several others as well). It's something you need to self-contemplate and figure out for yourself. People have a mix of some of them, but generally find one to be more effective. Some people might be able to walk around with their music and visually memorize the page during their time off. Some understand where a piece is headed and know the notes from auditory memory of the piece. Some simply feel where the next note is without thought.

When self-contemplating, educational background can point to solutions. I was a math student so the formulas were ingrained through repetition, not conjuring up their image during a test. History majors often need to visually memorize. Writing majors need to understand where their piece is headed based on what they just wrote, etc.

I was an athlete when I was younger, and my 'memory' tends to be physical ('memory' because I don't think about it. I zone out and realize I'm 2 minutes into the piece). I was a baseball pitcher where every movement was extremely precise and repetitive. I didn't memorize exactly where I was throwing the ball, but physically repeated the action that led there (obviously to a certain extent since I did need to throw in the right direction ). In relation to music, I practice 3 bars, and can then stare at the next three bars with less thought.

I encourage others to share their ways as it helps to understand how everyone does it. Sorry if this wasn't directly helpful. This topic comes up a lot and people have strong opinions of it one way or the other.

[hfmadopter]

Knowing the key signature of the piece well and it's related chord squences will give you clues as to where the melody has to go. Especially early on with less complicated music, the melody won't be far away from the chordal progession. Try that as an approach, learn  the chords well, know the names of the chords you are playing with in the piece and play them against the melody. One thing you will notice right away is that even with mistakes made it's not as disastrous or derailing when memorizing or even reading the piece when you really know what the piece is made out of.

Beyond that and as the music gets more complicated learn to play almost in modules, not that the phrasing changes but think in modules or clusters of notes more so than one at a time. You will notice patterns forming within the notes. Not so different from learning the piece to begin with actually. In time and with enough practice at this, your hands just go where they should.

I'm getting some age on me now so it isn't as easy as it used to be to memorize but those are the concepts I have used all along the way. I'll be looking for new tricks out of this thread myself if any are offered ! I'm happy at this stage in my life to memorize sections of pieces so I don't have to read everything at least, that's been going well for me. My teacher long ago had us memorize for any public playing or recitals, FWIW.

[brogers70]

I mostly memorize unconsciously, probably because I am a lousy sight reader. But the conscious tricks I use are

1. To think about the form of the piece, the motifs, and the harmonic progressions. So  in Bach's A minor 2 part invention when the theme appears in C major I don't memorize a new set of notes, I just remember that it's the same theme, just played in the relative major.

2. Take advantage of repetitions or near repetitions. For example, I'm learning the Brahms Intermezzo Op. 177 #1. It has an A B A' form. When the A section returns the theme is the same but the accompaniment and some of the harmonies have changed, so I just remember the differences rather than treating it as a whole new thing to be memorized.

3. I also run through pieces in my head when I'm walking around, or think about the tricky bits that I want to work on when I get to practice. I think that also helps.