Piano Forum

I find memory has 2 types with regards to learning music, and most likely already known being short term and long term.

And I couldn't put an exact time frame, but there is, I am sure a link with the length of time you regularly recall a piece of music from memory which then affects how long you will actually remember it, having not recalled it over a period of time.

For example I can memorize a couple pages, if not more over a couple days to a week (presuming it's a piece of music that is within my level of ability)

And I can then recall it on a daily basis from memory, with the occasional visit on a bar that I may not have fully understood, or may have misread.

However 1-2 weeks without recalling at all, and some if not all of this will be gone. Sometimes I can pick it up quickly, sometimes I'm literally learning it like i've never seen the notes before. It all depends on length of time.

I think it is a lot easier to 'memorize' music on a short term basis. I don't think it's a magical ability to memorize pages of music in a short space of time, but I think to be able to recall that weeks later is the real test.

If we are talking about how to honestly memorize, the fact is you have to remove the music score as quick as possible. almost after a 2nd or 3rd reading. When learning to memorize quickly I will spend maybe 10% looking at the music and 90% on everything else, looking at my hands, the notes, the sounds, building the muscle memory of the section prior to what I am currently memorizing.

I am also understanding where there is repeating combinations, where I am playing broken chords, prompting my left hand memory with what my right hand is playing and vice versa.

I think anybody can memorize this way pretty quickly, the question we should really be asking is, how learn to recall pieces of music without having played them for some time, to test how time reflected in the initial memorization stage affects how long the memories can actually sit in our brains.