memorising slower pieces?

[toothbrush547]

Hi!
What are the best methods to memorise pieces with, particularly slower ones with more repetitive figures? I have tried to memorise harmonies but are there any other methods out there? There are lots of sections that repeat with different harmonies and I keep getting confused between them.

Thanks!

[brogers70]

What's the piece? I think about memorizing pieces depending on the details of the structure, so it would help to know the specific piece that's giving you trouble.

[toothbrush547]

Thanks for the help! It's the third movement of Schumann's Fantasie in C major

[brogers70]

I see what you mean. I don't know that I have much advice better than what you've thought of. I'd write out the chord changes in whatever way you like, just because it helps me memorize to think of the chord changes. I'd also break it into sections that feel like they have their own emotional or textural character (like when the duplets come in in the upper voice), and practice the transitions between the sections. And I'd listen to it every day just to get the aural memory ingrained. Then when you try playing it from memory see where, if anywhere, you are tempted to transition to the wrong spot and use whatever mnemonic device you like to protect yourself at that spot - I just think of some phrase like "here it goes direct from C major to A major," and train myself to think those words whenever I am coming up on that hard to remember transition.
This is all likely stuff you've already thought of, but it's the best I can suggest. Good luck.

I assumed you meant the C major Fantasy Opus 17, the Langsam getragen movement.

[jonathannyc]

I don't find the tempo of a piece to be the issue when I need to strengthen my memory. The question is, do I know the overall form of a phrase, a movement, an entire composition? Do I have the helicopter view, or am I lost in the jungle below?

You are in the process of mastering the Schumann Fantasie in C major, which is no small enterprise, so you probably have acquired most, or all, of the skills for memorization, it's just a matter of putting them into action.

You mentioned harmonic progressions - good - that is critically important, but for me, still not enough. I find it essential to clarify within the musical structure the exact points of departure and arrival of both shorter phrases and an entire section. If I don't know where I am going, I will never get there.

For example, what is the general direction of, let's say, a phrase of four, or eight, or sixteen measures? Composers usually drive the direction of their music upward or downward the registers of the keyboard. So, clarification of the point of departure, and then arrival, is something I find necessary to bolt into my mind.

Both at the keyboard, and turning around away from it, can I name each of the chord progressions? Can I play the melody or theme alone, with one finger, or do I fumble around? Can I play the bass line alone, or did I not bother to check? That is part of how I test myself to then strengthen my weak spots. 

I remember as a teenager reading that Rachmaninoff, who certainly knew his way around the keyboard, advised pianists to take a musical composition apart like a little machine, and put it back together, take it apart again, then back together again. I have taken his advice to heart and make myself go through that process. It's work, but I find it necessary to really hammer a piece into place in my mind. If the music isn't in my mind, it won't be in my fingers.
 
Broadly speaking, we have aural memory, muscle memory, visual memory, and structural memory, and it is normal that pianists are more adept at one element than another. For myself, I find all four are essential.
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[toothbrush547]

Thank you so much, that is super helpful! I've never really thought about it in terms of the types of memory before, so that will be incredibly useful.