Sight-reading and memorizing: reflections from a beginner

[stormx]

Hi !! 

Little background about me:
I have begun my piano classes 5 months ago (from scratch).
At the moment, i am learning Bach-Petzold Minuet in G (almost finished), and "Fur Elise" (the notes are there HT, but i have a large work ahead to adjust the tempo in both interruptions, improving accuracy, give musicality, etc).

Regarding the old issue of sight-reading and memorizing...

Of course, when STUDYING the piece, i read the score. But after that, i MUST memorize the piece, basically because of 2 reasons:

1) Both hands move frequently...so, i have to look at them, in order to play the right notes. I cannot look at the score and at my hands at the same time 

2) Even if i can avoid looking at my hands in some passages, reading from the score would be an impossible task at my level, consisting of:

a) read the bass cleff and identify the note(s)
b) read the trebble cleff and identify the note(s)
c) Play

I simply cannot manage a) +b) +c) (and keep a reasonable tempo).

Suming it up, in my case, i find memorizing the only way to go.

And a last comment regarding memorizing:
I find that i do not really memorize ALL the notes names, but i adquire some sort of combination of "photographic" + "muscle memory" + "memorization of some particular notes" (like the beginning of an scale, for instance).
That is, my hands seems to know where they do have to go, providing my eyes are looking at the keyboard (well, many many times they forget it  ).

Nevertheless, i wonder whether being capable of actually READING the piece while playing would more preferable, because you do not need to trust your memory so much (that many times suffers a lapsus and goes blank).

To finish, i will mention 2 particular problems i also encounter frequently:

1) it is difficult for me to begin to play the piece from an arbitrary bar. I can start from some points (related to how i break the piece to study it), but not from any bar easily.

2) sometimes, i find difficult to play HS after i have play a lot HT  (and i point out that i  begin studying every piece HS).
It seems that after getting used to HT, a lonely hand misses the other and get lost !!!

Well, that is a long post, consequence of a boring job 

I will sincerely appreciate comments and advices, either from accomplished pianists or just complete beginners like me

Greetings

[mimi1000]

Hi,

I am a beginner too. I find it hard to play the piece at one go by remembering each and every note. I have barely played piano for 3.5months. I dont have a teacher now but I did when I first began. I asked the teacher if it was ok to write the note names on top of the notes and she said it was fine. She told me over a period of time I will remember them with practice.

I know the note names well but when I actually start practicing a song, I fumble. I play one note at a time and in the process, my music sounds close to nowhere its supposed to sound.

Yesterday, I wrote the note names on top of each note then I played the music. I played the music 2-3 times. The 4th or 5th time, I didnt have to look at the book pretty much because I knew what had to be played next.

Does anyone recommend any suggestions? What is sight reading.. I dont know.

 

[xvimbi]

As a beginner, there are so many things one has to worry about. The most important, IMO, is sound production, i.e. learning the techniques to produce the sounds you want. After all, playing the piano should be a pleasurable experience, and being able to produce the sound you want to hear is the final goal. To that end, it is best to memorize a piece, so that you can concentrate on sound production.

Of course, one should simultaneously work on all the other aspects at the same time: sight-reading, theory, improvisation, etc. However, all this does not have to be done on the same piece. For sight reading, pick pieces that are a lot easier than the main piece(s) you are working on. There are plenty of sight-reading courses that start at a very elementary level. Check out your favorite music store. An alternative, of course, is to sight-read through very simple pieces. Bartok's Mikrokosmos, Vol. 1 would be a good start, or earlier pieces from books for beginners.

Keep it up!