Memorization issues

[terminal]

The more I play a piece I tend to memorize it, but not all of it just parts of it I still need the music in front of me to follow. One of the problems I am having is since I am starting to memorise it I get distracted from the music and forget where I am. Which is causing real problems...

I am trying to focus on my reading skills which are coming along well, but this is getting in the way of finishing off a piece.

Any ideas other than memorising the entire piece. My piano teacher is also an organist and she is well founded on learing to read at speed vs. memorizing it....

[quantum]

One of the first steps in memorizing is recognizing it is OK to forget.  Some people have a fear of forgetting so they continually place the music infront of them. 

After playing the music for a couple of days.  Put it a way and start to play your piece (even if you think you don't know all of it), see how much you CAN play.  Somewhere along you will find a stumble spot where you don't know what happens next.  Before taking out the music, try to figure it out, think of patterns in the music, chords, scales, harmony, anything you can remember.  After you have formed your hypothesis, take out the music and check it. 

Memorization requires concentration.  To help you concentrate, you can try analyzing parts of the piece.  Relate the parts you are unsure of to the parts you know. 

Try to develop good memoriztion skills early on.  In my opinion this is extreemly important in the first few years of learning your insturment.  It establishes a good habit and work ethic.  Plus you will enjoy playing memorized music much more than reading from the book, because you can think more about expression rather than visual hyroglyphics. 

Learning to sight read fast, is a skill that is easily learned.  Once you have established your memorization skills, a couple years down the road you can start working on efficient sight reading skills.  You will then have the ability to combine the two skills to learn and memorize pieces in an extreemly efficient manner. 

Unfortunately fast sight reading has an instant gratification factor that is extreemly addictive, if you get hooked on it early. 

The simple act of just thinking about your piece, as opposed to just plowing through the notes, will improve your memorization skills. 

Some tips for your piece:  don't memorize the piece as a whole, memorize sections; create a road map of your piece and recognize major landmarks; now practice the sections in random order; in the performance of the piece you will use the roadmap to put all sections in correct order; Work in small managable sections than you can concentrate on for 5 to 10 mins a section; take breakes inbetween. 

[terminal]

Ok thanks... that was a nice well thought out reply... lots to digest. I think part of it may also be concentration.

My instructor is fairly easy to work with, she explains that if you have the gift to be able to memorize then do it, but learn to read music fast..... if not... learn to read music fast.