Memory a very hard personal issue

[dreamplaying]

Dear all:

So I debut in this forum putting under consideration one of my most serious constraints... memorize the scores. The point is that I find really hard to learn a piece by heart, I feel that I 'm able to memorize scores only through my mechanical hands memory, no analitical or other kind of memory. It is certainly a big problem to overcome, and I do not know about methodologies or techniques to educate and develope memory in piano playing.

Any comment and suggestions will be sincerely appreciated.

yours

A piano lover.

 

[milkcarton08]

There are many posts on this, many people share your problem, including me.

Here are posts you might find helpful on memorizing,

https://www.pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,9505.0.html

https://www.pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,8744.0.html

https://www.pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,47.0.html

https://www.pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,2088.0.html

- michael

[happyface94]

You should see me memorizing a piece, probably the worst method ever. (My teacher despise me for doing that).

First : Memorize by ear, yes, there's no way you can learn a piece if you don't know how it sounds like. If you have trouble at some parts knowing the notes, your ears can save you hopefully.

Second : Finger memory, this nearly makes the first step useless, however, this is nearly the only way I can memorize a fugue.

Third : Visual memory, memorize the positionning of your fingers (I actually memorized the Brahm's klavierstucke op199 totally by remmbering hwo my fingers looked as I arrived at a certain part)

Fourth : I've never reached this level, but knowing every single inch of the partition. However, I find it useless to have multiple partition reference, in case you get screwed you should know your next reference and restart from there.


I suggest you take time to memorize per "phrase", this will help keep your beat, and quite a straightfoward way to bruteforce memory.

[Goldberg]

Wow, happyface, it's neat that you can memorise it in so many ways. Well it's always fascinated me to know that each individual is quite different from another and so there are several different methods of memorisation.

I am the world's WORST memoriser, though, and lately it has had a horrific effect on my progress. I think mainly, however, it is not my mental ability nor my pianistic skills, of which I have plenty even if I'm not exactly the next Ogdon (who, I believe, famously memorised the Brahms 2nd in two days or something), but rather my concentration...on a side note, I also don't think it's anything serious like ADD or something but rather just that I've been playing so many hours a day for so long that I'm slightly bored and just need to take a break.

BUT what I was going to say is I really can't memorise things, or rather perform them, if I can't "see" the notes in front of me. I used to write entire pieces down before I performed them, but I quickly realised how impractical that was; now I just get to the point where I can translate my memory into a nearly tangible image of the music and go from there. That happens rapidly as long as I am in the right mood and focused, but lately I've been out of that state of mind, and I usually AM, so it's been really challenging. All it takes is sitting down and playing a single page (I do it by page) for about 5 minutes at a moderate tempo and it's done! Then while I'm playing I can reference the page in my mind. I have no real system of doing it, though, it's just a matter of having seen and played the page enough times (just say an arbitrary number like 10 or so) and having focused on it instead of mindlessly breezing through, like I am typically subject to doing for some reason or another...

[happyface94]

Playing the page x number of time is roughly mecanical skills. My teacher proposed, as you stated, that if you had perfectly memorized the piece, you should be able to write the partition down.

Memorizing needs/can be done quite fast, even before you've mastered the piece. Depending on the piece (and of course concentration), I wouldn't see how you would have trouble playing the piece by memory if you can easily play it with partition (note easily, sometimes I play a piece and I actually get lost in the partition because I was playing by memory, then when I screw up it takes me agood minute to find where I was). It takes a bit of time, but know that when you finally have it memorized, all those 4 "steps" would have been integrated. I don't do it systematically, but when I memorize, I am concious that all 4 happen.

[lagin]

I'm slowly getting over this problem with all the harmony I've been taking.  Now I'm starting to think, "so then it's a G Major chord in 1st inversion....."  It's kinda wierd, but helpful.  Before that, I was all finger memory.

[dreamplaying]

Thanks  happyface94, Goldberg, lagin, for your remarkable insight and milkcarton08 for the very helpful links. I will analyze your comments and will put them in practice. 

Memorize a piece for me is as important as playing itself, I completely agree with someone who said " You have to learn everything by heart in order to forget it at the end, so you can concentrate in your interpretation and not notes”.

so long


 

[jbmajor]

Dear all:

So I debut in this forum putting under consideration one of my most serious constraints... memorize the scores. The point is that I find really hard to learn a piece by heart, I feel that I 'm able to memorize scores only through my mechanical hands memory, no analitical or other kind of memory. It is certainly a big problem to overcome, and I do not know about methodologies or techniques to educate and develope memory in piano playing.

Any comment and suggestions will be sincerely appreciated.

yours

A piano lover.

 

In my school's band, we sometimes used to practice a piece backwards, starting from the end, and working back a little more each time and practicing to the end.  It seemed to work fairly well. 

Good luck in finding a solution.  There's gotta be something that will work. 

[prettypianoplaying]

Memorize your hands seperately while you learn the piece.

[quantum]

In my school's band, we sometimes used to practice a piece backwards, starting from the end, and working back a little more each time and practicing to the end.  It seemed to work fairly well. 

Good luck in finding a solution.  There's gotta be something that will work. 

Practicing a piece backwards is an excellent idea, I do this all the time.  It reinforces the structure of a piece and puts emphasis on thinking of what comes ahead instead of pondering what you just played.  When ever you do get stuck it is important to think ahead to the next important musical idea, and this would avert a grinding halt if such a thing were ever to hapen during a performance.