Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum do you strive to play by memory?

Stellabella, since returning to the piano a year or so ago, I have discovered the importance and the benefits of memorization which I simply hadn't appreciated in the past. One thing for sure about it - and you said this - it is Hard - especially if it isn't something you've tried before and if you aren't one of those lucky folks who somehow just end up memorizing as a side effect of learning a piece. I am definitely not so lucky so I have to make a point of memorizing. The trick, for me at least, seems to be to memorize the piece while I am learning it, not after I have learned it, because there is little incentive to start memorizing after you can play from the score. If you memorize while you are learning the piece though, the process really takes no longer and, when you've learned to play the music, you also have it memorized. Easy as it sounds, it requires a lot of discipline (for me at least) to do this and not just fall back into playing from the score. Learn one bar at a time, hands separate, then together, and slowly work through the piece. Play it back in your head when you are not at the piano. This seems to commit the memory to a higher level, above simple muscle memory which is necessary but not sufficient.

The real payback for doing this is the joy of being able to just sit down and play, something I just couldn't do before. For some reason, as well, once the music is memorized, it is much easier to focus on the interpretation - really being musical - than when playing from the score.

Well said!

yes, i do. but when you work on a piece long enough, it will be memorized anyway even if you don't even try.

my teacher however tells me that i don't have to memorize a piece, as long as i could play from music in front of me. but to me, it's not the question of 'don't have to' but 'must', because to reach a decent tempo and play fluently requires me to memorize music, or else i have no chance of playing anything well.

this morning my adult kids said "play Colors of the Wind" from Pocohantas, then asked me to play some Aladdin and some Little Mermaid and some Lion King.

I have no idea where the books are since I just moved 2300 miles but it's nice to be able to have them logged away.

I remember the melodies and the basic chords and then feel them out if the memories are foggy.

I agree that after learning/playing a piece for weeks and even months (depending on the difficulty), your brain seems to absorb the notes and sends them to your fingers. Gosh, what a scientific explanation, this that.

I have to memorize (or try to) pieces that have a fast tempo or tricky spots. However, I don't find it necessary if the piece is slow...as in the E minor Chopin prelude.

But, the big thing is this: You can't always count on your memory. Blackouts (even for a nanosecond) can happen. So, it helps if you are a good improviser, so you can get yourself back on track.

Kathleen

To all,
thanks for all your replies. I was going to not even bother memorizing because it wasn't much fun but now i understand the value and importance of it. I will try to use some of your techniques and see what happens.
A special thanks to EJR for recommending Fundamentals Piano Practice by Chang. I printed out the entire book and am finding the book very helpful! It is going to change my piano playing experience. I just wish I were bit younger I am middle aged....) so I can benefit more but hey, it is never too late!
Thanks again to you all.

My teacher has me learning the patterns 1,5,3.. to get you started. Once I start, the song kinda just flows along...there's always that one spot where you get hung up. I just go back to learning the pattern/spacing and jot it down on the music. This helps with both hands. He also stressess to know what key it's in and who composed it. It seems to cement it in my mind a little firmer.

Monster M & H,
sorry but what do you mean by patterns, 1,5,3? i am not well versed in this so if you can explain, i would appreciate it!
thanks

In the key of “C”…“C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. A common pop song chord pattern is 1, 4, 5 -- C, F, G. The pattern of 1, 4, 5 will work in what ever key you want to play in… example in the key of “F” would be F, Bb, C (1, 4, 5). A 16 bar song consists of chord structures(intervals), example of 1, 4, 5 (4 bars of F, 4 bars Bb, 2 bars F, 2 bars C, 4 bars F) -- hope that’s right -- for the right hand I try to remember number combos for the difficult sections and let the easy ones just kinda flow off your fingers, ya know like when your pickin out a song, along with muscle memory… it just feels right.

You’ll find lots of this stuff over in the non-classical forum, our friend Bob Muir has posted in some threads on this … do a search

Hope that’s not to confusing

No, but I strive to learn how to play by sight.

I'm basically the opposite: My sight reading is so bad, and I've memorized naturally from an early age (other instruments) I've kind've formulated my own way of "learning" the piece. I work on 4 measures a day (working on a Haydn sonata with a teacher now) and repeat, repeat, repeat. I try to work out the technical difficulties of the 4 measures, and perfect the different voicing, phrasing problems there are. The next day I learn four more measures in the same manner. Looking at the score again only supplements my memory, by very little, but it gives a needed boost at times. I may increase my rate, along with my practice hours, to 8 measures a day soon, but 4 measures is comfortable and does not put me in too much distress.

To push my reading ability, I should probably try to work on 12-16 measures a day in order to work with things that aren't fully memorized, thus forcing me to read.