Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Hello and a question!

Hi all. I'm new here and decided to restart playing piano again. I played a little when I was 10 or so for a couple of years with a teacher on and off. But since it's been almost 20 years I consider myself a beginner who can do a little sight reading.

Now here's my question... Is it really necessary to memorize a piece to master it? I cannot memorize anything for the life of me but it seems that those who really perform well has committed it to their memory. Will I be any good if I can't memorize... Of course I shall try harder at memorizing if it's what's needed to vastly improve.

That's it. It was nice to find this forum.

Welcome to the forums. Memorization is an oft-discussed topic on these forums so a search will quickly point you to a number of discussions. Here's a recent thread to get you started.

Bottom line IMO: if you want to resume playing don't worry about memorization at all in the beginning. Just jump in and see where you land. After you get started you may find that the questions and difficulties you have are completely different than what you anticipate now.

Hi Kizu and welcome,

The thread packa linked to should give you some insights into the pros/cons of memorization. My take on it is it's better to play using the music. My rationale is that it strengthens your ability to read music and you can never be too good at that.

I try (but don't always succeed) to use the music whenever I play. The only exception is a few pieces that I like to keep "under the fingers" at all times so when I'm out somewhere and somebody says "play something"

Welcome again.

Thanks for the link Packa, I did see that a while ago (been lurking here for a few months) I guess my only desire to memorize anything is in the off chance I might be at a place where I'd be ask to play. When I was younger it would always be a source of embarassment when someone would mention I played the piano and I can't play anything from memory. So maybe I'll just do as BB Player does and have something handy, after all I love reading sheet music.

Thanks for the warm welcome!

Memorizing music is not in place of reading music, it is the step beyond it. That means, first to learn a piece, you must be able to read it (if you are playing from sheet music to begin with, of course). Then you perfect it. In this process, your fingers will begin memorizing the feel of it, and you rely less upon the score. However, there is a big leap from playing from "memory" with the score in front of you and with it put away. There is a technique to memorizing, and once you learn that technique, it is not hard to do, just time-consuming, which requires the desire to do so.

Pieces that I memorized as a child I still remember quite well, and of course, those I memorized as an adult are quite easy to bring back if I needed to play them for a student. Memorization solidifies a piece under your fingers so to speak, so that there will be less of a chance of a mistake, or one that will slip you up.

If you are having trouble memorizing, then perhaps it's the way you are going about it, rather than simply being something you cannot do.