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@Monica: Yes, those endless octave ups and downs are the major challenge. But I'm progressing well.

@Jessiebear and @ShiroKuro: I take photocopies and I keep only 1 or 2 pages in front of me - the sessions I'm working on -. Since I can memorize with ease, that works for me.

Jessiebear, I'll try to take some photos that describe what I'm talking about, and upload those soon.

Carlos, are you able to memorize and keep those pieces in, and continue adding pieces to your repertoire? I have found that if I want to build my repertoire and hae it continue expanding, I really need to be able to "see" the score for a lot of pieces, even if I'm not actively reading the score (if you see what I mean). And being able to "read-play" a piece that I've already polished and taken out of practice rotation also helps me have a larger repertoire. Maybe I should try to push my memory more, but at this point I only have about 4-5 pieces that I play completely without the score, but I have probably almost 4 times that many pieces on my "read-play" repertoire list. Using the score also helps with Christmas music (sorry, off-topic!

ShioKuro: Yes, I can play by memory even when I add new pieces to my repertoire.

At the moment I can play about 20 pieces without difficulty, from the beginning to the end (almost all pieces I've learned so far). For example, I still can play my first Einauidi piece, "La nascita delle cose segrette", by memory, without the score; I learned to play it in 2010.
I don't know why/how I can do this... I only realized this ability when I start reading some "memory threads" in PW. I was not understanding the purpose of those threads... I thought that memorization was "natural" for everybody. I don't understand what people want to say with "I have to memorize this piece" or "I'm working to memorize that score".

Another fresh example: I'm working on "Two Trees" and I've memorized the first two pages at the end of the first hour. Now, I have all the piece memorized, without ever thinking in memorizing it. Do you understand?

Carlos, that is absolutely awesome! I don't think I could memorize that way unless I totally changed the way I practiced and put a lot more effort into maintaining the pieces. Even then I don't think I could have that many pieces completely memorized.

I do "memorize" quite a bit, but I often need the score to trigger my memory. I've been using the express "read-play" a lot, because it's not sightreading (in the sense of reading something for the firt time etc). But it's also not really even reading, it's more like "look-play," because I look at the score more than actually read it.

Also, I find that if I play for people, or in a public place, my memory is a lot less reliable, and I tend to get nervous, but having the score to focus on helps me both combat the nerves and avoid memory-wabbles.

But yes, I am definitely a score-oriented person, and that's why I've developed this elaborate system for preparing the scores the way I do.

Now, let's see if I can make some useful photographs of my system.

Carlos that is a stunning ability, I'm a little envious!

I have probably about half a dozen of my old repertoire I have memorised from 15 years ago, and can play large chunks of a few of my Einaudi's from memory but find them so long it's hard to remember the whole 12-15 pages. 2-4 pages yes, more than that and I get muddled if I don't have the score.

Looking forward to seeing people's setup of their scores so I can conquer Ancora and Oltremare (and Andare) to the best of my ability

Ok, this is what I meant by the explanations I gave in my earlier post. Here's La Linea Sicura, "only" 5 pages long so it gets spread out across the piano (but as you can kind of see, it's all taped together)



I explained that I copy the score onto 11x17 inch paper, and then use 11x17 inch blank paper for backing here. Here's the prep stage:




If you have 4 pages, the backing paper comes behind pages 2 and 3, here's what that looks like. You use double sided tape so that there's no tape visible, and there's no tape on any folded edges, no tape attaching two sheets of score pages. Tape is only between the backing paper and the score itself, this is why it lasts so well. (In this photo I haven't taped yet, when it's taped the pages lie flat, which you can see in the next photo).

Putting the score and the backing paper together:



So you repeat that process for however many pages long the score is. If the score is an odd number of pages, I usually copy the first or last page onto an 11X17 sheet of paper (if it's the first page, the score is on the left side of 11X17 page and then that blank side gets treated like backing paper)

Here's Oltremare, all 12 pages of it, spread out on the floor!



Since I'm not working on the whole piece yet I generally set Oltremare on my piano "bookstyle" and I use paper clips to keep the pages together. I never tape or glue the backing paper, because if you do that then you can never change the way the score sits on the piano, and you can't change where you turn the pages.

Oltremare book-style:



Here's one way Oltremare might be opened out more on the piano, can you see what I mean? (I used knick-knacks to separate the pages so you can see them more distinctly)

One way to have Oltremare on the piano:




And just or reference, here's I Giorni, I only have one page turn, but because there's a repeat, I turn it, and then I turn it back, and then turn again for the DS al segno section. That might sound like a lot of page turning, but I only turn on the fermatas or where one hand has a free spot.

I Giorni:




And last but not least, Le Onde, which is a little longer than I Giorni, but no repeats. I have this set up to turn twice in the middle.

Le Onde:



So hopefully these photos are helpful and don't just make me look like a crazy person!

As you can imagine, prepping the score like this takes a little bit of time, so I generally only do it with a piece that I have practiced enough to know that I want to polish and put it into my repertoire.

That's impressive, Shiro!! I may try to do something like that for the piece I'm working on now, which has 11 pages and no good place to pause.

That is really REALLY helpful, thank you so much for taking the time to do photos for us I can see I'm going to have to reprint my long ones and try this.

eta: hmmm my score ledge thingy is only as wide as two pages..... what to do?

That's really clever, ShiroKuro! Nice pictures, too.

I understood what you said about being a score-oriented person. That was a good description.
One of the advantages to play by memory is that I'm always "ready" to play in any place, anytime. No need to bring scores or books with me. But your solution is really clever. Well done!

CarlosCC, do you have any advice, ideas or helpful hints on memorising pieces?

I would place myself as level 1-2 and just enjoying seeing my fingers going to the right keys as if on their own! This happens only occasionally and makes me understand the value of slow and accurate practice.

I liked Shirokuro's score app, but if there is a way of learning to memorise now at my early stages I would appreciate any instruction.

There are probably lots of threads here about it, but I am interested what process you use. My pieces are small just now, 1 page or 2. It is possible that you have an excellent memory, in which case, where can I order one! Lol.

Jessiebear, by "score ledge thingy" I assume you mean the "lip" that keeps the music from sliding onto the keyboard? Although, the other piece of concern is the back stand that props the music up...

Anyway, if you get a large piece of poster board or something, the weight of the music holds it in the middle, and then you can paperclip it lightly at the left and right edges.

P.S. random Einaudi comment:

Does anyone else think that Nightbook is very similar to the Piano Guys and how they arrange music? I mean in terms of style rather than sounding like any particular piece of music.

Shey, I don't have a scientific approach about memorizing pieces... It's like driving a car: you don't think about how to use the breaks, the gears, the steering wheel, and so on. You just know how to use them and your brain "knows" how to coordinate all the movements.

Anyway, once I tried to describe a kind of process when I want to learn a new piece. You can read it here:
Re: Memorization vs Sight reading
(You may read all the thread because it's very interesting.)

I can't say I see any resemblance, Shiro. Einaudi has definite minimalist leanings I don't hear in the Piano Guys' arrangements, e.g., the ostinato basses. I'd put Piano Guys more in the David Lanz/Jim Brickman camps.

Monica, maybe it's just me....

And I don't think that about any other Einaudi piece, just the actual piece Nightbook (not a solo arrangement of it) and it's not even all Piano Guys' stuff, more just the Borne one, "Code Name Vivaldi," where the cello sounds rather percussive, and then the piano in Nightbook has an especially percussive feel to it, and then the cello... Somehow I feel like they have the same aesthetic. Maybe it's just me.

You know, I have to admit I hardly know any of Brickman's music, and I only know a few Lanz pieces (namely, Cristofori Dream of couse, and Vesuvius). And the reason for that is that I've always avoided anything that's not strictly solo piano. So I've found my complete love of Nightbook ironic! Never say never, clearly!

Just in case anyone wants to see if they can hear what I hear, here's Nightbook:



And here's the Piano Guys' video of Code Name Vivaldi:

Question for players of Divenire: do you bother with the overly long intro? Do you shorten it, skip it or play the whole thing every time?
I am naughty and find myself skipping it because it's so tedious (and therefore still stumble a bit on it) but blahhhh the rest of it is so exciting to play.

Shiro how are you going with Oltremare? Can you reach the last LH chord? I reckon Mr Einaudi thinks we all have a 12 note handspan haha.

Shiro - that is really interesting the way you have prepared your sheet music, I might give it a try. I have several pieces where the pages are all taped together, but they are often floppy as I never thought to reinforce them behind as you have.

I'm now into polishing phase with I Giorni (my first Einaudi piece) - working on the dynamics and the musical expression, and trying to get to the point where I can play it through with no mistakes (not there yet, which perhaps for some people suggests I'm *not* yet at polishing phase!)

I'm starting into Nefeli next, which so far seems easier to me, would that be other people's opinion? I've got the first 2 pages up to an ok level, and I've just sight read through the full thing once to the end.

I'm also working on Rondo Alla Turca, but I guess I won't chat about that here - except to say that Mozart and Einaudi are so very different that I find it really pleasant to work on them at the same time. I don't have a huge amount of practice time available, and I appreciate the variety that comes from working on very different styles of music.

I've been finding the memorization v sightreading thread very interesting. I tend to naturally memorise as I go, but do like to have the sheet music as a prompt. I've never actively tried to memorise in fact, it would be a useful exercise to see if I can let the score go.
As it is, I think it's arisen that way for me because my sightreading is not great, and I have a tendency/habit/need to look at my hands as I play. Of course, this can get me into trouble when I lose my train of thought. Also, my teacher picked up a mistake I was making in I Giorni that was arising precisely because I had stopped looking at the music and was missing a variation within the leggero section. Fortunately it wasn't too deeply embedded and I've fixed it again - but it was a very good learning point for me!

Jessiebear, thanks for asking! I had a lesson last week and prior to that I was thinking that I wasn't making much progress with the triplet sections, but seeing my progress through my teacher's eyes convinced me otherwise. (Funny how that works!) Now I'm trying push up the tempo while keeping the RH triplets and the LH eighth notes even, it's actually coming along. I think I can play them at MM=100, whereas I started out at 58! So although it feels like getting closers to 120 is pretty far off, I've certainly come a long way already! I've also been making progress on the various sections from the beginning up to the triplet section on p. 4. I've figured out how to "feel" the syncopation, and that made it easier to get closer to the desired tempo. Momentum is such an important part of this piece, and it only comes when you pick up the tempo, so that's what I've been working on for the most part. It's funny to me how much easier it is when there are 8th notes in both hands instead of the held notes in the melody (RH) as in the beginning.

I haven't worked on anything past the 4th page (except for the triplet section where the LH plays dotted half notes). I looked at the end (the last 7 measures) when I first started working on the piece, and I figured out that I can play the top note of the LH with my RH thumb for that last section. I did it that way because I thought it sounded better than rolling the LH. But (embarrassingly) I hadn't actually looked at the very last chord. Looking at it now, I don't think I'll be able to play it as written. I will probably think about rearranging the notes or something. Or, you know, it might sound ok rolled since it's the very last one. I'll let you know when I try it!

I changed some of the chords in I Giorni as well, but in a different way. For the ones I couldn't reach, rather than rearranging the notes, I actually changed one of the notes (I can't tell you what it is because I'd have to be at the piano). I actually can't remember if that was suggested by my teacher or by a fellow PW forum member, but I like how it sounds. So I may try a few different approaches for the last chord of Oltremare. Let me know how you have solved it.

Barbaram, I Giorni was the first Einaudi piece I played, and I think it's a pretty approachable or accessible piece as far as Einaudi pieces go. I have only played through Nefeli briefly (I've forbidden myself from playing it until I get all of Oltremare in my fingers! ) but I think Nefeli might have some portions that are more challenging than I Giorni. However, what I think happens with a lot of composers, but especially with Einaudi, is that the more pieces you play by that composer, the easier it gets to play pieces by that composer. So that might be what you're reacting to. I bet Monica can add to this, given her experience with Einaudi but also because she started with Nefeli (right Monica?)

Also I can imagine how much fun it must be to do Mozart and Einaudi in the same practice session! It's been a long time since I've worked on Bach, but I can remember working on an Invention and a George Winston piece at the same time, the contrast was just so cool.

Jessiebear, when I was at Einaudi's solo concert in Milwaukee, he played a different version of the intro that I then attempted to capture by ear. Basically it involved adding thirds to the right hand and shortening it quite a bit. It's much less boring that way, so that's how I play it now. He also played the chords leading up to the main theme much more slowly and then accelerating dramatically. You can see how I arranged it on my video. Needless to say it sounds a WHOLE lot better when Einaudi plays it!!

[video:youtube]BysVpLWpUyY[/video]

Hi barbaram,

Nefeli has a few wicked measures (17-27) that, for me, required much brute-force ultra-slow play HS and HT before I could play them successfully. If you have already gotten them down, and it sounds like you have, the rest of the piece is easier than "I Giorni," in part because it has so much repetition.

Welcome to the forum (and the Einaudi thread!), by the way!