Your teacher has just assigned you the task of memorizing a piece of music. And here you are at home, sitting in your practice room. You know what your goal is. But what in the heck is step number one? How do you actually go about memorizing music on purpose?
This post is meant to be your practical guide to memorizing music. It contains the bulk of what I know about memorizing a new piece of music.
The Three Senses of Thought
When we think, it’s generally in terms of only three senses: sight, sound, and touch. So in order to memorize our music, we need to engage our visual, aural, and kinesthetic senses. The better we can activate each of these three, the more secure our memory will be on stage. This isn’t all there is to memorization, but it’s a strong starting point. Here’s what I do for each sense.
Aural
Think of all the commercial jingles you’ve memorized. I bet you could sing a dozen of them on the spot without even straining yourself. Think of all the pop songs on the radio that you’ve memorized. How much time did you spend “studying” them? My guess is none. You just picked them up because you’ve heard them often enough and you know how they go.
Aural memory works by repeated listening. So the key to this is to listen to whatever you’re trying to memorize over and over and over again. I listen to my current and upcoming repertoire on my computer, in the car, while I’m biking or walking, etc. It’s on while I eat breakfast, while I’m working out… as often as I can fit it in. Even as I’m writing this, I’m listening to a piece I have to learn for next week. By the time the first rehearsal rolls around, I will have listened to it around twenty or thirty times.
As I do this, I also sing along as soon as I’m able. I’ll hum it when I’m out and about or in the shower. Get it stuck in your head — that’s the whole point. Another thing I’ll do while listening is I’ll visualize playing the part as vividly as I can. This crosses over into the visual and kinesthetic senses and helps solidify the memorization.
Kinesthetic
This is the same memory type as how you tie your shoes or flip on the lights when you enter a familiar room. Some might call this muscle memory. For fast passages of running notes, this is the best memory system to work on.
Let’s say your passage is sixteen notes long. Divide the passage up into groups of four notes (i.e. 1,2,3,4 // 5,6,7,8 // 9,10,11,12 // 13,14,15,16) . Visualize the first four notes of the passage. What would they sound like? What would your left and right hands have to do to make them sound right? What would that look and feel like? Got it? Good. Now play the first four notes slowly. If it sounded right, then visualize the next four notes. If it didn’t sound quite right, work on only those four notes until it sounds good. Once you’ve gone through the entire passage, then go back to the beginning. Play the first note alone in its own group. Now visualize and play the next four notes. Then the next four. (i.e. 1 // 2,3,4,5 // 6,7,8,9 // 10,11,12,13 // 14,15,16). After that, you’ve got two more passes to go until you’re done (i.e. 1,2 // 3,4,5,6 // 7,8,9,10 // etc. And also 1,2,3 // 4,5,6,7 // 8,9,10,11 // etc.)
Visualization is the key to this method. You’re training your mind to recognize all the little patterns. Then you’re fitting them together with all the other little patterns, so they weave together like a basket. If you go through the motions mindlessly, you won’t be reaping the benefits of this method. If this is the case, it’s best to take a break until you’re ready to focus.
After practicing all the slow groups, go through it all over again. But this time, play it up to speed. Work on getting your movements as efficient and effortless as possible. And never play so fast that you lose accuracy.
Once I’ve gotten through the fast groups, I’ll tie two groups together. So now I’m playing eight notes in a row instead of four (8+8+8+8+…). Then I’ll switch up which groups get tied together (4+8+8+8+…).
Visual
Some people have photographic memories. They’re able to read the sheet music in their mind as they’re playing. I’m not one of them, nor do I bother trying to memorize music in this way. But there are other ways to use your visual sense to help you memorize music. One way is to label the form of the piece. Twinkle, for example, follows an ABA form:
A Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are
B Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky
A Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are
Other pieces have other forms, and recognizing them can help you keep track of what happens where. For a pop song, for example, you might help your memorization by knowing that its form is Intro, Verse, Chorus, Verse, Bridge, Chorus, Outro.
Emotion
Music is more than just pitches and rhythms. There was a person who wrote those notes because they had some feeling to express. And our job as performers is to transmit that human element to the audience. Otherwise it’s all just noise. Figure out what the mood of the piece is, and portray the emotions embedded within it with commitment and confidence. If the music has meaning to you, you’ll be much more likely to remember how it goes. If you’re emotionally indifferent, you’ll have to work harder to memorize the piece.
Try writing a story to go with the music. My first private teacher did this for me with Humoresque in Suzuki book 3. It was a story about a skunk prancing through the forest until he saw a lovely lady skunk. He wooed her as best he could. But alas, she rejected him. Eventually he got over it and had much more success with Lady Skunk #2. As the story came to an end, the two of them strolled off into the sunset. The only thing remaining was the hint of their skunk perfume floating in the air.
The Time Factor
There’s one more part of the process that I haven’t mentioned: time. Sometimes it just takes time to get something memorized. When we sleep, memories get transferred from short-term holding into long-term storage. It can take a few nights of sleep for your brain to integrate what you’ve learned with what you already know.
And along the way, it’s natural to forget a bit. Memory slips are part of the memorization process. Try playing through your piece when it’s only partly memorized. It’s a bit like a stress test — it’ll show you where the weak spots are. When you get to a memory slip, give yourself a minute to try and remember how it goes. Then look at the music again. The process is a bit like the flashcard method of studying. The effort your put into figuring it out is the important part.
Conclusion
I hope this has taken some of the mystery out of memorizing music for you. The more you do this, the easier it gets. Do you have any tips or tricks that work for you? Leave a comment below!
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