Memorizing

i cant really read music so i have to plod through a piece and remember it, then learn it, honestly i have to learn to read music! :-S

i cant really read music so i have to plod through a piece and remember it, then learn it, honestly i have to learn to read music! :-S

I find it easier to memorize everything since I first learned how to play piano by ear. I just recently started sight-reading, but I find it easier to memorize a passage, then try to learn the rest of the piece. It's much easier to pay attention to dynamics, and bringing out the mood of the piece when I'm not sight-reading.

I like to memorise my pieces because you can communicate more with the audience when you're not staring at the music. But it takes me a while to memorise everything as well as be able to put feeling into the music. I used to be an instant memorise-er with the piano, but I'd often memorise a few notes wrong (or I'd modify it to make it sound better to my ear... XD) so it was frustrating for my teacher. Poor thing... >w<;;;

I don't know if it's just me, but normally by the time I get my pieces up to performance standard, I'll have them pretty much memorised from working on them for so long.

Memorisation is good - it allows a lot more expression and focus on the musical side of things instead of just getting notes right ;)

I just was wonder...

Does your teacher have you/do you like to memorize pieces before playing them? It always seems less comfortable and more risky to me, and always is, but I suppose it feels better than taking all your music out. I do it, but I was just wondering if most people do, or just play it from the sheet. ^_^

Once I have a piece down in memory, the sheet music can actually screw me up. I no longer think in terms of the notes on the stave, but fingers on keys and the sounds that accompany them, and often chords and harmonic rhythm.

Learning to sight read is *very* valuable though - as is memorization. To begin with - you will learn music faster the better you recognize the notes.

You know, it is a lot easier to perfect(and I use that word loosely) a piece if you know it by heart. I mean, you can focus in on listening even more because you don't have to read the music. And it allows for much more emotional output. Music needs to come from the heart, and like I said, memorizing makes it easier to become part of you.

Memorizing comes easy to me, all I have to really do is practice the song a lot and I'll naturally memorize the fingerings. Another method I have for memorizing, which works a lot better, is looking at each section of the song individually until I have all the notes for that section memorized. Like if the notes for section "A" are "DEF" I keep telling myself "Okay so the notes for this section are DEF" a bunch of times, until I've memorized it, then I move on to section "B". To make sure I've memorized it, I some times go back and ask myself what the notes for a previous section are, and if I'm even one note off, I go back and rememorize that section. I memorized all my marching band songs Sophomore year since using a lyer was a bother. The girls in my squad told me I was "amazing" for memorizing songs so fast, but really it's nothing. This technique works well, when I want to memorize something, but don't have much time to memorize it. Memorizng stuff on the Bass Guitar is even easier.

Memorization is my forte. In my opinion Memorizing music is done by playing through a piece repeatedly until it becomes automatic. Musicians who practice this way rarely attempt to put the music into their conscious or awake mind. The first article I read was actually about a memory technique. Thanks:(

I think that if one is ever performing in an even semi-formal occasion, that peice of music should be memorized. I always do it by memory unless something comes up and there's no time. It's better to play a peice good and not have it by memory than have it by memory and it be bad.

I like to think memorisation is a must. In fact,

When it comes to memorizing pieces I sometimes will learn the piece backwards (recapitulation, development, then exposition) in order to maintain the same energy and feel so the form and theory are more noticeable to listeners and maybe more appreciated.

I posted (three years ago) but never clarified...so here you go:

I disagree that memorization is the best way to perform. ...Mainly because it doesn't work for me. I don't memorize tunes...I learn tunes. I find not having to rely on my slow and fallable mind allows me more freedom with how I approach a performance. If memorization is required, the stress of trying to remember what's going on is usually enough to really get me twisted around.

That is not to say I'm not intimately familiar with the tunes - I KNOW the tune, but having the sheet allows me to let my mind & eyes float over top, without getting bogged down in recalling specifics.

"what's the changes for the bridge...? Does it go up a fourth? What's the melody for the third bar of the last A? Is it the same as the others, or does this tune change? What's going on? What key are we in?"

....so.... yeah.

If you have to ask those questions then you don't have it memorised, silly! But I understand, reciting a Bach prelude and fugue is a little different from kicking out some jazz charts.

If you have to ask those questions then you don't have it memorised, silly!

Nah...it's not that I don't KNOW the answers...but in the heat of battle (i.e. on stage with your solo coming up in 4 bars) crap! You start to second-guess yourself; I don't trust my brain... I DO trust my ability to let my arm go where it needs to if I don't have to think about it; a little reinforcement from a slight visual cue helps me abandon the cumbersome thought process and just play ;) Often, just knowing the sheet is there is enough for me to let go.

...and you're right, it is a lot different.

WELL. I do like to have my stuff in front of me..HOWEVER, I also like to memorize. Having the music up there helps if I don't remember something

My 2 cents, memorize it, for sure, but in case you forget, have the music up...

And eventually you'll memorize it if you play it enough. duh.

WELL. I do like to have my stuff in front of me..HOWEVER, I also like to memorize. Having the music up there helps if I don't remember something

My 2 cents, memorize it, for sure, but in case you forget, have the music up...

And eventually you'll memorize it if you play it enough. duh.

same.

by the time you have practiced a piece enough to play it well, you will have it memorized.

i find that my playing always sounds better when i have the piece i'm playing memorized.

same.

by the time you have practiced a piece enough to play it well, you will have it memorized.

i find that my playing always sounds better when i have the piece i'm playing memorized.

Me too! Then you can really get into the music and concentrate on your fingers, instead of worrying about the notes.

Maybe because I can't sight-read well on piano, I end up memorizing piano pieces by the time I can actually play them. it comes very easily, even early on though.

It's a different story on saxophone, though; I can sight-read very well, but I have a really terrible time memorizing tunes on sax, even if I really like them. Maybe it's because I can look at my hands while playing piano? but even then, I don't have to stare at my hands to play a piano piece... huh...

But either way, if you ask me, serious performances should be memorized. Maybe this is my rock roots showing, but sheet music on stage is lame. Well, I forgive you orchestra guys, that would suck to memorize all that stuff.

You CANNOT perform in public with sheet music in front of you.

^ That depends on several factors. There's some music that's just a lot harder to memorize than other music too. Sure, a Mozart or Schubert sonata can generally be memorized very easily, since it follows certain formal patterns and works within certain musical principles that most performers are familiar with. That's already a lot different with a lot of contemporary music, where playing from sheets is a much more common practice. (Also because performers often don't have unlimited time to learn a piece.)

But yeah, I agree that it's generally a good thing to memorize, especially when you're playing solo on instruments where the music stand would obstruct the view between you and the audience (i.e. most instruments besides keyboard instruments, where the note stand is already a part of the instrument itself).

And yes, it sometimes seems rather embarrassing when professionals perform rather easily memorizable pieces by reading the sheet all along. When you can't play a Mozart concerto for a solo instrument by heart when you perform it with an orchestra, that just looks a little silly. And I know such people - professionals, whom I otherwise consider great musicians, by the way.

You CANNOT perform in public with sheet music in front of you.

Why not? I understand for a concerto, and the person playing the concerto not using it, but people in the orchestra? Or even an audition where it wasn't required?

I don't get it.

I've never seen a professional solo pianist perform with sheet music in front of them. Never. For the fact, it looks very unprofessional. I have seen, it in ensembles though. But usually when it comes to solo works, it's a must to memorize. Memorization in general helps the performance anyways.

Edit:

Oh wait, Gardener said the same exact thing...Dang, he takes all the fun out of a thread...

You CANNOT perform in public with sheet music in front of you.

:blink:

So what are all those music stands for? I could swear the NYPhil has performed in public...at least a couple times!!

...

Pieter, your statement is nonsense...as Gardener and others have/will point out.

Perhaps he means the solists, protocole indicates solist must play without read,

The rest of the orchestra must read because they simply cannot memorize the amount of works they play, ... Conductor may read, but I tell you, if the conductor reads, his language will be less expressive.

EDIT: and if he is expressive then he's not reading even if he turn the page

:blink:

So what are all those music stands for? I could swear the NYPhil has performed in public...at least a couple times!!

LOL! :laugh:

Yea you'd think an orchestra would have music, wouldn't you? :hmmm: