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Memory and thought techniques
Hello everyone,I am interested learning more about what goes on inside people's minds when they are practicing. Do you have special techniques that you use when memorizing? Do you have a way to practice with your brain before using your body?
I find myself being limited in my playing by how much I can memorize. The way I do it is I play a song several times, and after I figure out how the song goes, I start testing myself from the beginning to see if I have it memorized. If I am unsure, I add one bar or part of a bar to my memory and practice that part a few times before integrating it with the rest of the song that is already in my mind, starting from the beginning again. The process is slow and arduous, but eventually, I can memorize a song. Do you have a different way to do this?
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Replies (10)
I still prefer to memorize a new work by listening to it.
Visualize and audiate the melodic line, see and hear the notes in your mind when away from the instrument on your daily walk.
Analyse the harmonic structure eg; Bach Gm presto begins with a descending Gm arpeggio with a repetitive rhythmic pattern, then ascends on the D7 arpeggio. And take note of the sequential patterns.
I heard Menuhin say...always anticipate a few notes ahead of what you are playing, which keeps you very focused.
That might sound jargony, but the more you can imagine the feeling and the sound of a shift or a fingering, or a quality of vibrato (or whatever), the more anchor points you have for memorization.
So I resonate with what Cotton and Henry mentioned.
You do it more or less quickly, depending on brain chemistry.
You don't practise in order to memorise.
Memorisation is not practice.
Memorisation is a by-product of practising.
When I was about 14 I played a Bartok piece on the piano that lasted about 55 seconds.
In a performance I suffered a memory blank.
Julian Bream used to practise a new piece for 18 months before performing it.
I assume that was to engrave it into his memory.
I should have played that Bartok piece for 18 months.
I haven't been able to play for three weeks (fractured right wrist which is in a cast), so I've been thinking a lot about the art of practice. And when you have to rely on memory/memorization.
A musician friend (a jazz pianist) gave me this wonderful recent book by Molly Gebrian -- a neuroscientist and viola player -- which addresses many of these issues. A deeper dive.
The title says it all: "Learn Faster, Perform Better: A Musician's Guide to the Neuroscience of Practicing". Utterly fascinating!!!
Mozart 4 1st mvt - other than passing familiarity, I listened to it specifically 50x over 3 months before playing, then had it note-memorized in about 2 weeks, including an option constructed from Levin cadenzas (to say nothing of style, musicality, consistency, pleasantry for a listener, etc.). I started working on it with a teacher a few months later and in the "chromatic noodling" spots, would sometimes go in the wrong direction. For the "same/similar tune recurring a fifth away" parts, I would pay special attention to "first time is C#, second time is F#" (for example). It also helped to visualize the layout of the pages: for example, the hardest/last section for memory was arpeggios on the 3rd page, left side near the bottom. I've since used multiple other editions so the layout memory isn't as strong anymore.
Mozart 5 1st mvt - passing familiarity, started playing before really listening, and even mis-read a few notes before catching them by listening. It took about 3 weeks to "memorize the notes" and this time I also counted (or audiated the orchestra/piano part) through the shorter tutti rests. I can't remember how long the Joachim cadenza took, but I had to do it one measure at a time from the end.
Vivaldi Spring 1st mvt - heard this enough to "know it" but similar to Joachim, had to "brute force memorize" the bird call sections, counting one measure at a time. A smarter way probably would have been to study/audiate the score and how the solo/V1/V2 interact. I also worked on the arpeggios exclusively for a while before playing from the beginning.
Vivaldi Winter 1st mvt - again, have heard it enough and similar to Spring, did the "hard part" first (double stops). The rest was one phrase or pattern at a time, paying careful attention to physical feelings of half step here, whole step there, keep finger down here, release finger there.
Dvorak/Kreisler slavonic dance - again, know the tune generally, execution needs work. Note memory comes through practicing technical aspects of double stops, shifts, bow articulation, etc. Similar to Mozart, I had to "analyze" (it's not complicated) the structure, making note of order of sections and specific things like "first time goes like this, second time goes like that".
I will say that I've not been able to memorize Praeludium & Allegro and it's not for lack of trying (though possibly not "enough" or "in the right way"). I've never memorized Bach either and that's because of not trying and not practicing in a focused/structured manner.
The simplest of these techniques is association. The more interconnected points of information you have, the easier it is to draw on each one. I suppose this is why after ten years of study, I find memorizing music and lyrics so easy, and remembering people's names and field of study almost impossible. All of the extra theory information I have helps form common patterns that make it easier to remember new things that fit.
Although maybe the best trick to learn something fast is to have a pretty lady in the room. Cause I seem to have an easy time remembering names and faces under those conditions..
Different strategies work for different kinds of music, but in classical and baroque music, I find it very helpful to think of the passages in terms of "shapes", "turns", "approaches", et cetera...