How to memorize a musical piece: the four memory types
To repeat till your fingers have been known isn't enough. A solid memory combines four layers and a sectionally structured method with points to get back to if you lose.
To memorize a piece well, it's not enough to repeat it till it's "glued" to your fingers. A reliable memory combines four layers: the auditory (you know how what's coming), the visual (you see the score or the keyboard in your mind), the motor (your hands know the way) and the analytics (you understand how they are, chords and phrases).
The motor arrives by itself as you repeat and so many are left with it. The problem is that it's the first to miss with nerves or a distraction. The method that follows works all four, with sections and with anchor points to get back to if you lose.
To sum up
- The memory of the fingers is quick but fragile and refutes with auditory, visual and analytic memory.
- Before memorizing, understand the shape of the piece: sections, repetitions and how they differ.
- It memorizes by short sections and binds them with a scrape bar.
- Prepare anchor points and practice starting from any of them.
- If you only get out quickly and from the start, it's still unmemorized: try it slow and from the middle.
The four types of musical memory
Each memory type fails in a different way. Recognize how each defect feels tells you what you have to strengthen:
| Memoria | What's that? | How do you feel about his failure? | How to strengthen it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Motora | Automated movements of hands, arms and breathing | If you stop, you can't get back and get back to start. | Touch very slow and with attention to every movement |
| Auditiva | Listen inside what's coming | Don't know what note goes on even if his hand's well placed. | Singing the melody, pounding the accompaniment, listening to recordings |
| Visual | Remember the page, keyboard or diapason | Do you have anything to say about that play? | Watch the score with attention, visualise positions with closed eyes |
| Analytics | Understanding form, harmony and patterns | That's how you get Section wrong or repeat that part that isn't | Name chords, mark sections, notice differences between repetitions |
Before memorizing: understand the piece
Ten minutes of analysis will save you hours of repetition with pencil and score in your hand:
- Divide the work into sections and put letters to them: A, B, A ', code. In a song, identify introduction, stropma, choir and bridge.
- It sets what's repeated. Many pieces are shorter than they seem because they come back onto the same material.
- The classic trap is the second time a section with a different end appears.
- He writes the chords or the tone of each party, if simply.
- He indicates where each sentence ends and where you breathe or change your position.
If you still have a hard time reading the score fluently, start with that: memory is built about a proper reading and memorizing a wrong note is difficult to correct later.
Section method, step by step
- Choose a short section, from four to eight bars.
- Play it slow with the score several times, with attention to notes, digitation and sound.
- Take your look or turn the leaf and touch it with memory.
- Compare with the score. If there was an error, run and repeat them and get them out more and more.
- Far from the instrument, sing it or turn it mentally without touching.
- Join with the next section playing the last bar of one and the first of the other.
A trick that many teachers recommend: memorizes back and forth. If you start with the last Section, the end of the work remains as the most practice and not as weak as usual.
Anchor points: your safety net
A anchoring point is a place of the work from where you can start without hesitation: the beginning of a section, the entrance of the choir, a change of tone. Kill them at the score and number them.
Then practice starting from either of them, in a mess. Write the numbers and get one out at random, or ask someone to tell you from where to start. If you get lost in a presentation, do not try to remember the exact note that's been gone to you: you leap to the next anchor and get your pulse.
Tips by your instrument
Piano
He memorizes every hand independently, especially his left hand, which most often fails because it's practice with his mind on his melody. He name his accompaniment chords out loud. piano classes It's common to also work memory of the place on the keyboard, and not just of the notes.
Violin
Besides his notes, he memorizes his place changes, his digitations and his arcs: up or down, how far his arch and how many notes are linked. He sings his work with his note names and also learns where his accompanying piano enters. violin classes teacher helps you to set these decisions before memorizing, so as to avoid learning something that will later change.
Guitar
In the classic Repertoire of [guitar]](/clases/guitarra-acustica)He memorizes the digitation of his right hand (p, i, m) as much as his left. In songs, he learns his progression by degrees and not only by chord names: if you know that the chorus goes from first to fourth and fifth, you can play it at any tone and it's more difficult to lose. If you sing and play, memorize letters and chords together, syllage with them where harmony changes.
How to prove that you really know
- Touch it slow from start to finish without stopping.
- It starts from three randomly chosen anchors.
- Review her mentally from beginning to end, for example at the bus or at the TransMillennium, listening to every note inside.
- Write the chords or structure onto a paper without looking at the score.
- Touch her after a day without practicing her, cold.
- Touch with a distraction: someone talking, television turned on or in front of a person.
And don't stop to check the score at once even if you know it: with the days, small changes of rhythm or note are hung without you noticing it. If you are going to play it in public, follow our guide to [prepare your first recital]](/blog/como-prepararte-para-tu-primer-recital).
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to memorize a piece?
It depends on the length, difficulties and your experience memorizing. The important thing is to start with time: to memorize to the race a week of a presentation leaves a fragile memory that usually fails with nerves.
Is it better to memorize from the start or when I play her by reading?
It's best to memorize when the notes, the rhythm and the digitation are already right, so as to avoid setting mistakes. From there you can memorize Section by Section while you are still polishing the work.
Why do I miss the piece just as I play with them?
Because nerves first have an impact on motor memory, that that that that works as an automatic pilot. If you have also auditory, visual and analytic memory and ready anchor points, you have something to get onto. To manage nerves, read [how to overcome stage fear]](/blog/como-vencer-el-miedo-escenico).
Do you care to listen to the piece many times to memorize it?
It helps with hearing memory but does not replace work with an instrument. It hears recordings with the score at the front and following the sections you marked, but not just as background music.