How to memorise material is something that I am constantly being asked about by my students, and generally I find the most effective technique which works for them is either, Mind mapping as developed by Tony Buzan, or visualisation using drawings or your own personal stories and symbols. But, ultimately it is the proces of learning which is most important, and by that I mean actually really understanding what is happening, rather than the act of being able to recite something at will, without actually understanding the process. Now, this is all fine and good, and it certainly helps me to understand and remember information.....but there is one area where I tend to struggle is with songs. I can play a song a hundred time, and then a couple of months later, totally forget how to play it and I am really not sure why.Then I stumbled across this piece online and I think it makes some really important points and I am looking forward to trying some of them out. It starts by suggesting that if you first learn a piece then memorise it, you are basically doing the same work twice! Of course, when approaching a new piece for the first time, you have to use your ear/sight read the notes, fingerings, articulations, phrasing and dynamics etc, and once you have done this, then you site down go over it time after time to 'memorise' it. Now, I have no problem with the first bit and memorising it for the short term, but how to you do this for the long term? This could be the solution....
Conscious Practice...Always tell yourself what you are doing when you practice eg
- learning a new fingering? Then, say the finger out loud to yourself.
- recognize a cadence? Then, tell yourself the cadence.
- play a sequence? Then, identify the sequence and how the melody is used.
The reason why it takes many a long time to learn music is because they just play through it! They don't actively tell themselves what is going on. If you just play through it over and over again, you are not practicing. You are not reminding yourself about what is going on. You have to be active! Your mind must be involved. Count out loud, sing the musical lines, work small sections, tell yourself the harmonic progressions... even something as simple as reminding yourself about how the theme repeats will help you memorise and understand the piece. When you are playing a crescendo, tell yourself! This way you associate the dynamic with the musical line and the fingering.Set a goal to memorise something every day!Muscle memory is only good to train the fingers where to go but you cannot rely on that when you are stage! By reminding yourself what you do, telling yourself, verbalizing what you practice will improve your time at the your instrument. The verbalisation reinforces what you are doing physically by activating your brain.
I hope this helps!!PeaceNeil
