One of the techniques that I have used (and should probably do more -- I'm a better player when I'm not looking at music!) is to memorize "backwards," i.e. starting from the end.
I wish I could remember who suggested this to me, but I find that it really works. The basic concept is that one is always working from the least familiar to the more familiar as one progresses through the piece. Start by finding a reasonable chunk of music, say the last 4 bars. Memorize. Once one is comfortable with those last 4 measures, take another four so that one is working on the last 8 measures. In such a way one can move toward the start of the piece. Again, one is always working from least familiar territory to most familiar territory. This helps to circumvent the usual problem of practicing the same material at the beginning of the piece until things start to fall apart and one can't remember the later parts. Of course with this process (or any), it's always useful to look at the work and divide it up mentally into sections, repeats, etc. (but you know this!). I also find that thinking about a particular piece, letting the sound of it run in my head while I'm driving, doing dishes, etc. helps. I then "visualize" myself playing it, especially once I've started memorizing it. I recall where the frets are, visualize what my hand must look like in any given position, imagine the very feel of the individual strings and frets under my fingers. As silly as it sounds, I find that this visualization is good for aiding memorization and improving accuracy. I especially do these things as I am falling asleep (assuming I'm not working out some other problem!), so I may even dream about it too. Who knows? I find it helps. Lastly, I always work in small chunks of both time and music. As I don't get a lot of time at any one moment to sit down and play, this works well for me anyway. But, it's like I tell my students about memorizing vocabulary (or anything): short, repeated studying works better than long sessions. A bass teacher I had, Todd Johnson, likened learning to filling a coffee mug: your mind is the mug and the material own needs to know is a full pot of coffee. One can keep pouring, but one is not going to get any more coffee in the cup until it has been digested. I believe Jacob Heringman also encourages this approach. It has been quite some time since I've talked with him, but last time I did he was really into playing for short periods of time (15-30 minutes? I could be wrong), then going for a short walk or doing something else. Just my 2 cents, Andrew At 04:05 AM 4/4/2008, Doc Rossi wrote: >I was wondering whether anyone has any strategies for memorizing pieces. > >In the last few years I've had no luck at all memorizing music and >really can't play without the tab in front of me any more. I think >part of it might be age (although I'm not that old) and part of it is >that I'm playing more complex arrangements, but it never used to be so >difficult for me to remember music. Some years ago I memorized both >parts of the JC Bach sonata for guitar and violin without actually >making a conscious effort to do so - it just happened. I'd like to >solve this and would appreciate hearing what any of you do to memorize >music. > >Thanks, > >Doc > > > >To get on or off this list see list information at >http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
