5 Reasons you might NOT want to memorize your music
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- čas přidán 9. 04. 2023
- You might feel that memorization is a goal to achieve or that it marks the moment you have "finished" a piece but it can often hold you back. In this video I share some insights into the process and I would be interested in your thoughts on the matter.
- Jak na to + styl
OMG the first time I had to play the Prelude from 998 in Studio class I got totally lost!! Hahaha... It has left scars lol So good to see a new video from you!!!
Gohar! Great to hear from you too. Yes, that prelude, and the rest of the piece for that matter, is a minefield! Choose the right exit upon modulation...
@@ClassicalGuitarCorner What a treat to see my two favorite Classical performer/ educators discussing a topic I struggle with. I go into another room and IF I can play the piece without the physical music in front of me, it makes me feel like I've got it under my fingers much better. Great topic, Thank you both so much for all you do.
Gene C
Ahh it was you!! I saw your performance in Sydney on Saturday, thought I recognised you but couldn’t be sure. You’re playing was so perfect, incredibly sensitive. Would love you see more from you in Sydney.
Very timely for me, since I’ve been struggling with memorization. Thank you for your advice.
Very insightful video. I have to admit that I am always impressed to see that guitarists have memorized the music, especially concertos and long masterpieces. I have seen concert pianists go out and perform without music and that is so impressive! I once saw Anton Kuerti play a piano concerto that lasted over 60 minutes. It was truly inspiring. I thought that having it all memorized maybe freed him to concentrate on the expressiveness of the music. I've also seen Liona Boyd perform a 90-minute concert with no music in front of her. Having said that , I can think of one example right away where the musician lost their place in the midst of a long piece and had to stop and start over from the beginning; the audience was very forgiving but she died a thousand deaths on stage going through that experience. I think she made sure to have her music with her at all times following that incident. An example of the opposite experience was to see a young guitarist perform at a guitar campfire setting WITH sheet music and have his head buried in the music the whole time with no connection to the audience which I though detracted from his performance. Worse, he had to stop periodically to advance the pages which seemed a bit awkward. And yes I have myself gone up onstage to perform some music and gotten lost half way through which is really embarrassing. I simply doubled back to a place in the music where I felt comfortable and kept playing. I survived the experience and the audience forgot about it quickly. But boy! never want to go through that experience again!
I know! It is surprisingly scarring for not being actually life-threatening. Glad you survived to tell the tale :)
Well, for polyphonic instruments like guitar and piano, it's much harder to sightread in comparison with say woodwinds that are monophonic. Therefore, to be able to play the difficult passages and convey the feeling and musicality, memorizing is the best option, despite the risks...
Great video, Simon! Performing from the score involves a special ability by itself and I find it quite impressive when musicians perform well on stage this way. I have a bad habit of leaving the score too early (partly due to my poor eye sight) and am beginning to notice the negative impact of that on my music learning. Thank you for sharing your experiences and insights on this topic.
Very true, Aiko. The reading is a challenge unto itself! In the end it comes down to what works best for you.
I played a wind instrument as a child. We always played from sheet music. Anything else was improvisation. When I began playing classical guitar some fifty years later, I was surprised that memorization was expected. Partly, this is because the music is denser. There are more notes on the page. With a dense score there are two choices; memorize it and stare at your fretting hand or work on your reading skills and placement so that you can read accurately at tempo. It is often easier but never better to memorize it.
It certainly does seem that there are different approaches to reading/memorizaton depending on the instrument. Thanks for sharing your experience, Jeff.
I had a teacher once who basically forbade me from memorizing, for many of the reasons you give here. Basically he said that it was to improve how you look, not how you sound.
Forbade! Well... that seems harsh but I am glad that I don't counter your teacher's advice too much.
A great insight! Also makes me feel better about not being able to remember as well as I get older. Thanks!
Glad it was helpful!
Hi Simon, it's great to see you! All these points are excellent advice. I have especially taken to heart to always check back with the score even when I enjoy playing a piece from memory. In my opinion as a listener, I think it's magical to watch and listen to a performer play without the score. The music appears to come from within the musician themselves instead of taking a detour by way of the printed page. I would never think anything negative, however, if someone plays from the score at a concert. Thank you for the video and very best wishes to you 😊
Agreed, it is quite magical. If I was sure it wouldn't be an issue I would play from memory all the time. Hope you are well!
Wow Simon, so good! I like your insightful ideas very much. Great to see you😊
Thank you! 😃
Very good video Simon. Long ago I stopped aiming to memorize the pieces. Mainly because I was afraid of those possible slips, even when I already could play it by heart. For me with sheet music in front of me, for the most part without the need to read it is more easier to concentrate to the piece and playing. Besides studying pieces, I often randomly play through many scores just for fun and curiosity, needles to say of course with making a lot of mistakes. This keeps me a bit in shape and reading skills improves so much as well. I do not study much so without the need for memorizing the pieces I can save me a lot of time. Thank you Simon.
Yes, reading is a bit like staying in shape! It is a skill that needs some upkeep.
I’m so relieved to hear this! Once memorized, it is much more difficult to RE-learn or to correct phrases already memorized.
Hi Jill, yes, "muscle memory" (habit) is a powerful thing! You can indeed unlearn habits and replace them with new habits, but it takes time and positive repetition. Best of luck! -Dave B
Thanks Simon and really nice to see you. I'm going to try this. Memory lapse is a terrible thing. And, I've notice that incorporating wrong notes, missing rests, altered rhythms etc. have occurred when I've memorized (or thought I memorized) a piece of music. For me, my reading skills are no where near strong enough so it may be a combination of memory and reading. I'm going to give it a go. Thanks again. Great video.
We're glad it was helpful, John! -Dave B
Hi Simon. A few months ago I started practicing through my entire repertoire by reading the score instead of playing from memory. It has been amazing. I agree with everything you have presented here and now totally convinced that I should make this a priority. Thank you!
Thanks for the nice comment, Amy, and best of luck with this new approach! -Dave B
Great discussion, Simon. One advantage I can see to memorization in performance, is less fuss with the setup. I’ve heard disaster stories where wind, glare, dead batteries, terrible lighting, the physical space itself, etc basically prevented seeing the score. It’s a caution to think all of that through so you’re not caught.
Hi Greg, great point and, yes, there's no accounting for "acts of God" haha. I performed using my iPad at the last Summer School and the lights went off at the beginning of one of the most difficult pieces, but the glare from my iPad actually helped me see a bit in the dark -- so sometimes it works out the other way too! Thanks for the helpful comment. -Dave B
Thank you for this perspective, Simon. I tend to want memorize a piece so I can concentrate on fine-tuning it without the distraction of looking back and forth from my hands to the score. However, your point about little errors creeping in struck a resonant note (!). I memorized Brouwer's Un Dia de Noviembre and was playing it regularly, confident that I had it down, when I glanced at the score and realized I was leaving out a note here and there. Not good. Now I need to practice playing with the score so I don't lose my place when I look away from it.
Yes it is its own challenge! As I mentioned to Harvey, I like to use different highlighters to mark important landmarks on the score so I can quickly find my place.
Thank you I found your experiences very informative. I have been trying very hard to memorise pieces and the worst thing is freezing in the middle of a piece I thought I knew well
Glad this was helpful!
When listening to an audio only recording I don't know if the performance is memorized or from the score, demonstrating that the result is all that matters. I like to have the score present even when playing by memory as a safety net, it has saved me many times. Great video, I agree with your final statements. There is no crime in playing from the score! Thanks!
Completely agree, Gerry, and great point! Thanks for your comment. -Dave B
I'm 74 and been playing since I was about 15. Only now do I see the wisdom of your suggestions. I'm even feeling compelled to give it a try😂.
Glad to hear, Mick! Let us know how it goes. -Dave B
Very good points and I agree with most, but I personally feel performing with the score in the front can take most of the attention to reading and one can't really focus much on the technique (expertly delivered) and musicality. At the same time, I agree with all your points to be applied to the prep.
Thanks for your comment! You are certainly not alone in feeling that. Nonetheless, with a lot of preparation playing from the score it is indeed possible to still focus on the elements you mention. But it definitely takes practice! -Dave
When you think of it, seldom do you see a pianist at the piano without their music. Such an insightful lesson thank you
Funnily enough there is a funny anecdote of Mozart being criticised for NOT having the music in front of him. Different times different expectations but for his audience it was perceived as arrogance.
Never really got into the memorization trap because I know my limits. For me the memorization comes from practicing the piece over /over again, not by force memorization. Having said that, I'm still very impressed by people who do have the ability to memorize even short pieces.
Your sounding/looking good.
Best to you!
Hey Franco! Hope all is well in your part of the world. Yes, I am always impressed too, it is quite a magical skill.
It's really nice to see extremely good artists just admit this XD
I mean, I think maybe memorizing a piece roughly, enough to be able to not need to read all the passages, is where you should be at before starting to interpret. Because that avoids the choppiness, and lets you draw phrases together, and so on. And then you can maybe play it without the score eventually, once you're practiced enough.
But I completely get what you mean, because I've heard performances by people who play a.. well.. a sequence of keypresses the way they have memorized them. Either from a very long time ago, or by a very clever mental gymnastics trick. And that's fine, if you never wanted to play something that sounds interesting to other people than those who love math more than music. But probably not for anything else. In my opinion, at least.
Thanks for your thoughts. I like to think that apart from sight-reading we are relying on memory even if we are reading from the score. Thanks for sharing your opinion.
@@ClassicalGuitarCorner :) no, thank you for sharing yours so candidly. It's very helpful and encouraging.
I'm dyslexic so I have to memorize my pieces though I totally understand what you're saying..I memorize then I study and re-study the tempo, and dynamic changes, fingerings etc...
Great point, Steve. We all have differing skill sets so finding the solution that suits you is really the most important thing.
I never understood why the guitarist was required to not have sheet music, and we would never question any other instrument. An orchestra, jazz band, big band, always seem to have sheet music in front of them and it was fine. Plus the older, I get the less I trust my memory.
Yes, it definitely seems to have developed as part of classical guitar culture and I am not sure why,
@@classicG342 I wish I could’ve seen Parkening perform. He’s always been one of my favorites. I think you’re spot on too. It’s shame the guitarist hasn’t typically been considered on the same level as other classical instrument performers.
I think there are some reasons for that. Contrary to the violin or the cello, the classical guitar is (essentially) a polyphonic instrument, like the piano is. However the lay-out of the keys in the piano is linear, so it favours the first-sight reading significantly. Instead, in the guitar, the position of the notes on the different strings and frets doesn't lend itself to first-sight reading, especially when having to read two or more notes at the same time. Moreover, the correspondence of a given note to the string+fret position is not unique, so a decision on the left-hand fingering needs to be made in advance and cannot be made on the fly as the playing goes.
All these factors make memorizing more convenient in the classical guitar than it is in the piano. By the way top piano players normally don't read a score when they play a concert. Actually they study and memorize every note and every nuance of their performance. Reading as they play would interfere and subtract some mental energy from the minfulness they need to apply (and time!) to take care of every detail of their performance.
I used to play piano before taking up c.g. At first I tried to play by reading always, as I did with the piano, until I realized that memorizing was necessary in the guitar, while in the piano it's something convenient but not a must (when playing piano one normally has the score in front and uses a mixture of reading and muscle memory ). In any case, I agree that, generally speaking, classical guitar players should try to read more often and improve their reading skills in order to become better musicians.
Great video.
Thanks!
I rarely memorise the music. The more I read and engage with the score the more detail I pick up. Sometimes it takes me a while to see that dotted crotchet that I hadn’t been holding 😅. Thanks for this nice video Simon.
Thanks for sharing your experience Susan.
God this makes me fell SO much better. I just can’t memorize well at all. When I have memorized I’ve been told they can still see me reading the music in my head. I don’t feel at all like it frees me up. I WISH I could but this has been a life long problem. It’s not that I don’t know it well enough. I don’t have to be glued to the score but I do reference it. I hear so many professionals asked about memorizing and they kind of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ and say it just comes to them with practice. Possibly they’ve just integrated whatever their method is so naturally they couldn’t break it down and tell you anyway. Like how do you breathe. How do you swallow. You just do. I don’t know. I really agonize over this inability. I’ve read so much and listened to so many interviews and frankly I just don’t get better at it. It’s really frustrating.
Thanks for your comment. Yes, I think it's freeing for many to learn you don't HAVE to memorize, or at least not in the way we are often told. Using the score to perform is a legitimate way of performing and can help us feel more secure and confident. Best wishes!
I was very proud to be able to memorize my pieces, and do do so quickly, when I first started playing - until I realized I was memorizing where my fingers were, the shapes they were forming, and NOT learning the notes on the fretboard. I memorized finger placement, which was OK for playing one piece but did not help me learn the next piece, and added lots of time to my memorization process. I feel like I used memorization as a crutch. Now I try to memorize, but as a part of learning the whole piece and learning to play the instrument!
That's great, Val! Yes, memorization has many aspects to it and the more techniques we use (whether we end up playing "by heart" or from the score) the deeper we learn the music at the end of the day. Thanks for the comment. -Dave B
Great assessment, most orchestral musicians have the score in front of them, why not the guitarist?
Thanks Christopher. Your comment got me wondering if I have ever seen an orchestral musician without music?
Excellant suggestions, and I can sadly identify with all your points. However playing efficiently with music requires an additional skill set. Its pretty easy to get lost . Do you add marks in the music to re-find your place?
Hi Harvey. Yes, when it comes to reading music in a performance I will often use big highlighter marks on the score to quickly find my way back to the score. Getting lost on the page going between your fingerboard and the music is pretty much like a memory slip in terms of disruption.
Simon, what happened when you had that mental blank during the competition?? I hope you made it through.
- From another of Greg Pickler's students. Those were the days, eh??
Question the notation also come with tab? On the online course
Hi Joel, thanks for your question. We do not use TAB at the Academy, but we do teach you to read notation from scratch with fun exercises, duets, and in a very clear and easy to follow manner. Please reach out to me at support@classicalguitarcorner.com and I'd be happy to tell you more! -- Dave B