# Playing from memory



## morsing

Hi,

How many pieces can you play from memory? And does it stick with you? Can you still play them in a year, even if you move on to learn other pieces?

Completely new to this, still trying to memorise just the beginnings of Bach's Prelude in C and Für Elise.

Thanks


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## Doublestring

I can play a few dozens of guitar pieces from memory. My experience is that memorizing comes almost by itself while searching good fingerings, trying different kinds of phrasing, dynamics and timbres. If you repeat fragments while studying you start watching your fingers instead of the score. Analyzing the piece, its modulation schedule and recurring themes, also helps a lot to memorize the whole piece.

You memorize the motorics, the movement of the fingers, rather than the notes themselves. Short pieces with melody and accompaniment are quite easy to learn by heart. Long polyphonic pieces are harder. A Bach suite or fugue can have "wormholes": two cadences in the same key where you can erroneously jump from one to the other. Repeating or skipping fragments can happen that way, but when you're aware of the problem it can be avoided.

I only feel that I know a piece when I know it by heart. It becomes "my" piece that way. Of course knowing it by heart doesn't mean yet that you play it well, but it can help. After a few months without repeating the piece it can disappear from the memory, but it can come back soon by restudying it for one or two days.


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## morsing

Thanks, good to hear. I assume you play them semi-regularly to keep them fresh.


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## Jaro

Doublestring said:


> I can play a few dozens of guitar pieces from memory. My experience is that memorizing comes almost by itself while searching good fingerings, trying different kinds of phrasing, dynamics and timbres. If you repeat fragments while studying you start watching your fingers instead of the score. Analyzing the piece, its modulation schedule and recurring themes, also helps a lot to memorize the whole piece.
> 
> You memorize the motorics, the movement of the fingers, rather than the notes themselves. Short pieces with melody and accompaniment are quite easy to learn by heart. Long polyphonic pieces are harder. A Bach suite or fugue can have "wormholes": two cadences in the same key where you can erroneously jump from one to the other. Repeating or skipping fragments can happen that way, but when you're aware of the problem it can be avoided.
> 
> I only feel that I know a piece when I know it by heart. It becomes "my" piece that way. Of course knowing it by heart doesn't mean yet that you play it well, but it can help. After a few months without repeating the piece it can disappear from the memory, but it can come back soon by restudying it for one or two days.


Quite similar experience. At the beginning of my piano journey I was focused on trying to remember the piece and yes it was hard. More you play, easier it gets. And for me as well trying to remember the notes comes easier once you focus on fingering, how to play them, hand position, posture, touch etc... somehow notes stay with you after some time. Remember though, I am still discovering loads of stuff, as you are I guess. 
And I don't remember pieces I played let say one or two years ago. But again you will learn them back once you need them much faster then first time. I had one time that experience when I did go back to some piece of music. First approach to it, took me as far as I remember ca. month (not so difficult piece of music). When I went back to it again it took me ca. day or two to play it again. Better since your skills will improve after another year of daily practice. 
Play, play, play and enjoy! Wait! You know already it is FUN!


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## Dan Ante

What has always amazed me is the ability of top musician soloists to memorise concertos, sure they spend many hours practicing them but never the less it is no mean feat.


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## Michael122

Don't worry Morsing, you'll always be able to play the ones that endear themselves to you with no sheets.
Most find that they only forget them, if they stop playing them.


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## morsing

Michael122 said:


> Don't worry Morsing, you'll always be able to play the ones that endear themselves to you with no sheets.
> Most find that they only forget them, if they stop playing them.


Thanks, that's what I was hoping. At the moment it seems like a lot of effort, if I can no longer play it in six months.


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## Brazing

As I get older, it's harder to play from memory  I remember parts of the songs.


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## saboteur

The best way to memorize music is to record it, part by part.
During a recording process you immerse yourself in music so deeply that after that you will remember each and every note for all your life.


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## Animal the Drummer

I don't know if this makes me unusual but my memory is far better than than my reading skills. I can of course read music, but I can't do it quickly (my sight-reading has never been good) and have to work it out more or less note by note. The silver lining to this is that, once I've worked through a piece thoroughly, it'll stay memorised indefinitely if I keep playing it at least intermittently. It's the repetition that does it for me - that and the love I have for the music in the first place.


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## progmatist

As I stated in another thread in this sub-forum, if I work on learning a piece just before bedtime, it embeds itself more easily into my memory. And of course since I read very slowly, memorization is the only way to play a piece proficiently.


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## morsing

progmatist said:


> As I stated in another thread in this sub-forum, if I work on learning a piece just before bedtime, it embeds itself more easily into my memory. And of course since I read very slowly, memorization is the only way to play a piece proficiently.


Hi,

I think that's actually a known thing, learning things before bedtime. I have had that experience with other skills.

Thanks


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