# Why can I easily remember Piano sheet music but not ANY Violin sheet music?



## Qwob

Hello.

I have played the violin since a young age and have this year passed my ABRSM Grade 8 Violin exam. A couple years after first playing the violin I started to mess around with the keyboard in my house and have since taught myself several piano pieces. 

Now, technically I am definitely not better at the piano than I am at the violin, I believe I can play piano to Grade 6 standard (Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata) but I'm not sure how valid that is. I have played the violin several times a week for most of the years of my life that I can remember, but sometimes would go 2 weeks or a month without playing the piano.

Overall, I know less than 10 piano pieces - Moonlight Sonata, Yann Tiersen - Comptine D'un Autre Ete, Fur Elise, Einaudi - Primavera, Nightbook, Dietro Casa, Mad World, the start of Mozart's Turkish March (I didn't find the time to learn the rest of it), and maybe a couple other pieces.

What I've noticed is I can play ALL of these piano pieces off-by-heart without the sheet music, and it's without any difficulty too - I almost find it easier to play without the sheet music than I do by trying break down the many notes on the grand staff. It doesn't take me extended repetition of the pieces to learn them by memory too. I recently learned Dietro Casa in a couple of days was already playing large chunks of it by memory whilst still learning, now I can play it all without the music.

This is the complete opposite when I play the violin! I can play maybe 1 or 2 lines maximum of any violin piece (and not just the Grade 8 pieces), but then I forgot the rest and need to look at the music. I've tried to learn a grade 4 piece by memory and couldn't do it either!

So I am really confused why I can so easily remember piano music but not violin music. I have always thought it would be satisfying to play Bach's Partita No. 2 on the violin without any sheet music to help me but it seems to me I'll never be able to do it. Do I have more of a knack for the piano compared to the violin as a whole? Does anyone experience this with the instruments they play? What is the reason for it?

My current theory is that when I play the violin, I look directly at the sheet music almost the whole time, and never at the fingerboard to see/remember the positions of my fingers, because the position of the note C, for example, is innate to me. However, as I am less adept at the piano, when I learn a piano piece, I often have to look at the placement of my fingers for the various chords and patterns, and that maybe this visualisation helps me with the memory. Thoughts?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!


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## Taggart

Entertaining thought - can you play the top line of any of your piano pieces on the violin?

I can't play piano without dots (I'm about grade 6/7) but I can vamp an accompaniment to folk tunes. My wife plays violin and can play by ear quite easily. 

If you've got up to grade 8, you've obviously got good aural skills so should be able to transfer them to playing by ear.


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## Ingélou

Yes, as Taggart says, I can play the violin by ear, though I am not very advanced; I have also always been able to pick out the top line of a tune on the piano (with a bit of hesitation sometimes; then I get there). It is just 'by ear' for me. On the other hand, I have humungous difficulty in sight-reading music, and always have. Taggart, though he cannot play by ear, is extremely good at sight reading & always surprises his teacher.

Your post is very interesting, especially the last full paragraph. I feel sure that is the key - that you can see the notes laid out in front of you & having the intervals in your brain, you know where to go.

All the same, I can't believe you couldn't pick up playing the violin by ear, if you worked at playing foolishly simple tunes every day by ear. I feel sure your brain & your muscles would then on an unconscious level 'pick it up' & it would be like riding a bike. Maybe also you feel more relaxed on the piano & have less to prove? When I played folk tunes for my fiddle teacher at first, even though I knew them inside out, I would crash & burn because I felt so nervous.

Good luck, anyway, and do let us know how you get on! 


PS: May I recommend playing the violin with your eyes closed, if you don't already? That is what 'gets it into my head' for me, and you could try it on the 'foolishly simple tunes', see above. I think then your brain would be able to focus on 'where to go'. Just a thought. 

Very best wishes, and Welcome to the Forum!


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## hreichgott

I notice with students that when they play pieces that are a challenge for them, they learn more slowly but memorize more quickly. Is your piano music a greater challenge relative to your ability than violin?


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