#memorizing music

[sopranos-get-high]

Must stay awake and MEMORIZE THIS MUSIC.

[fandom-snaps]

Memorize your music while in your gen ed classes.

[aussietom1964]

Music is memorable mainly because of rhythm. You will remember a piece of music only when you are able to sing the melody of the composition in relation to the beat.

If you cannot learn something this does not mean that you cannot do it, it only indicates that you have not established a process that will allow you, in a sequence of actions, to achieve the goal.

I hope these tips on how to memorise music will help you as they helped me everyday in my music for over 50 years.

[thefishyfox-blog]

never have four measures brought me such agony

[soyoumusik]

Have any tips for memorizing music?

Weeeell, I’m gonna have to find an article for this but…: 

1. Memorizing a line of music a week (If you have that much time to learn a piece)

2. Just repeat them over and over again until you see the passages in your sleep and your fingers automatically move (or your vocal chords constrict) in the way it would during that passage.

3. Don’t cry.

4. Studying the music even when you’re not playing it. Like if you’re eating dinner and doing nothing, just pull out the sheet music and look it over. 

5. Don’t think of it as a chore, but as a lifelong skill. 

6. Listen to the piece about a million times until you know what sections are where.

[ctr-l]

You know, who's ever genius idea was to make a song at 170?

[mygrandmotherspiano]

Has the moon lost her memory?

Memorizing music is hard for me. I can't quite put my finger on why that is. I'm actually excellent at memorizing things normally. Particularly poetry and scripts. Think back to when you had to memorize poems and recite them in elementary school. Remember, there was always that one kid who was ready to recite by lunch time? I was that kid.

But music eludes my memorization skills. It doesn't matter if it's wind ensemble music or choral music. Take my music out of my hands and I'm instantly floundering. And I'm not one of those awful ensemble members who remains constantly buried in their music. I don't need to be reminded of each note or even each phrase. What I often struggle with is remembering what comes next in a broader sense. Things like dynamics and how one phrase connects to the next.  Sometimes, a really engaging conductor can save my poor brain. 

Oh... and cut-offs in choral music. That is one place where I will freely admit we instrumentalists have it easier than singers.

The more I think about it, the more I think it's the form of pieces that eludes me. Form is something I was never challenged to think about until I was well into college, and even then it wasn't in an actual performing ensemble. When I took music history, we had to memorize forms and talk about them in the context of specific examples in music. The thought that you could predict from an intellectual standpoint, what the composer was going to do next... I will never forget how much that blew my mind. And now embarrassing that was because I was apparently the only one.

I bring this up because my piano teacher continues to make memorization noises and it's making me increasingly uncomfortable. I understand that it's necessary to really being able to understand and perform a piece. I just predict major headaches unless I can make a breakthrough on this block I seem to have.

[mypictureinyourlife-blog]