![]() Maybe you can’t recall exactly how your piece goes, but you do know what chord progression it follows. Learning your music with an awareness of music theory facts and concepts will give you the security you need to keep your music going when it feels like you’ve forgotten it. Pianists will often try to resort to muscle memory and visual cues before stopping to think cognitively about the details of their music.Īs you are learning your music, do you have an awareness of what key you are playing in, or does it feel like there are a bunch of random sharps and flats?Ĭan you name the chord progressions in your music as you play them, or does it seem like a random collection of chords?Īre you aware that the notes in each hand together form a specific chord?Īre there any scale-like passages, arpeggios, or other familiar sequences? This is often a highly under-utilized memorization strategy. Know Your FactsĪ highly effective way to memorize piano music is to go beyond just reading the notes and to have a solid understanding of the music theory behind the notes. Take a close look at details you see on the page and see if you can commit them to memory when you look away from your page. If this seems difficult to you, try to practice this skill when you are working on your music. Or, can you visualize certain chords, passages or rhythms as you are playing them?Ĭan you see the starting notes of your sheet music, even when you’re not looking at it? While not everyone can tap into this gift to its fullest, you can still work to recall at least some of the details of your sheet music.įor example, when you aren’t looking at your sheet music, can you still track where you would be on the page in your mind? Some pianists report having a photographic memory of what they have seen on their sheet music. Having a photographic memory means that you can easily recall specific details of what you have seen. On the other hand, if you feel like you rely too much on muscle memory to learn your music, keep reading to find more strategies to start implementing in your music. Try to increase your awareness of the space that your hands create on the keys, how your hand fits over the black keys and what it feels like to move your fingers. If you don’t relate to having this reliance on muscle memory, do make a point to start tuning in to what your hands feel like on the keys. The slightest distraction or slip of the fingers can make you completely lose everything. The scenario described above where the pianist blanks out and can’t play what once seemed so familiar is often exactly what happens when muscle memory takes over. However, a lot of pianists run into trouble when they rely too much on muscle memory without utilizing any other memorization strategies. Oftentimes our hands can feel the geography of the piano and this kinesthetic awareness on the keys is crucial to playing the piano. We train our hands to learn distances between keys, shapes of chords and sequences in the music. Muscle memory is an important part of playing the piano. There’s a good chance that one or two of these techniques are your go-to memorizing trick, but try combining all of these suggestions to develop a well-rounded and reliable memory. Let’s look at some different ways to approach memorizing music. In this case, learning a few memorizing strategies will give you the tools that you need to keep going, even when it feels like you’ve forgotten everything you know. ![]() If you’re in the second category, you might not realize that there’s a problem until you find yourself in the situation above where you blank out on what to play. If you fall in this first category, know that memorizing doesn’t come easily to a lot of people, but you can definitely learn strategies to help you learn to memorize music. I can’t memorize music/I’m not good at memorizing music/I don’t know how to memorize music.Most pianists are pretty familiar with this scenario.Ī lot of pianists fall into one of 2 categories: ![]() You struggle to find notes that you’ve played correctly so many times. Your mind would blank out at certain times. The keys didn’t feel right under your hands. Somehow the piece that you’ve played for memory so many times fell apart. Or, maybe you played it at a different piano than your own. Maybe you tried playing this piece of music for a teacher or family member. You probably didn’t try to memorize this song, but you just enjoy playing it so much that memorization happened organically. You have a favorite piece of music that you’ve played so many times that your hands just go into autopilot and you can play the notes effortlessly.
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