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    How to Memorize Music –A Practical Approach for Non-Geniuses
    How to Memorize Music –A Practical Approach for Non-Geniuses
    How to Memorize Music –A Practical Approach for Non-Geniuses
    Ebook85 pages1 hour

    How to Memorize Music –A Practical Approach for Non-Geniuses

    By David Bolton

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    About this ebook

    Are you a musician? Here are the easiest ways to learn music by heart, explained systematically. Build a repertoire of memorized pieces that you can play any time!

    Written mainly for people who play the piano or other keyboard, these techniques can also be successfully employed by those who play other instruments.

    The subjects treated include (among others):

    Three basic types of music memorization

    “Finger memory” and all that is involved in it

    Memorizing by hearing

    Memorizing from the score

    How I memorize music

    Learning a piece better by... not practicing it!

    How to deal with frustration when memorizing

    If you would like to gradually expand your memorized repertoire, this book is a must-read!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDavid Bolton
    Release dateMar 5, 2012
    ISBN9781466126343
    How to Memorize Music –A Practical Approach for Non-Geniuses
    Author

    David Bolton

    David Bolton worked in a broad variety of occupations before settling into a career as a lecturer on English as a foreign language. He has written a number of textbooks for foreign students, published around the world, as well as a local history book on Bristol, where he lives.

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    Book preview

    How to Memorize Music –A Practical Approach for Non-Geniuses - David Bolton

    How to Memorize Music –A Practical Approach for Non-Geniuses

    by

    David Bolton

    SMASHWORDS EDITION

    * * * * *

    PUBLISHED BY:

    David Bolton on Smashwords

    How to Memorize Music –A Practical Approach for Non-Geniuses

    Second Edition

    Copyright © 2015 by David Bolton

    See all of my books – and download some that are free – at my site:

    www.dboltoncreations.com

    Smashwords Edition License Notes

    This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

    * * * * *

    Dedicated to Maki, in loving gratitude

    How to Memorize Music –A Practical Approach for Non-Geniuses

    Table of Contents

    Introduction

    Three basic types of music memorization

    Finger memory and all that is involved in it

    Memorizing by hearing

    Memorizing from the score

    More on memorizing using only the score

    How I memorize music

    A curious phenomenon related to the process of memorizing music

    Postscript to previous chapter (new to second edition)

    Learning a piece better by… not practicing it!

    Memorizing a piece multiple times

    How to deal with frustration when memorizing

    How to learn a passage through repetition, without becoming a mindless robot

    Tips and tricks on how to memorize a musical composition

    A final word

    Author’s Biography

    ***

    Introduction

    Imagine that you are not at home, and you come across a piano, or other type of keyboard. Maybe you are at a friend’s house, in a music shop, at a school, or wherever.

    How wonderful it is to be able to sit down in front of it, and begin to play a piece that you know and love by memory, without the aid of the printed score, and with full confidence that you will play the piece well, for the sake of those who may be listening, as well as for that of your own pride!

    Or perhaps you play the violin, and wish to be able to more quickly and effectively commit entire pieces to memory, in order to master them more thoroughly.

    If the guitar is your instrument, you probably can get by without a score anyway, at least for simpler pieces, possibly those of your own invention. Nonetheless, if you play classical guitar, you may well wish to learn more complicated pieces, such as those that Bach wrote for lute, and knowing such works by heart can bring you a big step closer to their mastery.

    No matter which instrument you call your own, it is always desirable to be able to play at least a few pieces by memory, since a piece that you have thoroughly memorized has truly become a part of you. In addition, not having to look at the score leaves your mind that much freer to concentrate on improving the essentials of your interpretation: correct phrasing, articulation, the proper tempo; in general, the development of a coherent, stylistically accurate interpretation of the work.

    If you are a musical genius, you might wonder at the difficulties that most of us normal mortals have when it comes to memorizing a piece of music. Occasionally, we read about great pianists, for instance, whose ability to absorb a work is truly astounding.

    - Vladimir Ashkenazy, a famous pianist gifted with a photographic memory, once said that all he needs to do is look over the score of a composition, no matter how technically difficult it may be. By simply reading the score, he can make a mental photograph of what is on the page, and the next day, he can play it in a recital.

    - Josef Hofmann, the great Polish pianist, was able to simply listen to a piece being played, after which he himself was able to play it flawlessly. Compared with other famous pianists, it is said that Hoffman was not a good sight-reader, but then, he really didn’t have to be. He learned not by sight, but by hearing, and was able to take in entire works simply by listening to them.

    I know some musicians who would sell their souls to the devil – or to whomever else might be interested – in order to acquire such abilities as those of Ashkenazy or Hofmann!

    Unfortunately, most of us who play an instrument will never be able to learn new music with such facility, and are therefore obliged to resort to hard work (if you’ll forgive the expression!) in order to commit the pieces we are learning to memory.

    This book has not been written for you geniuses out there, for you will not need it. Rather, it is for that great majority of musicians who are not geniuses, but who are seeking ways to make the memorization of music easier, faster, and more effective.

    Some of what you read here may not be novel; bear with me in those sections. Other ideas, though, may well be new to you. In any case, if you follow the advice given, you will be able to take a lot of the struggle out of memorization, and there is even a chance that you may start to find that the whole process of committing a piece to heart can indeed not only become pleasantly controllable and plan-able, but also quite a bit of fun!

    That point should not be taken lightly, for the more fun you have doing something, the more you will want to dedicate yourself to it. In this case, that will translate into you having a growing number of pieces at your command, pieces that will remain in your memory, and that will then be able to take on new life and depth thanks to the fact that they are now truly a part of you.

    The main focus of this book will be on keyboard pieces, yet musicians who play other instruments will also be able to profit by the advice given herein. Piano pieces are far more complicated, and thus harder to learn by memory, than those written for

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