from Sheryl Goodnight and Helen Spielman
Sheryl Goodnight
I memorize all of my flute music, as you might be able to tell from my posts, that I am legally blind. Helen, had some great ideas about beginning at the end, and trying to learn a few lines at a time. Yes, one would be coming upon the less familiar sections near the end more frequently, with that approach. Here are some of my suggestions that I hope will be of help:
- Apply your analytical skills that you learn in music theory and Form and Analysis.
- Study the form and musical structure; is it Rondo, sonata form, or ternary from? Or, how many contrasting sections are there that make up the piece?
- Are the phrases regular or irregular? That is, four measure phrases or some three to five measures long, or a variety of them all?
- Study the intervals and various melodic paterns, as they make up melodic sequences, or the sequences or phrases may not have a patern, and you just have to find a patern.
- What is the harmonic progression? Is it I-IV-V-I, or is it something diferent? It can be a chain of secondary dominaces.
- There might be a number of measures that are repetitions, so try counting measures. Example: When listening to a recording, count the measures 1-2-3-4-5 (etc), as the downbeat of each measure is played. This can be applied not only to repeated measures, but to regular or irregular phrasing.
- Once these skills are accomplished, then begin putting the piece back together in small sections, then larger sections, all like piecing a puzzle back together.
- When memorizing, repeating the small passage that you are attempting to memorize over and over is the key. You want the piece and the various sections to be "second nature" with you.
Sheryl Goodnight, Texas flutist
sherylg@vvm.com
Flute Instructor
Temple college, TEmple, Texas
The University of Mary Hardin Baylor, Belton, Texas
Private studio at home
Principle Flutist Temple Symphony Orchestra, Temple Texas
By Helen Spielman
Well, I don't memorize music myself, because my brain does not have enough glue to make it stick. :)
However, when my students memorize pieces, I encourage them to do it in the same manner that my good friend, a concert pianist, memorizes his music, and teaches his students.
Start from the end of the piece. No, don't play the music backwards!! - but memorize the last section of the piece, or the last two lines, or whatever. Then memorize the section or lines just before that. Keep going until you get to the beginning of the piece and can do the whole thing.
My students have found this to be amazingly effective. When musicians work on a piece, they've frequently played the beginning sections more often than the last sections. By memorizing from the end, they're playing those last sections the most often. Then, when they have the whole piece memorized, and perform it, they're continually going *toward* the more familiar parts, the parts they started learning first, and therefore, have practiced the longest. As they get fatigued, or lose a bit of concentration, or experience some late-hitting nerves, they're still going toward the familiar, rather than further away from it.
I've had a lot of students try memorizing both ways (from the beginning and from the end) and over the years they've had a 100% consensus that learning to play by heart from the end is the easiest and best way for them.
Well, I'm sure you'll get many more hints and tips, but that's my small contribution of a method that's been very successful in my studio.
