Memorization freeing your playing

twocats · 2026-05-17T16:28:06+00:00

I've been told this by a friend (a very good pianist) and he said memorization helps you access your playing in a different way, which I understand but I still didn't want to do it. But now I'm really experiencing this and feeling frustrated, because memorizing is plain scary for me! I love having the security of the page. Last week I ran my pieces for a different friend and it turns out that the two pieces that I've played for 30 years were on autopilot and I got emotionally disconnected from them and was just going through the motions, which was audible. I've been working on reconnecting with them, and these were pieces I had played for exams back then and had memorized, but I'm now playing with sheet music. It turns out I do play slightly differently when I'm focused down on my hands rather than up at the score! It's 9 days until I leave for the Boston Amateur and there's no way I'm going to play anything fully by memory by then but I'm trying to do a fusion. I'm now starting the pieces looking down at my fingers, and I try to play mostly from memory and just glance up for reference. I know the pieces and the score really well, I should in theory know where I am on the page but I could still get lost. Has anyone else gone through this and is now a memorization convert?

ShiroKuro

pianoloverus I think this is true whether they're playing from memory or with the score.

Yes of course, but my point was that for people who find their minds wandering while playing from memory, intentionally shifting their attention to musicality can be a way to prevent that drift.

@BartK I agree, I don't want to "choreograph my thoughts" (that sounds exhausting!) but I found it very helpful to articulate what kinds of musicality I'll focus on and to have a plan about how to do that.

iternabe

Sophia Do you experience a difference in memory when you look at your fingers

I do!

When I learned scales by myself, I made it a point to not look at my hands. And I did it, for 7 of the 12 major scales. However, my self-taught technique was flawed. Then, after I get a teacher, we worked on my scales technique. I needed to look at my hands to check the motions. What's interesting is the scales I learned while looking, I had a hard time playing them blindfolded. But the scales I learned blindfolded, they fall apart when I look at my hands and had to relearn them again under my gaze.

I am now the believer that it's not that one way suites me better than the other, but simply I am better at a way only because I did it more.

ranjit

iternabe There is research to suggest that motor skills are learned better when you actually look at your hands.

Sophia

iternabe I am better at a way only because I did it more.

Yes, I think so too. Because when I play free style blues improvisations, I have no difficulties looking at my hands at all. But when I try it with something I previously only read and I know I should be able to play from memory, as soon as I start looking at my hands (rather than glancing down quickly to find the position if the leap is big enough), they either don't remember what to do next, or the keyboard looks like it has twice as many keys and I don't know where to land my fingers. Which ties in with what twocats mentioned earlier. Brains are funny things 😜

twocats

ranjit There is research to suggest that motor skills are learned better when you actually look at your hands.

Actually that makes a lot of sense! You're giving additional feedback to your brain.

twocats

Well, I'm really convinced that memorization frees my playing; in the Polonaise (which is mostly accidentally memorized, though I'm not taking a chance next week) there's a melody line where I was on autopilot looking down after practicing the previous section, and I played it so sweetly and delicately in a way that I never do when looking at the score. And my Bach becomes more intuitive and less effortful.

I may try to memorize a few of my pieces for next year. I'm especially convinced that my Bach will benefit from it, and I've tried to memorize it but I don't think I worked hard enough.

twocats

In two of my pieces, I actually wrote "look down!" at the beginning of the score, because I play them better if I start them looking down. It very much pains me to see that I would get so much benefit from memorization.

ShiroKuro

twocats It very much pains me to see that I would get so much benefit from memorization.

I know, after you and I both were in agreement that we don’t memorize!

I guess I’m on my own for a while (until I drink the memorization kool aid! )

twocats

ShiroKuro let's see how the memorization of entire pieces goes but at least having the ability to play by memory is beneficial, I think. During my practice today I'm trying very hard to focus down more!

Monviso

ShiroKuro
I'm with you!
I'm reading of twocats's experience with great interest, and it has already helped me realise that passages I flub are helped by me simply knowing them better, so semi-memorising them. - massive thanks for that twocats!

But I think that at this stage of my learning, fully memorising would take me time that I can more productively invest in learning more pieces.

The feedback from Sophia's parents is extremely helpful in reassuring me that there are different ways that work.

ShiroKuro

twocats let's see how the memorization of entire pieces goes but at least having the ability to play by memory is beneficial, I think.

Oh absolutely! I memorized one section of my jury piece, and not unlike your decision to intentionally look down, for that part I made it a point not to look at the score. It’s the syncopated part, and early on, I had a lot of trouble with that part. Looking down and playing from memory seemed to really help. Although here, I’m just talking about the actual notes of it, playing it correctly, and I believe your focus on memorization is on the musicality of it.

Anyway, I think could see being more open to memorizing something and then playing from the score. Especially as I’m expanding my opportunities to play for people.

I will look forward to your updates, esp. after Boston, to hear how you incorporate memorization more into your playing.

CrisOliveira

Don't know if I have anything to contribute here, since I'm the eternal beginner. But I can't play on sight and I can only play something if I practice the piece to the point of automation. If I use sheet music while playing, it's just to be aware of where I am and what comes next. I know I should practice sight reading more, but for now the only option is memorization. Funny thing is, when memory fails, it's harder for me to read it and play what I'm reading than it was when I had it not memorized yet. Brain wants to go on autopilot and it struggles to go back to the instruction manual.

pianoloverus

Monviso I'm reading of twocats's experience with great interest, and it has already helped me realise that passages I flub are helped by me simply knowing them better, so semi-memorising them. - massive thanks for that twocats!

If you flub a passage because of its technical difficulty, then being able to look at your hands because you've memorized the passage would often be helpful. Almost everyone who plays with the score, including me, does this at various points in the piece. One way you can watch this is when professional pianists play two piano music. They almost always play with the score, and although they don't have to look at their hands nearly as much as less skilled pianists, it's not uncommon for them to look away from the score during the most difficult passages which they've memorized(I'm not talking about just glancing at their hands for a second which is a given multiple times when playing with the score). If you look at some YouTube videos of Trifonov playing with his teacher, Sergei Babayan you can see some examples of this. Of course, what I'm talking about is very different from memorizing the entire piece.

ShiroKuro

Monviso But I think that at this stage of my learning, fully memorising would take me time that I can more productively invest in learning more pieces.

This, productivity I mean, is an important consideration, IMO. In my case, I want to keep a significant number of pieces in my playable repertoire, so I’ve always wanted to be able to read-play those pieces because it’s just more “efficient” or perhaps “productive,” since playing from the score means I don’t have to spend practice time on memory-maintenance.

But learning from @twocats ’s example, I think it definitely makes sense to have a sort of mixed approach, using memorization as a learning technique even though in performance, I’ll continue to play from the score…

pianoloverus

Monviso But I think that at this stage of my learning, fully memorising would take me time that I can more productively invest in learning more pieces.

In articles about the pros and cons of memorization, this is one of the main points mentioned by those favoring playing with the score.

thepianoplayer416

Tips for memorizing music:

Monviso

pianoloverus
After reading your post I paid more attention to how much I do look down. Turns out it ranges to very little to ... not at all for something like Bach. And it's made me realise that I should memorise passages I routinely flub and deliberately look at my hands. Specifically I was thinking about the middle section of the Hungarian Dance no 5; it's only 12 bars and straightforward, so I have no excuse! Seems obvious, but sometimes the obvious needs stating, so thank you.

But in this case, although it's been useful to me, it is about me hitting the right notes, and is drifting away from twocats initial question which was about playing more freely. Apols twocats!

« Previous Page