Soo Ji Lee is a CIM graduate student currently studying piano pedagogy with Dr. Sean Schulze. The following is an article she co-authored with NEOMTA's board.
Many students never optimize their ability to memorize music. This is significant. Memory lapses often serve as students' chief source of stage fright, directly contributing to pianists crumbling under the pressure of live performances. Beyond this, the ability to memorize well is intimately linked with the ability to learn music beyond a rote level.
Memorization of music is divided into two subcategories—“muscle memory” and “mental memory.” The former may be attained by sheer repetition, but the latter benefits only in a limited way from it. Moreover, muscle memory is affected by nerves, but mental memory is less so. What are some ways to attain mental memory of a piece? Some suggestions are listed below.
Help students divide and conquer. Chunk the music into short segments that "fit in the mind," rather than trying to memorize large amounts of music at once. A segment may be as short as a couple of notes, or as long as a measure. Different students may need to work though different segmentations, but the goal is the same: students should actively work to know the contents of each measure of music, in addition to merely being able to play from rote.
Help students practice individual hands (especially the left hand). This is related to the above point. Many students can actively visualize the notes of a single hand but struggle to "fit" both hands" in the mind.
Analyze the music together! An excellent question to ask students is: "why is this part easy?" If the student can explain the ideas and patterns that hold a passage together, they have "fit" the idea "in the mind." Another excellent question is: "why is this part hard?" This question encourages students to identify the points of a passage that they have not yet "fit in the mind."
Emphasize preparation over execution. Students often value playing through a passage correctly, but rarely value being able to stay ahead mentally as they play that passage. A mental preparation consists of two parts—specific knowledge of specific material, and actively recalling that knowledge in time. Encourage students to practice thinking ahead during tricky sections! (Slow practice is especially important when practicing mental preparations.)
Encourage students to practice performing (including bowing etc.). Students who practice performing feel more secure at live performances than students who do not.
Record yourself!
perform at home with distractions and annoyances in background.
give yourself too much time to practice pretend performing from memory, so if there are any mistakes, there are still weeks to “sleep on corrections.”
the last performance has to be “perfect.” you have to walk away that day feeling confident and “sleep on that success.“ :)