We all know the importance of reading music, playing with correct hand position and posture, identifying key and time signatures, and engaging with other aspects of music, but is memorization important?
We’ll discuss the value of memorizing your music, performing it without the help of a score, and how to get started internalizing your repertoire. If you’d like more information about our Brooklyn piano lessons, or if you are interested in other music lessons at Williamsburg Music Studio, please get in touch!
Why Is It Important To Memorize Music?
Memorizing your piano, violin, vocal, or other music is important because it frees your mind from reading, allows you to express the music, and prevents errors that come in the halfway point between memorization and total dependence on the score. There’s a reason professional soloists always memorize their music!
Free Your Mind From Reading
Reading music is a mentally taxing exercise. If you’re a pianist or other instrumentalist, you will need to read the notes, observe your personal scribbles and marks, read the dynamics, and more. If you put the extra time into memorizing your music prior to a performance, you won’t have to think about all of these things while you play. You will need to stay mentally engaged while playing of course, and going into “autopilot” is risky, but when you play from memory, your playing will feel more like a natural conversation.
Communicate More Effectively
The audience perceives a huge difference between memorized performances and non-memorized performances. Instrumentalists can move with the music, engage with the audience, and express dynamics and other musical concepts much more fluidly when they aren’t glued to a score. Pianists are music more rigid with music on the stand, and if you are performing as a soloist, you will evoke a stronger response from your audience without music.
Obviously, solo vocalists cannot use music when performing for a live audience. Choir members, oratorio soloists, and chamber musicians may use a score, but you severely limit your reach with sheet music.
In short, a music stand is a barrier between you and your audience, and you’re better off without it.
Full Memorization Can Actually Limit Errors
If you have learned your music well enough to perform in front of a live audience, you have already memorized a good portion of the music. It’s impossible to play difficult music up to speed without some degree of memory in place.
Something that high level pianists in particular sometimes face is a difficult halfway point in their memory. They know the music well enough to look at their hands for certain tricky passages, but they need to look up at the music when that passage has ended. This kind of half-memory often causes musicians to “get lost” – they can’t find the right spot in the score when they look back up.
This can have disastrous results in a live performance. Furthermore, the way this music-to-memory shift feels in practice is entirely different from how it feels live. You are much better off fully memorizing your music!
How To Feel Confident Performing From Memory
Every time you practice your music, put a bit of effort into memory. When you drill a tricky passage, go ahead and start committing it to memory. Then, when you have five minutes to sit down at the piano and drill that section again, practice it from memory. Come performance time, it will feel normal. This same principle applies to your entire piece.
Also, aim to have your music fully memorized at least a month or two before you perform it. Then give it a week off from any kind of practice before pulling it back out again. Drill the sections that seem shaky after your time off – you will basically be “re-memorizing.” This will help embed the music in your long term memory.
Thirdly, you music practice performing from memory. Gather your friends, family, or peers, and treat that performance as seriously as you would in an audition. This will give you confidence when it matters most.
Fourth, stay mentally engaged when you practice. If you mindlessly drill passages and rely on “muscle memory,” you won’t feel confident in a live performance. Your mind kicks into overdrive when you perform live, and if you’re not used to actively recalling your music while you play, you will crash and burn.
If you are ready to start with guitar lessons in Brooklyn, voice lessons in Brooklyn, or a different instrument, please get in touch!
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