How to Memorize Music Confidently
Jun 01, 2024You want to play without looking at the page.
You think you have the piece memorized.
But then you have a memory slip and lose confidence.
Is it possible to trust your memorization?
These four steps help:
1. Build a Firm Foundation
Learn the piece well before you begin to memorize.
How do you know when you’re ready to memorize?
If you find yourself looking away from the page and still playing well, that’s a good sign.
If you can play the entire piece without a single mistake, that’s even better.
2. Begin At The End
First memorize the end of the piece and then work backward. I learned this approach from Grammy-winning guitarist David Russell.
This will give you the experience of driving out of the fog instead of driving into the fog. In other words, when memorizing from the beginning of a piece, you may realize you don’t know the next part well, and the part after that is even less secure.
By contrast, when learning from the end, if you don’t know this part well, you know the next part, and the part after that is even better!
This gives great confidence when performing from memory.
3. Visualize
Most musicians depend on auditory memory (how things sound) and kinesthetic memory (how things feel). In performance, these two modes may not be enough to prevent a memory slip.
When you visualize the music away from the instrument, you’re focused on visual (how it looks) and conceptual (how the music is structured).
Including these additional elements in your memory makes the memorization more secure.
4. Check Your Memory
After you’ve played the whole piece by memory for a few days or weeks, it’s good to check your memory.
One way to do this is to alternate playing and visualization. You can play measures 1-4, visualize measures 5-8, play measures 9-12, and so on.
It’s also useful to occasionally check the sheet music to see whether mistakes have crept in.
Playing well from memory allows you to focus on expressing the music. The steps above can help.
Keep making music!