Describe to us how you memorize a page of sheet music as quickly as possible. Cheers, Sandy B

Memorizing a piece was never an issue for me. Playing the passage 2 or 3 times was enough to get it in my head. I guess I was lucky enough to get that skill.

On the other hand, my sight reading skills are quite pathetic haha.

Remember that sight reading is simply "temporary memorizing", much like reading any other language.

Basically, you temporarily memorize a few notes and play them while looking ahead to the next notes in the piece. Try keeping this in mind and you may find that your sight reading skills improve.

ill try that, thanks dan

I tend to verbalize what is going on. I analyze the composition, saying out loud what is going on, then when I have it in my head, I take a small section and play it looking at the keys for additional reinforcement.
I don't know if this is the recommended way, but it seems to work for me as I get it all firmly in my head, then work on transferring it to my fingers.

I have been relying a lot on CC Chang's wonderful suggestions. He emphasizes the importance of mental work.

What is really interesting is that my sight reading has been improving tremendously since I started this way of learning a piece. Gaby Tu

The Chang method will help you memorize a page of sheet music very quickly.

The Chang book online is free:

http://pianofundamentals.com/book/en/1.II.4

You can also buy the Chang book at Amazon.com.

If you break the page into segments, and practice it hands separate first, and only later hands together, then you can memorize it rapidly.

Probably you will have difficulties only with certain bars. Practice the hardest ones first, breaking them into small segments, playing them one hand at a time, hands separate.

If you practice a segment and make mistakes, then cut the segment in half and practice it. Keep cutting in half until you get segments you can play ten times straight without error. Then work on joining the segments together.

It helps if you often play the segment at half-speed. For some reason that makes you memorize it faster when you return to normal speed.

Begin with just one small segment for the right hand and another for the left, and practice them back and forth, switching from one hand to the other about every twenty seconds. This way you get a many repetitions of the difficult parts in a short time.

When you master one difficult segment, start on another one--again hands separate at first.

Eventually you can start joining the segments together (hands separate). Often it helps to add a conjoining note to your practice. For example, at the end of segment A, add that C-sharp which appears at the beginning of segment B. This makes it easier when you want to play segments A and B in succession.

Once you have mastered the difficult parts hands separate, then follow the same procedure hands together: take a small segment and play it hands together. Break it in half if you make mistakes, until you have a segment small enough to play ten times straight without error. Then start joining the small segments together.

Remember to play the hands-together segments also at half-speed quite often. Paradoxically the half-speed practice helps you memorize it faster.

Of course infinitely more could be added about how to practice more efficiently, but I think the basic formula for practicing would be useful to any players who want to memorize quickly:

1) Play the difficult segments hands separate, repeating each segment until you can play it perfectly ten straight times, switching hands frequently, and playing many of the repetitions at half speed. Then

3) play segments hands together, following the same procedure, until you finally

4) join all the segments together.

Follow this procedure and you will memorize any page of sheet music quickly and then have the rest of your life to perfect and personalize its expression.

Good luck memorizing!

I'm also horrible at sight reading, but never had any problems memorizing. I think memorizing also has very much to do with aural skills. Whereas sight reading is about a connection between the picture you see on the sheet and your fingers, memorizing is much about a connection between the music you hear in your head and your fingers. I've been playing a lot by ear since I first started playing the piano, and my hands play most tonal harmonies automatically if I hear them inside my head. Because of this I never really need to memorize what chord comes next, only how the chord is played.

Music theory also helps a lot. For example in Beethoven it's easy to know if the left hand should play the root, third and seventh of the dominant chord, or the root, fifth and seventh, if you are aware that the third is in the right hand melody.

It's funny how subconscious awareness of music theory also sometime might get in your way. I was playing a Schumann lied a few years ago, and there was one passage that I always messed up and played wrong. When I had a closer look at the passage to find out why I couldn't play it right, I found a seventh resolving in the wrong direction... Once I became aware of this anomaly, I had no more problems getting it right.

I think the most effective way to memorize something quickly is to:
1. Divide your music into small digestible bits,
2. Look for similarities and differences the the brain can use as cues.

For example you are trying to memorize a short 2 page piece consisting of 30 measures for a recital next month. You could play this every day a number of times until it "soaks in", or just memorize one bar per day...easy!

When memorzing the brain needs relationships, which might be for example "same as bar 4, but up one octave"; or baseline descends 1 semitone per beat, top two notes stay same", etc.
Harmonic analyis also helps.

my god,and how did i do all that whith the goldbergs, or the händelvariations, or kv. 331/332/333, or all the op.10/25 etudes? just play them, if you can read and play, that is, and than go without the music and use your instinct, when it's there, if not, play like Richter, haha,

Yes, we get it. You have a big repertoire.

For me, I don't know any different. I memorise all my pieces because my sight reading skills lack. I simply read a phrase of about 3 - 4 bars and play it a few times. Then it just kind of stays in my mind then. It's actually quite easy.