Hello, everyone.
A few weeks a go I posted a question asking your thoughts about my 55 year old adult student who said that she simply could NOT memorize. I received many helpful posts and suggestions from you and I very much appreciate the replies I got.

Anyway, I decided to give it a try at our last lesson ao I wrote out a series of 4 measure, 1 hand little melodies. I asked her to play each one 3 times and then I took the music away and asked her to play it again. After the initial panic on her part, she did it perfectly. So I tried another, a bit harder and again, success. The third one, which was more difficult still (but still not really hard at all) seemed to stump her a bit though she got most of it. So I asked her to hum it without the music. That she could do so she tried again to play the "piece" and again, success. This is just the very start of improving her memorization skills, but she seemed very excited that she could do it at all. So was I! As part of her next weekly assignment, I picked out a repetitive 8 measure section from a Beethoven piece with both hands for her to try to memorize (learning it in 2 measure sections if she needed to). I told her it was an experiment only, and not to worry if she couldn't do it. I wanted her to feel very comfortable and not pressured at all. Tomorrow is her next lesson and I'm anxious to see how she did. I'll post the "results" here.

Just as a side note, I have this same student doing Hanon...just exercise #1,2 right now. Interestingly, she would start the exercises well, but when I closed the book, she stumbled her way through the rest of the exercise. I think she has CONVINCED herself that she cannot play with out the music right in front of her. Well, we'll fix THAT...hopefully.

Alan in RI Have a good day, everyone.

I was happy to hear that she is responding!

Show her the repetitious pattern of Hanon in the first measure - then when she gets to the turnaround work on how it reverses direction - then how it ends. Discuss the range of notes with her - starting note - highest notes.

The simplicity of Hanon is also that the fingering remains the same in each measure and perhaps a drill on the table top with the fingering only (no sound) would give her courage.

Patterns are very helpful to teach memory with!

She should jump on the band wagon quickly with these "understanding" in brain and hand.

Have a great day in RI Alan, I'll do the same here in Washington State.

Betty

Good to hear your student has overcome the psychological block that she 'can' memorize, even if its only taking baby steps in the beginning. Now you have something you can build upon.

Hanon, because of its repetitive nature, I think by design, is easy to memorize and should aid in the process.

Encourage her to think "take one step forward everyday" (if even just a small one), and I think, in time, you'll get there.