Memorizing notes - mental play

[masiarek]

I found an interesting book "Fundamentals of Piano Practise" (author Chuan C. Chang) at:
http://www.pianofundamentals.com/book/en/chapter_1
or
here:
http://www.pianopractice.org/

Does anybody follow the advise of memorizing the notes (Mental Play)?
See details at:
http://www.pianofundamentals.com/book/en/1.II.12

[phailes]

Interesting article. I personally use two different techniques for memorizing music.

1. If I am just playing a regular song or standard, I will memorize the melody and the chord structure. This is pretty easy for me because over the years I have developed a good ear for intervals and chord sounds.

2. However if I have to memorize a classical or specific piano arrangement, I will memorize it backwards. After I have practiced the piece and gotten it under my hands, I will memorize the last measure, then add the next-to-last measure to it. I keep building on this until I reach the first measure of the piece. It is surprising how quickly this goes.

I learned "backwards" memorization many years ago from the book "Drawing on the Right Side of Your Brain". This book has exercises to get you in your "right brain" mode where creative things happen.

Hope this helps.

[place]

I love the Betty Edwards book and have tried importing many of those techniques into the music realm, but I don't remember anything on backward memorization. Can you elaborate where you found that in Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain
thanks
Mark

[phailes]

To be honest, I don't really remember. I may have learned it somewhere else. But the theory is this. If you start memorizing from the first measure, your left brain starts trying to tell you where it thinks the music should go and not necessarily what was written. If you start from the last measure and go backwards, your right brain takes over and just memorizes what the eye sees with no preconceived idea of where the music is going.

As I remember from the book, the left brain is the interpreter of what it sees. If you see a round thing, the left brain tries to fit it into a pattern; circle, oval, etc. When your right brain sees a round thing, that is all it sees is a round thing.

Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

[place]

Makes sense
Good stuff

[masiarek]

http://www.teoria.com/articulos/andreas/andreas09.htm

[wmyette]

Granted, I breezed through the links, however, the one thing I did not see readily about memorization was HARMONY.

I am going to do a lesson on this which makes it a lot easier to memorize pieces.

[spannfan]

When it comes to classical pieces, I memorize easily...I don't try, it just happens.

I thionk if you're a really good sight reader, memorizing is harder (why should you?), if like me, sight reading is not as easy, memorization fills in the gaps.

When I try to analyze what happens, for classical, I memorize the visual part of the piece on the keyboard, just shapes of black and white notes, I memorize chord somewhat (without trying....) memorize some notes, and memorize a LOT by ear and auditory memory.

For popular songs (when I'm singing) I strictly remember the chords.

With blues, which I'm just starting to memorize, for things like Willie's blues riffs, I remember the relationship of the notes and also get muscle memory involved.

I transpose all the licks (which are written in C) as soon as possible to G, which I like better, and because it makes me focus on the notes. For the Spann riffs which are in A and D, again, I switch them to G.

[nickrees]

Granted, I breezed through the links, however, the one thing I did not see readily about memorization was HARMONY.

I am going to do a lesson on this which makes it a lot easier to memorize pieces.

Thanks for a great lesson on memorization/analysis. I went through some of it a number of times and I think I pick up something new each time. There is a lot of info in each of your lessons.

In the analysis sections e.g. for Ain't Misbehavin' (and maybe also for All the Things You Are) you talked about how to recognize a change of key but you didnt specifically say anything about recognizing the move back to the home key. I am thinking that maybe this is automatic to you. In Ain't Misbehavin' you switched back from the ii V I in G to the cycle of fifths in measure 7-8 of the bridge but giving the analysis of those chords relative to C maj. I am hoping you will do more lessons like this. Perhaps you could mention how you recognize a change back to the home key, if you do.

I like to keep things simple, so I liked that you labeled the chord in the 2nd measure of the bridge as IV7 without giving a more complicated analysis.
I noticed that you said that you might think about the V7/ii chord in measure 1 & 5 as a vi dominant chord as it is part of what would otherwise be a I-vi-ii-V-I turnaround.
So I was thinking maybe in my own analysis I could refer to V7/ii as VI7 when it occurs in a turnaround.
Also for a cycle of 5ths I think it would be easier for me to think of the cycle of fifths in the first ending as III7-VI7-II7-V7 which would be easier for me to remember (unless this is losing important information?)

[wmyette]

Thanks for a great lesson on memorization/analysis. I went through some of it a number of times and I think I pick up something new each time. There is a lot of info in each of your lessons.

In the analysis sections e.g. for Ain't Misbehavin' (and maybe also for All the Things You Are) you talked about how to recognize a change of key but you didnt specifically say anything about recognizing the move back to the home key. I am thinking that maybe this is automatic to you. In Ain't Misbehavin' you switched back from the ii V I in G to the cycle of fifths in measure 7-8 of the bridge but giving the analysis of those chords relative to C maj. I am hoping you will do more lessons like this. Perhaps you could mention how you recognize a change back to the home key, if you do.

I like to keep things simple, so I liked that you labeled the chord in the 2nd measure of the bridge as IV7 without giving a more complicated analysis.
I noticed that you said that you might think about the V7/ii chord in measure 1 & 5 as a vi dominant chord as it is part of what would otherwise be a I-vi-ii-V-I turnaround.
So I was thinking maybe in my own analysis I could refer to V7/ii as VI7 when it occurs in a turnaround.
Also for a cycle of 5ths I think it would be easier for me to think of the cycle of fifths in the first ending as III7-VI7-II7-V7 which would be easier for me to remember (unless this is losing important information?)

Thanks Nick,

You are spot on. When you analyze you can use your own terminology. But you have to be careful. I agree with you in keeping things simple. AS LONG AS...you do not lose the function.

This is the heart of analysis: "What is the function of that chord?"

As long as you know how the chord functions in the piece, then you can label however you wish.

There are some "special" chords like an F7 in C which often just gets labeled as IV7 cause it is borrowed from the Blues.

[spannfan]

I have a question on memorizing chord structures and I'm wondering what works for others: when memorizing a song like "When Sunny Gets Blue" where Willie analyses the relative ii/V motion, example measure 2 where it goes from Bflatminor 7 to Eflat7, which is either iv minor to flat VII7 of the tonic OR ii min.7 to Dom. 7 of the III, which is easier more logical to memorize? Or should it be both?

[lihkku]

I am Bill Leksén of Sweden. I am totally fresh in this forum and not certain if this was the right spot for a comment???

However, I am definitely not new to Willie's excellent piano education (I have purchased
over 50 DVD's from him by now).

The most important thing in my own playing and memorizing songs and remembering chords and even when creating chords is the interval method.

Useful stuff - at least for myself personally - is:

flat three (b3), i.e. same as flat thirteen (b13) and same as sharp five (#5)

if I go UP a FOURTH and find my flat six (b6)

from natural three (M3) I go up a FOURTH an find my to natural six (M6)

from a natural six I go UP a FOURTH and find my 9th, but is is so easily found
one wholestep to the right of the root, anyhow

from the second (M2) I go UP a FOURTH and find my Perfect fifth (P5)
from 9 UP a FOURTH and I find my perfect fifth (P5)

I usually find my natural 6th in this way:
3 half steps from the octava, i.e. minor third (down from C to A in C-major)
or I search a fourth up from a natural third (e.g. from E to A in C-major)
I look at this as skipping 2 white keys on the keyboard

I find my flat sixth (b6), thus my flat thirteen (b13) like this:
from flat three (b3) I go up a FOURTH e.g. Eb to Ab in C-major
I also see this as skipping a black key.

I also have hammered into my poor old brain that:
F H is tritone
F Bb is a fourth
F# to H is also a fourth
that Gb to Bb is a major third

else the following rule always function to find my FOURTHS
skipping 2 white keys or skipping one black key.

But I also use a method where I analyse where my fingers go in a 2-5-1-progression
e.g. third finger on my right and down a halfstep e.g. från F A C E to F A H etc.
also finger method works find for memorizing.

Just trying to be helpful
Bill Leksén of Sweden

[roberttee]

Granted, I breezed through the links, however, the one thing I did not see readily about memorization was HARMONY.

I am going to do a lesson on this which makes it a lot easier to memorize pieces.
Sounds great. When completed please give a link to go directly to it?

Thanks.