Learning to play without printed music

[cloudberry]

I struggle to be able to play without music in front of me to read, which makes it difficult to play anywhere but at home. ( I am a pretty old amateur now with the time to practice regularly).

Do any of the pros or others have any tips on how to memorize a piece quickly?

[dond]

I memorize everything I play but I wish I could play while looking at the music. Memorizing a piece takes me a long time while I feel that playing while looking at the music would require less time in the long run. So, my point is ... Be careful what you wish for.

[rldoan]

The more you understand a song, the easier it is to memorize. Anything you can do to pick the song apart helps. Take note of the key. Analyze the chord progression. (That is, notate the Roman numerals in the song, e.g., I - ii - V - I). Where are the modulations (key changes) and to what keys? How many measures are there? Where is the bridge, and what key is it in? How many measures is the bridge? Look at the melody. On what scale degree does the melody start? Does the melody repeat patterns? Does the melody outline a chord? Is the melody scalar, or does it leap around? What intervals are the leaps? Are there are any characteristic rhythms in the melody? Take a pencil and circle all the distinct phrases. How long are they? What notes do they start and end on? What notes are inside the chord and what notes are outside? Is there a melodic climax in the song?

As you can you see, you just want to get your inside the song -- it's harmony, structure, melody. And there's no one thing that works. Whatever helps your mind to grab it. You might take a blank copy of a song you want to memorize and start marking everything with a pencil. The more writing you have on the page, the more you'll get your head into it.

An interesting factoid. Psychologists have found that chess players recall the layout of pieces on a chess board better than non-players when the layout is excerpted from an actual game. But the players are no better than non-players when the pieces are placed on the board at random. Basically, we can recall patterns when they make sense to us or they have meaning.

[wmyette]

Great points from both dond and ridoan,

Understanding theory is a big help. When I memorize a piece I am always breaking down the harmony and thinking "Is this a I chord, a ii-V-I, etc..."

Here is a good trick that I like to use.

Make a copy (print out) of the piece...or several pieces. Staple them together and take them everywhere you go.

Keep going over the song in your mind. Try to see the written page and how it would look at the keyboard. The print out is for you to refer back to now and again.

The more that you immerse yourself in the song, the faster you'll be able to memorize it.

[dond]

Well, on the subject of memorizing a piece of music ...

I can memorize a simple tune in the Key of C pretty fast. Why ? Because I know where the sounds are on the keyboard. I can hear the sound in my head before I play it. I can likewise learn music in other keys that are familiar to me ... F, G, D, ...

However, when moving to Eflat, Aflat, etc ... it is more difficult.

Adding color tones to the music also adds to the difficulty because I don't know those sounds as readily.

So, I guess my thinking is that if I learn what the sounds are in various keys it also makes memorizing easier. How to do that ? The only way I know is to just spend time at the keyboard hearing those sounds until I recognize them and can hear them in my head before I play them.

Any other suggestions ?

[wmyette]

As always, start small. Try to memorize only a small chunk of the piece...say 2-4 measures, then try doing it in 3-5 different keys.