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This article is from the Piano Playing from Memory FAQ, by Isako Hoshino rmmpfaq@yahoo.com with numerous contributions by others.

3.3) At what point in learning a piece should memorizing begin? (Piano Playing from Memory)

Some teachers advocate beginning to memorize a piece when you
begin to study it. I tend to think this works best under the
guidance of a teacher. On your own you may face too complex a
task. And you may end up memorizing such things as mistakes or
sub-optimum fingering.

Not only will it be simpler to memorize a piece which you have
already learned using the score, but also by the time you have
learned to play the piece fairly well this way, you have already
come much of the way toward memorizing it. You now can play
without focusing on as many of the details in the score as you did
when you began learning the notes, and you have formed some sense
of the piece's structure. And if you began to study the piece
without listening to it, you now have a memory of what the piece
sounds like.

 

Continue to:

• prev: 3.2) The role of listening (Piano Playing from Memory)
• Index
• next: 3.4) Identifying memorizable units (Piano Playing from Memory)

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