Teaching memorization strategies

The reason why I decided to research this topic, memorization strategies, is because I realized my pupils quite often have trouble when they try to memorize a piece.

However I thought it would be interesting and necessary to understand memorization processes in order to transmit that knowledge to my pupils.

Each one of my students presents different problems when they try to memorize a piece. Therefore I will present the case of my piano and cello student one by one.

In the first section of my project I will focus on how the memory is stored in the brain and I will specify the three types of musical memory. In the second section I will show some memorization strategies and the way I  work with my piano and cello students. In the third section I will present the research I have carried out with my piano students in the last two weeks, and finally I will show some memorization strategies to learn the Prelude no 1 of the Bach cello suite.

 FIRST SECTION: Literature Review

How is memory stored in the brain?

“We are far from understanding how lengthy sequences of music are store in our brain, although it is clear that music activates large parts of auditory cortex in both hemispheres”.

Memory takes many different types. We know that when we store a memory, we are storing information. But, what that information is and how long we retain it determines what type of memory it is. There are two categories of memory: short-term memory and long-term memory.

Long-term memory

Long-term memories can last for just a few days, or for many years. Long-term memories aren't all of equal strength. Long-term memory isn't static, either. You do not imprint a memory and leave it as if untouched. Instead, you often revise the memory over time. As a result, your memories are not strictly constant, and are not always reliable. 

Short-term memory

This is closely related to "working memory". As one of two main memory types, short-term memory is responsible for storing information temporarily and determining if it will be dismissed or transferred on to long-term memory.

“Working memory is often thought of as the brain's "scratch pad" that keeps information (a number, name, or whatever else) on hand just long enough to use.” 

Types of musical memory

Musical memory comes in two variations: one that happens more incidentally as result of the practice and one that requires great deliberation and effort to establish.

Kinesthetic and motor memory

When a musician rapidly plays a piece of music, interconnected sequential chunks are created. In this case each chunk functions as a cue to the next. This is the way “muscle memory” (kinesthetic) works. Kinesthetic memory refers to the sensation of touch, pressure and feeling of movement of the hands and fingers whilst playing.

It is interesting to note the difference about kinesthetic and motor memory: Patricia Holmes says that motor memory is much more complex than the kinesthetic one in terms of possible repetitive patterns framed in the learning and memorizing process of a musical piece.

In order to explain the actual functioning of motor imagery, it is important to consider the example proposed by Seashore. This time he uses the analogy of the dream to explain the internal route of motor imagination:

“In Motor Imagery, we act and feel the action…The dreamer is always

the actor or an active observer in the action. Therefore, when he

dreams himself singing, he has all the experience of performing that

comes through the motor sense; that is, in mental imagery he lives

through the same sort of action that he would experience if he were

actually singing.” 

In other words, when motor memory is used in a situation where the individual is not physically involved, the action is felt through the kinaesthetic sense although the activity is not obvious. Our brain does go through the same kind of activity that it would experience if we were actually acting or performing, that is, including the physical aspect of them.

Auditory memory

Ear memory is your inner awareness of the music as sound. Ear memory is the result of your awareness of each note as a sound, heard externally and internally. Again, it is developed simply through focusing attention on the music as sound sensation during the practice process. Very quickly for some, and sooner or later for everyone else, it develops into the ability to distinguish the important characteristics of sound, such as tone and pitch. It results in the ability (with practice) to reproduce the sound with our own "primary instrument", our body, by singing the notes.

“Perhaps the most outstanding mark of the musical mind is auditory

imagery, the capacity to hear music in recall, in creative work, and

to supplement the actual physical sounds in musical hearing”

If Seashore’s statement is true, auditory memory predominates over other types and demands two different kinds of attitudes based on both the inner image of the music and the act of listening to it.

Visual memory

Visual memory operates within the framework of spatial awareness. It is also related to motor memory. The connection between both types of imagery is based on the fact that motor imagination is a form of visual imagery but “from the inside”: it involves internal reconfiguration of the image (refined by the individual) and the connection with the external elements or stimulus. When reading music these external, visual elements become more important and prominent. In the process of memorizing a piece, visual memory is the first type of memory in isolating the different constructive, musical elements involved in a phrase or even a single bar. Intervals, durations and pitch of notes are all elements understood and analysed by the visual memory and then correlated to the aural and motor memories.    

SECOND SECTION: Methodology

Points to remember before  memorising a piece

• To make a plan with the new material you want to learn.
• Writing out a list or an action plan setting out your goals of things you want to remember.
• Try to avoid taking in too much information at once, the short term memory will only cope with about twenty minutes of learning new information, after this you will start to notice memory dips, making recall more difficult.
• The technique of reviewing new information before you go to sleep is also a well known method for logging what has been learned into the long term memory.

Memorization strategies  

• Write down parts of the piece which present greater difficulties.
• Analyze the structure of the piece away from the instrument
• Start in different places
• To play the piece visually away from the instrument
• Be aware of fingering away from the instrument
• To listen a recording of the music

Is it necessary to analyse the piece before being memorized?

Analyze the piece before you start memorizing. Some people find that memorizing is impossible without harmonic analysis, but in most cases it's just a helpful extra memory tool. Whether or not you memorize the harmonic analysis itself, you should be able to figure out the name of the next chord from memory when asked.

“The traditional view of performers analyzing their music has been that if they are going to learn if thoroughly (and ultimately from memory) an analysis of the score is indispensable (for example, Rubin- Rabson, 1937)”.

A technical analysis of a piece would include breaking it down into formal parts and identifying elements and structures of the following types:

* Harmonic (keys and key changes, chords and chord progressions)

* Melodic (themes and voices; turning points; beginning and goal notes)

* Rhythmic (meter, tempo)

Memorization on the piano presents different characteristics that on the cello. It is very important to be aware of the special characteristic for each instrument in order to teach memorization strategies.

Specific aspect of memorization on the piano

Piano music is generally written on two staves, is polyphonic as well as melodic and has a textural palette that is unique. This is the reason why pianist are usually focus on playing by memory since sometimes is easier keeping on mind all the notes written on the score than reading simultaneously that you play.

One of the mains difficulties when you try to memorize a piece on the piano is the fingering. Use good fingering and use it consistently is very important from the beginning. It will take a lot longer to learn the piece if you are using different fingerings every time. Writing your fingerings in the score will help.

Specific aspect of memorization on the cello

Cello is different to the piano in the way that it is a melodic instrument and the hands have different roles. When you try to memorize any music with the cello, a part of the notes, you will have to face up to some extra difficulties such as the bow distribution, intonation, string crossing, shifting, fingerboard geography…

All these aspects can be problematic when you have to memorize a piece with the cello. Memorizing bow strokes is one of the major difficulties on the cello. It is closely connected with the phrasing so it is very important to know it on the context of the piece.

THIRD SECTION: Discussion

 In this section I will show the research I have carried out with my pupils. The piano level of my students is quite similar and the ages of them vary from 25 to 34 years old.

 My experience teaching adult people has demonstrated that it presents completely different characteristics  to that of  teaching children. For instance, to learn and memorize music is easier during childhood because our motor abilities are more malleable and because the auditory cortex has sensitive periods for self- organisation. “However, this does not preclude learning at later ages; it merely means that more effort is required.”

 I have tested with my pupils the three types of memory and then I have compared the results. The three of them started to learn the piece two weeks ago: Theme from “Swan Lake”. Then I have been working with each one different memorization strategies.

Educational research

•  Case of study 1: Becky, 25 years old. Eight months playing the piano.

•  Case of study 2: Eva, 34 years old. Nine months playing the piano. 

•  Case of study 3: Ella, 28 years old. Six months learning piano with me. She studied a bit when she was child and now she is learning it again.

1. I have worked mainly with Becky on Kinesthetic memory (muscle memory). Her major weakness is music notation. She often can’t play through a piece because she can’t recognize the value of notes or which notes are written in the music which stops a lot her piano learning.

These two weeks we have been learning this new piece (only the first half) repeating phase by phase. She started with both hands from the beginning, learning bar by bar and she was memorizing the hands movement.

 2. Eva has improved a lot since two months ago. She is a very hard worker and she loves playing piano. I suggested learning the “Swan Lake” by memory and we have been working on auditory memory.

She started singing the bass line and then we incorporated the melody line. We were working on the sense of rhythm, specially the dotted crochets and the slurred notes.

 3. I have worked with Ella on visual memory, taking a very short passage of music and looking at the score as though she was looking at a favourite painting. Looking at the whole mini section she had chosen, as an artist would look at something he was drawing. She had to retain all the details and then see it as a whole. 

• The time and key signatures and tempo indication
• The pitch of the notes
• The intervals between the notes
•  The duration of the notes
• Rests
• Markings and slurs

  The results obtained with the students have been very interesting. Each pupil has been working during these two weeks using different memorization strategies and finally I have been able to compare the results.

 Results:

 1. The results obtained with Becky have had more weaknesses than strengths. For instance, when she got confused with the fingering she didn’t know how to keep playing.  Also rhythm proved to be a struggle for Becky. As she didn’t look at the score she sometimes forgot the duration of the notes and she just was worry about playing the correct notes.

2. Working with Eva I realized she had very good hearing. She could sing perfectly the melody line however the bass line proved to be harder to memorize. Singing was  very good work. We were working on it with an exercise. The object of the exercise was singing one of the lines at the same time that moving one hand up and down depending of the interval between the notes.

This exercise had very good results but unfortunately she just learned to memorize hands separately and she was improving very slowly.

3. The results have been amazing with Ella. Unquestionably it has been the best work. She has learned to memorize the score perfectly (more than the half). She even knows to differentiate each sections and the structure of the piece.

She got confused quite often with the rhythms and the notes but she could keep playing as she had memorized the score on her mind.

However, she must work muscle memory in order to obtain better coordination between both hands.

Memorizing strategies to memorize the Prelude of the Cello Suit no.1 by Bach

Dominique is my cello pupil. She is currently learning the Prelude of the Suit no 1. I suggested her to learn it by memory since it is one of the most important cello pieces and would be very useful to have this piece recorded on her mind.

And now I will show some of the advice I have suggested. In this example I’m integrating the three types of musical memory: visual, auditory and kinesthetic memory.

 
1. Use the visual memory in order to retain information by looking at the music.

2. Analyse the general shape of the section or the location of it within the context of the piece.

3. Write down in a different A4 piece of enlarged manuscript paper a selection of the most difficult bars, after the process of analysing carefully and locating the hardest passages.

4. As a result she must have a very wide and clear vision of the technical problems.

 5. The Auditory memory will be integrated in the same process: through the visual action, the intervals and their sounds came easily to the mind, once you have seen them. In this way, the information is retained in the mind and you can retrieve it as a set of snapshots.

6. Try to practice slowly, feeling how you arms and finger are moving and try to play without any tension in your body.

CONCLUSION

The experience with this project has been very rewarding. I have been able to know deeply the different types of memories and I have put this knowledge into practice with my piano and cello students.

As we have seen every one of the memorization strategies have weaknesses and strengths. Therefore the conclusion of this research is that it is necessary to use all types of memory as much as possible because the more resources we have to memorize a piece the more faster and successful the result will be.