Why perform from memory?

College Majors Music Majors
1

<p>This is a question I’ve grappled with since my youth when I had difficulty memorizing solos for solo and Ensemble festival (flute). Even if I did manage to memorize my piece, I would usually have memory lapses. My brother (oboe), on the other hand, usually had his piece memorized by the time he had played it through once or twice. Of course he was nowhere near having mastered the piece–he still had to work hard to get the technique down. But he didn’t have to spend time memorizing. I, on the other hand, would have the piece down, but then would have to spend extra time trying to get it memorized. In high school, he won concerto competitions. I couldn’t enter because I couldn’t memorize. However, I was a better orchestral player as I could sight-read very well and he wasn’t good at it. Although I was the top flutist student in my music program, I decided I wasn’t meant for music as I coudln’t memorize, and went into something else.</p>

<p>Fast forward 30 years. My 16-year old daughter is a talented musician on several woodwinds. She wins concerto competitions (those that don’t require memory), and has just been selected as a finalist for the U.S. Marine Band nation-wide high school concerto competition on one of her instruments. She can’t memorize. She wants to be a soloist. So how does she go about this? She’s not allowed to enter some of the top competitions because of the memory issue.</p>

<p>I find it interesting that memory is still a requirement for college auditions for strings and pianists. We now know that people learn and memorize in different ways. In general, audio learners will memorize music better. Visual learners in general will sight-read better. My daughter can remember and memorize what she learns on piano, without trying, because she can see her fingers. She cannot however see her fingers when playing her wind instruments. </p>

<p>These are the reasons I’ve heard for requiring memorization:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Memorization demonstrates mastery of the material. (Not true; I’ve heard many solos performed by memory on youtube that are awful. Also, some people, like my brother, can memorize without working on it at all).</p></li>
<li><p>When performing before an audience, the soloist can connect better with the audience when performing from memory. (But I’ve watch soloists–Midori comes to mind–who perform their entire solo with their eyes closed and don’t try playing with the orchestra–how is this any better than the musician performing with music on a stand?).</p></li>
<li><p>Visually it does not look good for a soloist to have a stand in front of them while they perform. (But I’ve watched a number of recorded concerto performances where the soloist is using music, but I can’t see the stand at all). This reason will go out the window as soon as someone invents the invisible floating Kindle which turns pages for you and can’t be seen by the audience.</p></li>
<li><p>Soloists performing from memory sound better than those using music. (This one is funny–I challenge anyone, listening from behind a curtain, to distinguish between soloists using music and those not using it.) Certainly every soloist recording a CD is using music.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Any other (more legitimate) reasons for banning non-memorizers from conservatories and becoming soloists? I don’t understand, particularly for strings, why we’d want to throw out some of the best sight-readers.</p>

2

<p>DD was finally diagnosed with a learning disability after she got to college and her voice teacher noticed how hard some things were for her, including how long it took her to memorize her pieces. After testing and some recommended compensation techniques she is better, but still has to work much harder than others. She starts her memorization by listening to recordings, singing along. Then she moves to her music. It takes a lot of repetitions and much longer than her friends. It means she has to get her music sooner and works more hours on it. But she was finally able to figure it out.</p>

<p>Working with someone who deals with learning disabilities may help her.</p>

<p>As to your question, I think with singers it’s important because they need to move. But string players don’t move around so beats me.</p>

3

<p>I’m only a mom but whenever I go to see the Phil or even regional orchestras the soloists have always performed from memory while standing in front of the orchestra. So, perhaps its tradition.</p>

4

<p>As an adult student visual learner who struggles with memory (much more comfortable with having the notes on the page in front of me), I have to admit that my teacher’s insistence on memory really did make a difference in how I as a performer interact with the music. When it is memorized, I can really focus on things like dynamics and expression in ways that I cannot even when it is “mostly memorized.” But I envy those to whom memorization comes easy!</p>

5

<p>I would like to say tradition and I highly doubt things are going to change. In my opinion, I hate to see someone perform a piece of music with a stand. I know it may not be true, but the first few things that come to mind are: he/she is not prepared, he/she did not memorize it, and usually these people never really get into the music. They don’t move, they are just too involved in the music on the stand. </p>

<p>If your child had trouble memorizing or has a disability, I can understand the reason for using a music stand, but most people in this business are not keen on this idea. I may be wrong, but I don’t know if your child should pursue a career in music if he/she cannot memorize pieces. I’m not trying to be mean, but this is the truth. Many schools/teachers expect students to perform frequently and with a piece memorized. I know that in my studio, my teacher expects us to memorize even a piece that we’ve had for a week. It’s a competitive environment out there and you have to be able to be versatile. However, there are ways to learn how to memorize pieces. </p>

<ol>
<li><p>For me, I sometimes need help memorizing a piece so I will listen to the music on my iPod nonstop. I will put it in my car, I will walk around with it everywhere I go and the music will be in my head nonstop. That way when I’m performing the piece and I have a little slip, I can re-call the piece that I had listened to so many times.</p></li>
<li><p>Memorize measure by measure. Your child could try this by playing the measure backwards or by playing the first measure. When he/she memorizes it, go on to the second measure and then repeat the first and second measure. Then go on to the third, then first, second, third, and so forth. </p></li>
</ol>

<p>I don’t have much advice because memorizing is my strong point but through hard work i’m sure your child will be able to memorize.</p>

6

<p>I’ve never actually seen someone perform a concerto with music either in competition or otherwise (and I’ve seen hundreds of concerto performances). I didn’t even know there were concerto competitions which allowed music. I guess some musical traditions are not dying very quickly in my corner of the world.</p>

<p>For someone who has tremendous difficulty memorizing, there are still rewarding careers in performance (and in fact, most classical performing careers require absolutely no memorizing): recording work, orchestral work, pit orchestra work, and chamber music–none of these situations ever involves memorizing. One can even do solo recital work with relatively little memorizing if one includes enough duo sonatas (in which case it is considered highly rude for a flautist or violinist to play by memory).</p>

<p>I think that performing a concerto with music would be like an actor in a play performing with the script–the actor could vocally and physically do everything while holding a tiny script (or with his words projected on a screen behind the audience), but it would take away from the illusion that what the actor says comes from within–i.e. that the actor is not acting at all, but is really the person that they portray. The soloist who performs from memory creates a similar illusion–that the music comes from inside, from their heart and soul, rather than from black marks on a page. </p>

<p>Of course, we all know that the actor has memorized words written by someone else and that the musician is not creating their notes spontaneously either. </p>

<p>I do think that a music stand can be a physical and mental barrier (however slight) between a performer and their audience. Certainly every time the performer turns a page, the audience is distracted from the seemless fluidity of the music. </p>

<p>I don’t think that opening or closing one’s eyes has much of an effect on the degree to which a performer can communicate; after all, in most concerto performances, the hall is so vast that one can scarcely see if the performer’s eyes are open or closed, and the closing of eyes is often interpretted as a sign that the performer is so entirely focused on their art that they have been transported to another world! </p>

<p>I was not a quick memorizer and had my share of huge horrible memory lapses. My son, on the other hand, is like woodwinds’ son and memorizes very quickly with no effort. Even with extended works (e.g. 20 page movements lasting over 15 minutes), he would often be able to play by memory after just a few days with minimal practicing. So I certainly understand the differences in learning. </p>

<p>Ultimately music is primarily an aural medium and it seems appropriate that those with strong aural skills should have an advantage.</p>

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<p>OK, there are some good responses there.</p>

<p>I can understand performing from memory for singers. They have to move around on stage. That makes sense.</p>

<p>I do agree that the memorization for soloists is traditional. However, traditions can be changed. In particular, I have noticed that classical sax soloists typically use music when performing.</p>

<p>My daughter was diagnosed long ago with a learning disability, but she left the program several years ago and has no intention of going back to it. As for going into music, she has already decided she will be a professional musician. So it is not a question whether she is going into it, but more a question of how she gets around this old traditional rule that makes little sense. Many of her gigs rely on her strengths. She has an ability to play multiple woodwinds, all at a high level (on two, she is already better than most conservatory students, according to conservatory teachers). She can sight-read pit orchestra music well, and as a result is now frequently asked to play or sub in community musicals and operettas. None of her teachers have ever required memorization, and none of the top conservatories she is considering require it to any meaningful extent. (They might ask her to memorize one piece–that won’t hurt her). Actually none of her teachers can memorize well either–and they are all orchestra players–it’s not at all necessary for orchestral playing. My daughter does listen to all her pieces on an ipod and knows them well–but that doesn’t help her at all with memorizing the fingering sequence.</p>

8

<p>Violindad, in our area, most concerto competitions allow music. This has allowed my daughter the opportunity to try performing concertos, with the surprising (for both of us us) result that she is good at it. She is out-performing some soloists who are winning the the memory-only competitions. I can see your point about a music stand being a physical barrier, but I’ve also seen stand placements in large halls where the stand can hardly been seen or appears to be in the first violin section.</p>

<p>But what is an aural skill? Isn’t the ability to play in tune (relative perfect pitch) evidence of excellent aural abilities? In that sense, I agree.</p>

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<p>I should add that given that the vast majority of conservatory students will never earn their living by performing by memory, it does seem unfair that most of the high-stakes conservatory performances are by memory (e.g. auditions, junior and senior recitals, juries etc.).</p>

<p>Performers tend to rely on a variety of memories:<br>

  1. aural memory (which is almost always very strong in world-class performers and which is very helpful if one plays by ear);
  2. kinasthetic memory which is the feel of where one’s fingers/arms etc. are (which is often quite strong in pianists and probably is fairly strong in woodwind’s daughter; I relied primarily on kinasthetic memory when I performed on piano, but found it almost useless on tuba);
  3. visual memory (i.e. the ability to see the page in one’s memory; while this is most helpful if one has a photographic memory, most performers who take a long time to memorize have at least have a sense of which page they are on or whether they are on the top or bottom of the page when they perform by memory);
  4. intellectual memory (i.e. memory of the structure of a piece, the sequence of harmonies, the modulations, the phrases etc.).</p>

<p>One of the better local piano pedagogues (he soloed with some of the major European orchestras in his younger days before debilitating arthritis set in) would allow his piano students to play at their lessons what they had memorized. </p>

<p>I was astonished at this when I first heard of it and believed it must be an exaggeration. However, I got to know many of his students and they confirmed it was true and said they became much better memorizers as a result–their practice always engaged their brains–their was no mindless repetition with the fond hope of eventually memorizing. The teacher would usually assign several pages per week to be memorized; a 12-page sonata movement might be split over two weeks, but a 5-page Chopin piece would get one week. While the students initially found this very difficult and often didn’t fulfill the week’s memory quota, they all expressed amazement at how much more they accomplished than they had believed possible.</p>

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<p>I would suggest that the ability to play in tune combines aural skill with physical coordination; students that can’t hear their bad tuning lack aural skill; students that can hear their bad tuning, but can’t correct it, need to work on their physical coordination (whether that be adjusting air pressure, vibration speed, finger placement or some other physical adjustment).</p>

<p>More importantly, aural skill goes far beyond playing in tune. The ability to “play back” a musical composition in one’s head involved aural skill. The ability to discern musical structure while listening involves aural skill. The ability to improvise usually involves aural skill. The ability to “play by ear” requires aural skill. Normally the ability to transpose difficult music at sight (which one has previously played or heard in a different key) involves primarily aural skill.</p>

<p>Normally a class in aural musicianship (sometimes called “ear training”) does not teach anything whatsoever about playing in tune.</p>

11

<p>I’ve heard of those 4 types of memory too that violindad mentions, and yes, the kinesthetic memory that he says is strong for pianists I think is true. Pianists seem to mention knowing the feel of the keys, and sometimes I think this is the strongest form of memory for some pianists (depending on the individual performer of course). For me, I memorize things fairly easily and can keep a fairly large amount of music memorized for a long time (I can play my audition pieces from last year after not playing them for months and not have a memory slip, and once had about 75 pieces at an average of 5 minutes long each all memorized at once and kept that for a while, just kept pieces memorized that I had learned the past few years and would take a day to play through all of them every couple months to keep them together, but don’t have all that anymore, got too busy to do that). Also, I pretty much always know where I am on the page, sometimes even what line I’m on, but try not to think about that too much for fear of being distracted from actually performing the music.</p>

<p>

This is my professor (I’m a piano performance major). At our lessons, he only wants to hear it if it’s memorized and he can take the music to look at. Once in a while, you might play something that isn’t memorized. He says he doesn’t really enforce this memorization policy so much the first semester for freshmen, but enforces it more strictly the second semester and onward from there.</p>

12

<p>As I mentioned in my first post, I do believe it is easier to memorize on certain instruments. Probably it is easiest for vocalists, since there are no fingerings to learn, and for many they are assisted by memorizing words. For others, seeing ones’ fingers (piano and strings) makes memorizing easier. Also, memorization should be easier on instruments where only one finger is needed to play a note (although brass is different). I do agree with violindad that learning aural skills are important (playing by ear), but my daughter doesn’t seem to have too much problem doing that–she plays jazz on saxophone and improvises, and transposes keys during jazz band.</p>

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<p>woodwinds: I’ve been cross-posting, so have missed some your observations (and many of mine seem oddly placed in the discussion!). One ofyour observations that just caught my eye: </p>

<p>“none of the top conservatories she is considering require [memorization] to any meaningful extent.” </p>

<p>I was under the impression that almost all music schools (whether low-level or high-level or conservatory or non-conservatory) required students to play by memory at their junior and senior recitals (and that a typical junior recital involves 30 to 60 minutes of music and a typical senior recital involves 75 to 105 minutes of music). </p>

<p>Again, maybe my part of the world has not kept with the times. I am curious. Which of the “top conservatories” allow students to use music for the majority of their solo recitals/juries etc.? [I am not suggesting that this a bad thing; I’ve previously posted that most professional musicians will rarely if be required to perform by memory.]</p>

<p>On a related note: one of the weaknesses of much music performance education is the assumption that everyone is going on to become a soloist. Everyone (teachers and students) knows how inaccurate that assumption is, so why don’t music schools banish that assumption and spend more time and energy on chamber repertoire, orchestral and other ensemble repertoire and on sight-reading skills etc.? [I’ll hazard an answer: at the highest level, the teachers are primarily people who have had successful solo careers and many are not terribly reflective about the educative process and hence just duplicate what worked in their education in turning them into successful soloists. Schools and teachers at lower levels assume that they should emulate what the best schools do and thus perpetuate inefficient means of educating aspiring musicians.]</p>

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<p>I should add: good question about why musicians memorize, woodwinds! Obviously, I’ve spent too much time thinking and writing about it tonight. </p>

<p>While I don’t think that I am in total agreement with you (I’m a traditionalist on many things, so it will take at least a while before I like you will be calling the memory rule “this old traditional rule that makes little sense”), I think you have nudged me in your direction.</p>

<p>I think that the perform by memory rule is akin to the “don’t clap between the movements” rule. There is some sense behind it, but not tons and most of what is behind it is pure tradition. For the record (and as evidence that I am not irredeemably conservative), I prefer applause between movements (and am well aware of the arguments against).</p>

15

<p>violindad, I agree that conservatories should focus more on building the skills used in orchestral and chamber music settings.</p>

<p>The conservatories I was thinking of where my daughter’s teachers and collegues have gone include Julliard, NEC, Boston U, and CCM. They were required to perform one piece from memory, probably during a recital. That’s OK. But these are woodwind players. They have a lot of work --music, like everyone else, ensembles, and breathing. One of my daughter’s main instruments is oboe. She spends about half of her oboe time on breathing (including circular breathing) issues and making reeds. When would she have time to memorize?</p>

16

<p>

Yes you can see your fingers on the piano which makes it easier, but the thing is that you have different fingers on a given key in different pieces, whereas woodwind and brass instruments have 1 or 2 ways to always finger that note. They have to learn the combinations/switching of fingers for different note passages, but the fingerings on that note stay the same, where it changes always on piano…I hope that makes sense. I also play clarinet, and somehow I memorized my jury piece this semester easily without even trying too and didn’t really practice it that much and only started it about halfway through the semester after working on technique studies first. I didn’t even practice that anywhere close to the amount of time I practice my piano pieces (those are way longer in minute and number of pages though too).</p>

<p>Yeah, some of it is just tradition to memorize for a performance…but another reason, is that for pianists there are simply too many notes sometimes and it would actually be really hard to read the music and get all the notes if you’re looking at the music rather than the keys. That is probably just a pianist’s thing though.</p>

17

<p>

Actually although different it can be just as hard. Most are in a foreign language with pronunciations that must be mastered. And the big 3 languages are just the start. Besides German, French and Italian, DD sings in Russian, Spanish, and Latin. So besides just the music you learn to sing in a language you may not completely understand.</p>

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<p>At its root, music is artistic communication among a composer, a performer and an audience. It draws richness and power from the many ways in which the acts of composing, transmitting and receiving the intended messages can be split apart and recombined. As a species, we have been practicing this art form for tens if not hundreds of thousands of years. In the most recent few tenths of one percent of that period, we have developed a system of recording some of the aspects of this art form in a written notation. While some have taken to calling this visual representation of a primarily aural experience “music,” it is in fact merely a job aid that allows composers and performers to create and reproduce more complex musical structures than were practical before written notation existed.</p>

<p>Part of the expectation that an audience brings to the professional performance of a major solo work is that they will experience a demonstration of extraordinary skill. A performer who plays at the highest levels without requiring the use of a job aid will appear to their audience to be more skillful than one who does. It comes down to simple showmanship, giving the audience more of what they want.</p>

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<p>Or as D said:
“When I’m behind the music stand you can’t see my fabulous dress.”</p>

20

<p>Maybe in some cases, for a choir it’s simply tradition to have a music folder in your hands. I remember watching the Interlochen choir once, performing a very difficult a capella piece. Though their music was in hand, every performer was watching the conductor’s every move at every moment. Except for one moment, when one choir member looked down for an instant…to turn the page! The singers didn’t really need their music in hand, I suspect.</p>