Playing Piano By Rote

Question

Despite playing keyboard / piano for many years, I don't think I could play a single piece from memory. In one of my earliest lessons, my teacher specifically told me not to learn the music by rote. I think this was to try to ensure that I was learning to read the music, and not just remembering the notes. This has stuck with me - I read the music, and have never actively tried to learn to play a piece without it.

Is it beneficial then, to learn the music, as opposed to 'just' learning to play it?

Answer 1

Yes, it's a very good idea for a beginner to read the music rather than just copy a teacher's demonstration! But once you progress to music that requires repetitive, analytical practice, you obviously won't be reading afresh each time in quite the same way.

Try playing a well-practiced piece without the music. Your brain may think it can't remember what comes next, but it's very likely your fingers will!

But don't worry about it. As long as you can learn a new piece from the notation, and work it up to performance level, no-one cares if you've memorised it or not.

Answer 2

Learning to play music from a score on sight requires a particular set of skills. It requires some understanding of music theory (to allow the score to be understood), some understanding of musical style, development of a sense of rhythm, development of finger strength and dexterity, and of course the student must build up the key skill of being able to rapidly read through a score and map the dots to a set of fingerings.

Learning to play from memory requires some different skills, but many of the same ones. Most people (unless they are incredibly blessed when it comes to memorisation) will still need a good knowledge of music theory, in order to be able to build up a map of a piece in their mind. They'll need that skill of internalising the details of a piece. They will probably need an even stronger sense of counting and timing, as the written music is not there to share the load. But of course if you're playing from memory, you don't need the raw reading skills.

Ultimately, a teacher's job is to teach the student what will be of benefit to them. If a student is clear that they only want to learn to play from score, then it seems reasonable to focus on that - but simply telling the student not to learn the score seems an odd way to go about it, as it's impossible to simply "switch off" one's memory. A better way would be to teach the student to cope with genuinely unseen scores.

If an instrumental teacher has no reason to think that a student wants to focus only on one set of skills, my opinion is that the teacher should be aiming towards teaching a balanced set of skills - which of course would include learning to work out a piece by ear, and play from memory.

Is it beneficial then, to learn the music, as opposed to 'just' learning to play it?

Ultimately, it just depends what skills you want to end up with. Any skill is good to have in and of itself, but all skills take time to learn, and invoke an opportunity cost in the time spent. Generally, different musical skills tend to reinforce each other rather well - which is why I think a teacher's presumption should be towards teaching a balance of skills.

Answer 3

Can you recite to me the story of LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD from memory? Of course you can. You know the structure of the story, the plot, the characters, you've mastered the vocabulary and grammar and what you don't remember you can fake.

Memorization is the same. Once you master the vocabulary (music theory), learn how to spell (music theory) then memorizing music will become easier and sometimes instantaneous because there is so much repetition in all music.

Ear training is also a strong component. As you play, your ear often knows what is coming next and if your brain does too, it will just happen.

When you combine the two you don't even have to memorize. For instance, I don't have memorized the hymn JOY TO THE WORLD but my ear can hear it and my brain can transcribe it from my ear. Without thought I just know that it is: 8765 4321 56 67 78

Not only can I just "fake" that but I can play those numbers in any key because they are numbers. Start learning to read numbers instead of letters. Letters are absolute while numbers unlock the universe.

Just as there are rules for spelling (i before e, an e lengthens the vowel preceding it (cap cape, tap tape)) there are rules for music and knowing them makes everything else easier.

Rote memorization will fail you most every time. Study your scores away from the piano and use theory and your ear. I memorize most of my music by the pool.

Answer 4

Learning by heart will always benefit, but to avoid that you only play by memory of the fingers or the ear, try to write the notes down in a staff, try to identify the chords and write a lead sheet for the chords like guitar players use to. Finally try to design a mind map of the whole music.