If youre like the vast majority of students, you probably have a hard

time memorizing music. If memorizing is ever difficult or

frustrating, then youre doing it wrong. Thats right, memorizing
music, or anything else for that matter, is only hard if you dont know
what youre doing.
Walter Gieseking was a well known 20th century pianist who was said
to be able to memorize entire piano concertos (usually over 30
minutes of music) on a plane flight. Was what Gieseking did magical
and unexplainable? The answer is no. Science can explain how it was
possible, and even make it accessible to other pianists.
As you read this article youll understand exactly how Gieseking and
other major pianists are able to memorize music at a super human rate.
It does take patience and diligence, but if you follow these steps, I
promise youll not only memorize music 5 times faster than you are
now, but music will be so well memorized youll never have a
memory slip again, yes never. Not convinced? Read on!
How Memory Works
Memory can be divided into two different types, short term and long
term.
Short Term Memory
Its been very well researched that your brain can remember around 7
items (plus or minus a couple) immediately, and that these items are
stored in short term memory. Lets test it out. Below youll find my
phone number without the area code. Read it once, and then close
your eyes and try to repeat it. Here we go. No cheating!
584-3354
Were you able to repeat it? Odds are you were, not hard at all right?
Now well try a number thats a little longer, how about a fake credit
card number. Same rules: read it once, close your eyes, and try to
repeat it. Here we go!
3859 0375 9136 2849
So how did it go? You most likely failed miserably. Not only could
you not do it, but odds are you couldnt even remember the first 7
numbers. What changed? Most people realize that its because 16
numbers are too much to memorize in one try.
So how would you memorize that credit card number? Break it up into
smaller groups of course. Everyone does this instinctively. Scientists
call it chunking. Realizing how your brain works makes this much
more meaningful.
How to improve short term memory
So can you improve short term memory and put more than 7 items
in it? The short answer is no. Thats right, its impossible. No one,
including Mozart, and the most famed memory experts anywhere have
ever put significantly more than 7 items in their short term memory.
Its not hopeless though! Theres a trick to it. The trick can make
memorizing music, or anything else for that matter, easy. Youll be
able to perform memory feats that seem impossible.
Lets try another experiment. Below youll see a sentence. I want you
to read it once and then close your eyes and repeat it.
My dogs name is Fido, and he likes playing at the park.
Did you repeat it perfectly? I bet you did. But wait, there are 12 words
in that sentence. How did you do it if your short term memory can
only hold about 7 items? The answer is simple. You didnt have to
memorize each individual word because you have associations built
from your experiences that grouped certain ideas into one item.
For example, Fido is a name people often use for dogs so dogs
name is Fido was only one item for your mind. It was an idea that
was easy for you to understand because youve already made that
association. Dogs play at the park, so playing at the park was just
another item for your short term memory. The other words and,
My, and he are common language constructs that you understand
must go between the ideas to make the sentence grammatically
correct. So in reality you didnt have to memorize 12 words, but just 3
ideas. Three items fit perfectly well in the 7 item limit of your short
term memory, so it was simple to memorize the sentence upon one
reading.
Lets take this one step further. With the sentence above you actually
didnt memorize just 12 words, you actually memorized 42 letters.
Yes, you just put 42 things in your short term memory. It was all made
possible because you have made associations such as language
constructs, spelling, and dogs and parks. This let you group 42 things
into just three things. Pretty impressive right? What if you were able
to do this with more things in life other than a random sentence. How
would this affect learning music?
Duration of Short Term Memory
By now you most likely forgot that phone number from earlier in the
article. Short term memory is exactly that, short term. It usually lasts
no more than a few seconds. If you still remember the phone number,
its probably because you repeated it a couple of times. Repetition is
the primary way we use to remember things. The more times you
repeat something, the more likely you are to remember it. More on
this later.
Long Term Memory
Long term memory doesnt have the same restraints that short term
memory has. Science has yet to find a limit to the capacity of long
term memory. Have you ever thought that you forget things because
you just have too much in your head already? Well thats not why.
Barring disease or brain damage, everyones memory capacity is
unlimited. Almost always when we forget something, it isnt
because its no longer stored in our brains, we just may have an
inability to access the information. For the purpose of this article I
wont go much deeper into why we forget. If youre interested in
learning more, check out the book Your Memory: How It Works and
How to Improve It.
So unlike short term memory, long term memory has an unlimited
capacity, and potentially unlimited duration. Can you remember the
address of your home growing up? What about the phone number for
your best friend from elementary school? A lot of people can
remember some pretty obscure facts from decades in their past. This is
all thanks to your long term memory. With things that we would like
to remember, our goal should be to put them in our long term
memory.
Photographic Memory
Youve heard of it. Geniuses have a photographic memory, meaning
they can look at something once and take a picture of it in their heads
and theyll never forget. Mozart had it of course right? Wrong! I
forbid you to ever use the term Photographic Memory again. It
doesnt exist. No one has it in the way you think it exists.
There is a phenomenon called eidetic memory which is found
almost entirely in children where they can recall images in great detail
for several minutes. Yes, just several minutes, were not talking
lifetimes here. Odds are Mozart and other amazing composers didnt
even have an eidetic memory. Memories can be misclassified as
photographic because the person has an abundance of associations
made with the subject matter being memorized. Think of it for a
second, to an alien who has never heard of a written language,
wouldnt memorizing 42 letters at first glance with the sentence above
be considered photographic? Somehow on first glance you were
able to recall 42 separate items. In the same way, most people are
confused when someone does an incredible memory feat, so we label
them as having a photographic memory.
Memory Techniques
Now that you have a basic understanding of how memory works, we
need to look at how to get the important things into our long term
memory.
Repetition
This is the most effective way to memorize. The key is to make sure
youre not doing the repetitions mindlessly. Try memorizing a credit
card number by repeating all 16 numbers over and over and over
again. It will take you a very long time to get those numbers
memorized. The reason is because of your short term memory
capacity. After the first 7 items your short term memory gives up
and mentally you probably get frustrated. You may even say to
yourself This is impossible. We all know that memorizing 16
numbers isnt too hard though. All you have to do is break them into
groups. Start with the first 8 or even the first four numbers. Repeat
those numbers maybe 10 times. Then start with the next group. After a
very short amount of time youll have all 16 numbers memorized. The
key to successful repetition is to only repeat what you can remember
after ONE look. If you cant remember the first 8 numbers after
reading them once, then its too much for your short term memory and
you need to take a smaller group.
Active Recall
You must actively try to retrieve the information you are memorizing
as opposed to passively reciting it. In academia, often review material
will ask the student to answer questions about the text they are
reading. This is active recall. If youre just reading information, even
repeating it, you are passively recalling the information which is far
less helpful. Creating associations with information is a great way to
practice active recall as well. More on this later.
Sleep
Some people spend way too long trying to memorize one thing. Once
they feel fairly comfortable theyll move on. This can cause
frustration. When you have done quite a few repetitions you should be
done for the day. Dont spend hours repeating a small section. You
dont have to go back the same day and check if its still memorized
either. Sleep will do all of this for you. Its almost magical, but by
sleeping your brain solidifies everything you tried to memorize that
day. Scientists call this consolidation. Some of the information that
you memorize will become more stable the next day, and some will
become less stable just because of the passing of time. If you do the
same process of repetition the following few days, each night of sleep
will continue to consolidate your memories, and eventually what you
are memorizing will be firmly stable in your long term memory.
So am I just basically saying come back to it the next day? YES! Isnt
this obvious? Yes and no. You must realize what is important here is
that you dont need to work on memorizing one small section
Naps
Studies show that naps can have a similar effect on memory as a full
nights sleep. Memorizing something followed by a nap, and then
more memorization can be very effective. The nap in between can
replace the consolidation that is needed with sleep at night, effectively
doubling your learning time. Remember though, you could also just as
easily memorize more during the day and have it consolidate at night,
with the same net effect. This kind of learning is most helpful if you
only need to memorize a small amount of information very quickly.
Does Cramming Work?
Of course not. Well, sort of. Teachers and parents say not to do it, but
why do students ace tests by cramming then? They are using
repetition to put information into state between long and short term
memory. After one night of sleep most is still memorized, but since
the test has already been taken, almost no students study the
information again, and it goes from that limbo state out of the students
memory completely. A few days later the student will almost always
have almost no ability to recall any of the information they put on the
test just a few days earlier. Learning by sleeping is essential to having
something memorized well.
Spaced Repetition
What is it? Basically studying material over a long period of time. The
opposite of cramming. Repeating something over and over again for a
couple of days isnt going to do it. This goes back to why sleep is
important, but even beyond sleeping, material needs to be reviewed
often in the future. Learning it once and then setting it aside is not
going to do it.
The steps to memorizing can be broken down as follows:
1 Put information into short term memory
2 Repeat the information in your short term memory multiple times
3 Sleep
4 Repeat steps 1 through 3
5 Do the whole process again after some time has passed.
After a few days the information being memorized will be solid. Very
solid. That doesnt mean put it aside forever though. Remember
spaced repetition. Youll need to come back to the material at regular
intervals for an extended period of time to get the full benefit.
How Does All of this Apply to Music?
If youre still with me, you probably already know the answer to that.
I want to go over specifically how to apply this to learning music
though. Im going to use the piano as an example because pianists
have quite a bit of music to memorize, but these techniques can be
applied to learning music on any instrument, even voice.
Memorize First and Always
Do you learn a piece of music from the beginning to end and then start
memorizing it? Thats a complete waste of time, always. If the piece
needs to be memorized, why learn the whole thing twice? It honestly
doesnt make any sense. Teachers should require that they only hear
music in lessons that is memorized. Sight reading practice is
obviously an exception, but if a piece is to be memorized, it should be
memorized from the beginning.
Memorizing with Associations
So how did Gieseking learn an entire piano concerto on a plane flight,
and play it the next day? The answer is associations. The same way
that you could memorize the dog sentence from earlier, Gieseking
could memorize music. In order to memorize music quicker you must
find patterns, groups of notes that make sense as a group, and commit
them to short term memory and then repeat. Let me give you an
example:

<img
src="http://yourmusiclessons.com/blog/wp-
content/uploads/2014/10/c-major-arpeggio.jpg" alt="c-major-
arpeggio" width="244" height="69" class="size-full wp-image-295"
/>
To the uneducated musician the picture above may look like a bunch
of individual notes. If we count, there are 12 notes in that section. If
you had to memorize each note individually, the best way to
memorize this is breaking it up into two small sections of 6 notes and
repeating each section multiple times. If you involve your brain a little
though, youll find there is a much easier way to do this.

<img src="http://yourmusiclessons.com/blog/wp-
content/uploads/2014/10/c-major-arpeggio-marked.jpg" alt="c-major-
arpeggio-marked" width="244" height="69" class="alignright size-
full wp-image-296" />
As you can see in the picture to the right the two red boxes have the
same notes in them. So if you memorize the first six notes you have
already memorized the last six. If we took it one step further, this
group of notes is called an arpeggio, if you recognize it as an
arpeggio then there is only one thing to memorize. Just by looking at it
you could repeat it today, tomorrow, and next year, because you
already committed what an arpeggio is to memory long ago.
That was a pretty simplistic example, but hopefully you understand
the point. Patterns are everywhere in music. Its your job to find them,
and then your teacher can help you label them. Once you have labels
for these different patterns, you have built a new association. Next
time you see something resembling that pattern in different music you
will recognize it for what it is, and it will represent just one item in
your short term memory. This is how Gieseking was able to perform
super human feats. He had made so many associations within music
already that he could probably fit half a page in his short term
memory. This significantly shortens the time it takes to memorize a
piece of music.
If you learn music without this method, you will succeed in just
learning the piece youre working on. You may grow musically and
technically, but it will not give you the ability to memorize other
pieces faster. If you memorize music by making associations, you will
find these associations in all future music that you play. Every
association you make will increase the speed you learn music and
your ability to recognize patterns.
Notice I havent spoken much about Music Theory. Music theory is
just the study of music. People put labels on certain patterns of notes
and how they work together, and we call it music theory. I personally
dont believe in spending a lot of time learning music theory
independently. I believe it should all be learned within the context of
music. Once a pattern is recognized a good teacher should point it out
and explain what it means in the context of the music. This is when
the teacher should explain what a chord is, or an arpeggio, or a key.
When music theory is taught out of context and in a book, it is easily
forgotten and almost never understood.
Memorize Small Sections or SMALL Sections
You have probably been told to memorize small sections at a time.
Thats good advice. Some teachers might say to start with a phrase or
a couple measures. Thats incomplete advice. The goal shouldnt be to
work on some predefined section. You should only work on repeating
music that can fit in your short term memory. If you can only fit two
beats of music, or even just one beat, then thats what you repeat.
The way to figure out what can fit in your short term memory is
simple. Read it once then close the book or look away, and try to
repeat it from memory. If you cant, then its too much. Youll need to
take out a couple notes and then try again.
Remember that your first step shouldnt be to pick some random
section. It is first to look for patterns and associations, once you find
them, find out how much you can keep in your short term memory and
repeat.
Never Forget About Sleep!
If you are getting bored repeating a section over and over again, move
on. Sleep is the best thing you can do for your memory. Repeat a
section maybe 10 times then move on, and dont go back to it. Do the
same thing the next day with the same section. After two or three days
it will be memorized. Too many students waste hours practicing
sections that will never get any better in one sitting. In this way you
can work on a lot more music without wasting your precious practice
time.
Spaced Repetitions
Always remember just because a piece is memorized, doesnt mean it
will be forever. Spaced repetitions often come naturally for musicians
because we often play the same memorized piece for quite a while, in
auditions, recitals and competitions.
Dont forget though that repetition is still important months after a
piece is initially committed to memory. After a long period of time
has passed with you actively recalling the music (not just playing by
muscle memory) the piece will be even more entrenched. Try writing
the piece of music out, or playing it away from the piano. This (and
reviewing associations you have made) will aid in memorizing and
active recall.
The Lie Muscle Memory
Most young pianists memorize pieces with just what some people call
muscle memory meaning you turn your brain off and your fingers
just find the right notes. This kind of memory will happen regardless
of your effort when you play something enough times.
Muscle memory is not even memory, its purely habit. Habits are
formed in the most primitive parts of our brains. Studies have shown
that people with no ability to form new memories, because of
accidents or disease, are still able to form new habits. This shows that
habits are not technically memories. When musicians depend on
muscle memory what they really are doing is repeating patterns
mindlessly.
This type of memory is also very prone to memory slips because the
music is actually not in the musicians memory at all, and any small
break from the habit (like a mistake or someone in the audience
coughing) can cause the habit to break down.
Real music comes from our actively engaged minds. If the musician
cannot sit down and write out an entire piece of music from memory,
the piece is not memorized. Never try to acquire finger memory. It
will come naturally because of constant repetitions. You should
always seek an intellectual understanding and memory of the music
first.
Quality and Speed
The greatest part about this way of learning is the quality that the
music is learned. Because you are focusing on such a ridiculously
small section of music you can be cognizant on how it should actually
sound. Yes you can care about the articulation, the dynamics, your
touch, fingerings and everything else that your teacher constantly tells
you to pay attention to. The problem is most students have such
problems with just learning the notes that all of the important specifics
that actually make music sound good are forgotten. Always memorize
everything the first time. By the time you get to the end of the piece, it
will be completely memorized and performance ready. There will
never be any need to go back and memorize it, or go back and add
dynamics, or anything else. It was learned right the first time. Because
of this youll find yourself learning music literally 5 times faster than
you ever did before. The biggest difference though will be that it will
actually sound good.
Conclusion
The results from making these changes in your practice routine are
significant. Test it out for yourself. Try using it with your students.
These arent just a few tips you should maybe use. This is science, and
it works. What do you think? I would love to hear your experience
with applying these techniques in your practice.