Memorizing is a Skill - Part 2 of 2 (5/16/2025)

A Memorizing technique to try!

As a high school student, I attended a summer institute called Chautauqua in Upstate New York.  There is another one in Michigan, I have heard.

I went for the Music Camp and Festival and I remember clearly the performance by Jesse Norman, an amazing dramatic soprano, who sang with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra. Going to an all music experience like that was intense and inspiring.  I highly recommend the immersion and bonding that comes from this kind of experience.  Daily practicing, masterclasses, concerts, eating meals together, being away from home, and making new friends, is really a growth experience.  It allows one to be a person and experience music in self exploration.  Suzuki summer institutes are similar, and summer camps like Camp Encore Coda and more competitive camps where you must audition to get in---are all valid depending upon the individual's goals and personality. (For those who prefer a day camp, please look at our summer offerings: Suzuki By The Green and August Music and Arts)

While studying with Dr. Ozan Marsh, I learned a systemic technique of memorizing that I will share here.  I was usually very comfortable memorizing just by playing a piece over and over again with no real or organized system.  But as I got older, I would get a bit more nervous at playing from memory so discovering this technique was not only a way to become less nervous, but also a means to learn quicker and learn more repertoire. As a music major, it became standard practice to bring pieces to one's lessons already memorized even when playing the piece for my teacher the first time.

The technique I learned for memorizing works best on music from the Classical period, and at first usage, I suggest one uses tonal music that is fairly standard in phrasing.  That is, most 18th and 19th century music written from Bach to Beethoven, is mostly structured in four measure phrases with two measure sub-phrases.  A section of music is most often four of these four measure phrases or sixteen measures. After you use this technique, it can be used on any style of music and even wildly avant-garde music can be practiced in half measures. ten times in a row!

When I learned this technique, our class of pianists were told by Dr. Marsh to learn the first movement of the Beethoven Sonata opus 53 "Waldstein", First movement by memory in one week. That is, this piece is fourteen pages long and 302 measures. It was a brand new piece for all of us, and that was the challenge. 

So he told us his technique:  Play two measures plus the downbeat of the next measure ten times to learn the piece. One is to play only two measures and stop on the downbeat of the next measure.  This takes tremendous discipline, because one wants to go on and keep playing. Also, since this is a brand new piece, one must play slowly and accurately in order to not make mistakes.  Playing ten repetitions of the two measures must be with intentional musically as well even if very slow.  Since the piece that was assigned is in Do Major, that was a great advantage!

The whole piece is to be practiced with ten repetitions of each two measure group plus the down beat until one gets to the end of the movement. Since this is a music camp, one is expected to practice every day.  The next day, we are to do the same thing, but try to not look at the music by the tenth repetition. That is, play the last repetitions of the two measures by heart. Since the music is Classical in style with standard harmony, this is not so hard to do because two measures is a very short amount of notes. On the third day, the same technique is used of practicing two measures plus the downbeat, ten times in a row, but by now, one can play the last 4 or 5 repetitions already by heart.  On the fourth day, one is to play by groups of four measures plus the downbeat, ten times in a row. Again, starting from the beginning but going all the way to the end in this manner. This is creating a more complete phrase, and also lengthening the amount of material to play by heart.  Again, it takes tremendous discipline to stop on the down beat of the next measure, because one wants to go on. As a determined student to follow the technique and see if it actually works, I follow the instructions regarding the technique. On the fifth day, one does the same ten times repetition of four bar phrases plus a downbeat, and by then it is fairly easy to remember the four bars for most of the repetitions. On the sixth day, one is allowed to play eight bar phrases plus the downbeat ten times in a row. By now, the tempo begins to speed up because there has been so much slow and careful repetition that the confidence allows one to play at a gradually faster tempo. Again, the discipline to practice in these short eight measure groups plus the downbeat takes a lot of self-discipline. On the seventh day, one is allowed to try the whole piece from memory.  Taking a moderately slow tempo at first, starting with the first eight bar phrase, the phrases flow together and amazingly one can play all of the movement continuously.   That is ALL fourteen pages are now played from memory.  The rest of the seventh day practice is with the book open and looking at dynamics, phrasing and structure of the whole movement.  The next day is the lesson, and the entire movement is played by heart as a fairly comfortable tempo that is pretty close to the Allegro con brio tempo indicated by Beethoven. Not only did I accomplish this task, but the entire class of pianists all did the same assignment.  As Dr. Suzuki said, "Practicing and repetition are the keys to learning any skill." 

What I have learned over time, is that many "talents" that we notice in others are skills they have developed that seem effortless. While it may have taken more or less conscious effort on their part, we can only know our own work and ourselves.  Skills that we would like to have can be learned.  We must simply find the right teacher, and apply our Suzuki principles of patience, repetition and belief that one will surely get there if one is willing to put in the effort. Adapting from the writings of Johann Goethe, 

Dr. Suzuki wrote, “Never hurry never rest. Without stopping, without haste, carefully taking one step at a time will surely get you there.” ️