The course materials this week on information processing and memory got me to thinking about the strategies musicians use to commit music to memory. I wonder: does honing one’s memory skills as a musician lead to improved overall ability to store and retrieve memories? Do musicians have an edge in the memory olympics?
In her paper on Correlating Musical Memorization styles and Perceptual Learning Modalities, Dr. Jennifer Mishra explores the possible correlation between musicians’ preferred learning styles and their preferred memorization strategies. An interesting finding in her research was that few of the musicians questioned in her study reported having a uniquely Aural memorization style. The majority reported having a combination of Visual and Kinesthetic memorization preferences, with no Aural component. Many reported a uniquely kinesthetic approach to memorization. I have tried to illustrate my own personal approach to memorizing in the graphic below.
I have to do something with what I see in order to produce a sound. I then react to the sound by adjusting what I do (practice, practice!). It seems to me that the bulk of the process is Kinesthetic, but I don’t quite understand how people manage the process without the Visual and Aural components.
I know a very gifted young pianist who is able to accomplish quite a bit in terms of memorization without the Aural or Kinesthetic components. I once watched Jack study a piano score for half an hour or so. Hours later, when he finally had access to a piano, he was able to retrieve what he had committed to memory, and could play the passage flawlessly.
Of course, one could argue that the Aural component was indeed present in Jack’s approach, though it was not apparent to the observer. This skill of inner hearing is called audiation. Jack has very strong inner hearing ability, but most of us can do it to some extent. Try this little experiment to test your own audiation abilities: Imagine that you hear the song “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”, being played on a Tuba. Now, play it again, but this time hear it on a violin. Can you hear the difference in Timbre (Tone Color) in your inner ear? Try again, but this time without the musical element. Hear the sound of your mother telling you that dinner is ready. Now, hear this again, but this time hear it in your best friend’s voice. Can you inwardly hear the difference? This is an example of audiation. It is a skill that musicians often use in an attempt to “pre-hear” a desireable tone quality.
I found an interesting article about musicians and memory on a site called SingingWood. A post on the singingwood site addresses strategies for practicing with the goal of improved memorization. One suggestion from the author is that memorization, and, by extension, musical improvements, will be enhanced by frequent short practice sessions. I have found this to be true in my own practice, and I encourage my students to practice this way as well. I would rather see my beginners practice seven days a week for five or ten minutes, than to have them practice once for an extended session. My experience is that the more “visits” to a particular passage, the more likely I am to commit it to long-term memory. Isolated longer practice sessions don’t seem as effective. This may be because of the crowding of too much information into working memory. We tend only to retain the few things that we did at the end of the session. The author also recommends a technique called “Divide and Accomplish”. The idea here is that the chunking of a piece into smaller, manageable sections allows for easier memorization and retrieval. As the small segments are mastered, they become committed to memory and are easily retrieved when the time comes to link the segments together. This concept (chunking of material, in order to avoid cognitive overload) is easily transferred to non-musical attempts at memorization. From an instructional design standpoint, it would indicate that a limited amount of new material is preferable.
I found an editorial from a newsletter entitled “Medical Problems of Performing Artists”. In her essay, , Dr. Alice G. Brandfonbrener questions the tradition of performing music by memory. She points out, quite rightfully, that the added burden of committing music to memory can cause extreme, sometimes incapacitating, performance anxiety. Dr. Brandfonbrener suggests that memorization is irrelevant to musical performance, and recommends taking performers off the hook in the name of a more satisfying musical experience for performer and audience alike. In terms of public performances, I would tend to agree. Still, I can’t overstate the importance of memorization in the initial learning of a piece of music. I believe a musician’s ability to commit passages to muscle memory frees the conscious brain to make choices regarding interpretation and musicianship.
Memorization may, in fact, be an “extra-musical” skill, but it is a very powerful tool in the musician’s arsenal.
Lizzylearns's Blog 
This is very informative, Lizzy! I know you speak about producing sound. I wonder if it’s the same when you dance? Hmmmm…. 😉
Your analysis regarding how “practice” will allow a learner to retain musicality of a sound is very convincing. I have found that by practicing a task that I will be able to store the task in WM (working Memory) much easier and that is how it will be stored in LTM (Long Term Memory). I also tested your audiation assessment “Hear the sound of your mother telling you that dinner is ready. Now, hear this again, but this time hear it in your best friend’s voice”. I was able to inwardly hear the differences because I recognized from memory the sound or tone of my mother’s voice and from memory as well was able to differentiate the voice or tone of that of my best friend. Memorization is important because it allows learners to store and retain information. In Dr. Virginia Houser’s article regarding Memorization – An Integral Part of Musicianship at Every Level(1995), she discussed how in her own practice she had spent years formulating ideas about memory processes and memory development regarding musicianship areas of training such as written theory, ear training, sight reading, and improvisation. She was also concerned with whether students learning how to play the piano by using their memory, would this action allow them or prevent from learning their notes better if they were practicing on a regular basis or if the student was aware that the motivator to practice was because the student had been scheduled to perform say at the Lincoln Center? Dr. Houser’s also moves to discuss student learning differences by levels. Dr. Houser also discusses that although there are no one foolproof systems for memorization, that there are ideas worth keeping in mind considering the implementation of memorization procedures into a musicianship program.
http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~vhouser/memorize.htm
I found this entry extremely interesting as well as informative. I am on a current project which requires me to think out of the box and draft a training plan that will keep regional associates engaged and have the information committed to memory. The training must cater to the adult learner of various ages. I feel the technique called “Divide and Accomplish” will be an extremely useful and effective approach to ensuring knowledge attainment of the subject matter. After reading the entry, my mental gears began to churn out ideas that may be truly successful.
Thanks for the posting! It has caused me to think more deeply about my own musical instruction. In my own piano studio, I’ve found that there is usually no difficulty convincing younger students (5-10 years of age) to memorize their musical pieces; convincing them to play at sight is far more difficult! I presume this is because it is easier for them to memorize than to sight read due to their language development stage. Older students usually find it easier to read and consequently shrink from memorization. In both cases, I think there can be no doubt that learning to memorize hundreds of items in a musical piece can be transferred to other types of memorization. Music is a language and is processed much like speech and text. Learning to hear the music in one’s head before being able to play it well is important. This is the basis of the Suzuki method. And, while finger “muscle memory” may be less reliable than aural understanding, it is not without merit. Otherwise, practicing of scales and arpeggios would be of much less use. The Music Tree series attempts to correlate rhythm with whole body movements in order to create connections in young musicians… Of course, many musicians do the same thing during practice and performance. Music is, after all, very concerned with movement.
The visual component of sight reading is certainly helpful in learning a new score. Surely isolating and practicing small sections is an intelligent way to approach this task. It is one thing to learn a piece of music well enough to be able to play it convincingly by sight. Even this requires consistent rehearsal. But, when piano students come to understand a piece through awareness of the overall structure, how the parts fit together, and when they have played the notes correctly so many times that it becomes EASY to do while adding the appropriate expression, then, they have reached mastery level. In my experience, this level of learning usually results in internalizing the music to an extent that it can be played from memory. In my view, structural analysis (for chunking) should precede the learning of any complex piece because it helps learners to understand where they’re headed, how to organize various bits of seemingly unrelated information, and assists in retention. On the other hand, I also think that, sometimes, mastery is reached by simply having an “aha” moment in one’s musical life that results in a personal breakthrough and insight.
Scott, great point about the role of chunking in revealing form. I agree that analysis, right from the early days of instruction, enhances the student’s ability to internalize. For beginners, this might take the form of a discussion about melodic contour….did the notes go up? down? stay the same? Later, students can be encouraged to find repeated or similar sections, and can learn to choose their own “practice chunks” based on their findings. This lends a great deal to their understanding of form, and can make the learning of a large song much less daunting.