Thoughts on Memorizing

An article worth a read

I came across an article titled Thoughts on Memorizing by Ruth Slenczynska through Waterfall's blog.

While it is intended for pianists at the intermediate to advanced levels, I thought it was worth a read for ideas about memorizing music, and on practising. Enjoy.

Here's the first paragraph of the article for your preview, please read on the full article:

One of my more frustrating moments as a music teacher occurred when a fine student to whom I had given a memorizing assignment said, "I tried my best to memorize this music but it just wouldn't come!" Thinking back to my youthful student days, my teachers always decided when and what they wanted me to memorize, but never told me how. I had to succeed in this determined effort alone. By speaking to many teaching colleagues I found that few, if any, had a working technique for memorizing music above the elementary level where ear, eye, hand coordination plus a smattering of harmony are encouraged. After that introduction, all instruction on memorizing ceased.

Here is the URL to the full article: http://www.siue.edu/MUSIC/html/ruths.html