Becky sent me this comment in response to the When Students Can’t Memorize post. As much as I advocate sight-reading, this really resonates with me because I do wish I had a more expansive repertoire of pieces I could just sit down and play without the printed music. This is something I should probably encourage my students to do more regularly as well. I’m curious to know how other teachers approach this. How do you encourage memorization in your studios? Do you have a repertoire tracker of some sort so that students maintain a list of certain pieces that they can sit down and play at a moment’s notice?

We are all gifted in different ways, with different capacities for various skills. In my opinion, it’s more valuable to be able to sight-read with ease than memorize with ease. But that’s probably because I can sight-read well, but have great difficulty memorizing. One of my students and I have this debate frequently because he is…shall we say…significantly lacking in the sight-reading department, but he can memorize effortlessly and play dozens of songs off the top of his head. Naturally, he thinks that memorization is a more desirable skill than sight-reading. Too bad for him that I’m the teacher, so I win the debate by nature of that fact.

Anyway…my personal philosophy is to never have such a narrow view of what a music education has to look like that it doesn’t leave room for students who have a desire and/or talent to learn, but may not possess the capacity for certain things – like memorization. Along those same lines, unless my students are playing in a competition or festival that requires memorization, I leave it up to them whether they want to perform from memory or with the printed music in front of them. Some play better from memory; some enjoy the challenge of working a piece up to that level; others prefer the security of playing with the book. I’d rather have them play beautifully while looking at the printed music than have a disastrous experience just because I required memorization and they couldn’t handle the pressure.

I guess for me, memorization just isn’t that big of a deal. But I’d be interested to know what others think. Do you require memorization? What if you have a student who just can’t seem to memorize? Is that okay with you?

Remember, if you have a question you’d like to contribute to next week’s Monday Mailbag, leave it in the comments below or send me an e-mail sometime this week with Monday Mailbag in the subject line!

This is a great topic that I hope others will weigh in on as well! Most of my childhood recital horror stories are related to being required to perform from memory and then going blank somewhere in the middle of the piece. Mostly this was because although I was required to perform from memory, no one ever taught me how to memorize. The most common memorization technique of playing a piece until your fingers remember how to play it even without having to read the music anymore (muscle memory) is also arguably the least effective.

In her book Thinking As You Play, Sylvia Coats outlines a strategy for memorization that works wonders! I know this because she is my teacher and the one who actually taught me how to memorize. I use the same approach – or various elements of it – with my students to help them develop this important skill as well. Ultimately, you want every relevant sense to be fully engaged in the process so that the memory is as secure as possible. On top of that, the brain has to understand what is going on and be able to communicate important information to the necessary body parts when the nerves hit in a performance situation. Here are a few tips I’ve learned when it comes to memorization:

1. Start early! I want students to feel comfortable performing from memory when they get older, so the best thing is to start young so that they can learn the techniques and establish good habits in this area.
2. Identify form and patterns. Starting as early as the primer level books, I discuss the form of new pieces with my students and have them label the sections and point out patterns that look the same and sections that look different. We also relate pieces back to the pentascales and chords as often as possible so that they are connecting with something that is already familiar to them. This aids in establishing mental pathways in the brain that are incredibly helpful for memorization!
3. Verbalize intervallic relationships. A perfect example of a piece where I do this is Kaleidoscope Colors in the Piano Adventures Technique and Artistry Level 1 book. I would have the student identify the fifth that remains the same in the left hand throughout the first line and then point out the descending interval pattern in the right hand. Then I take the book away and ask if they can play that line from memory. Since they haven’t even played through it yet, this usually takes them by surprise! But after a minute of reflecting on the pattern they just described to me, they are usually able to pull it off. I, of course, make a big deal about memorizing an entire line of music in a matter of minutes and without ever having played it! We follow suit and memorize the rest of the piece at the lesson, then I assign them to play it by memory during the week.
4. Establish key starting points throughout the piece. The student and I usually go through the piece and place numbers to indicate separate starting points. Often these align with the form of the piece, but there may be more or fewer starting points, just depending on the piece. I write the same numbers on little slips of paper and then draw a random one and have the student practice starting at that starting point. We continue until they’ve played through every section of the piece. This helps create a musical “road map” they can follow as they perform and gives them places to get back on track if they should happen to blank out or lose their place.
5. Insist on consistent fingering. I believe this is critical to effective memorization! When students are memorizing, they must memorize the fingering along with everything else and then drill it in until it is second nature. Failure to memorize the fingering and play it consistently can ruin the flow and artistry of a piece of music that a student might otherwise play beautifully. This is especially hard for students like me who are very visual and tend to rely on seeing those fingerings written on the page to keep us on track.

Those are a few of my thoughts, but I’d love to collect some more memorization tips to use for myself and with my students, so please share away!

Remember, if you have a question you’d like to contribute to next week’s Monday Mailbag, leave it in the comments below or send me an e-mail sometime this week with Monday Mailbag in the subject line!

This was a very interesting session, with lots of interaction and thoughts shared by various teachers. Here are a few random nuggets of wisdom that I picked up:

Outline very clear expectations for students so that if they elect to enter a competition, they know what they are getting into. The student should be willing to take ownership of preparing and competing.

Enter competitions that the student actually has a chance of winning. Prepare them accordingly.

Capitalize on the students’ strengths. What do they do best? We have a responsibility to teach everything, but should know our students. The teacher should ultimately assume the responsibility of selecting the repertoire. The judge has to be impressed while the student is playing. Keep in mind that they are also looking for reasons to eliminate students. As one teacher in the room stated, “Anything played well is a show-stopper.”

Have a grasp of the big picture in order to determine and organize an appropriate practice regimen.

It’s not all about winning or losing, but about preparing to the highest level.

When doing practice performances, be sure to keep the most important performance as the ultimate focus. If they are doing 10 practice performances before the competition, make sure you don’t treat the sixth one as the biggest event.

When practicing, ask, “What are the three measures about which I feel most insecure?”

On the day of competition, practice as little as possible. Above all, you don’t want the student to feel tired or spent when they compete.

If any of you have other little nuggets of wisdom you’d like to add that relate to preparing students for competitions, I’d love to hear them! I’ve never been that much into competitions, but I have a few students who are interested in pursing that avenue, so I’m eager to prepare them well. One thing that I’m learning is to take competing more seriously. It is a valid endeavor for some students, so if they are going to pursue it, I need to do my part – as their teacher – to prepare them for a positive experience.

Chris Foley, of The Collaborative Piano Blog, has put together a wonderful compilation of 20 Collaborative Piano Videos that I’m loving! I’m hoping our local associations will be able to get on board with this initiative and plan a festival in conjunction with it. Are any of you doing any special projects or festivals in conjunction with the Year of Collaborative Music?

1. You don’t have enough stress in your life, so you relish the thought of frantically trying to prepare your students for a whole series of tests in all areas of musicianship.

2. You enjoy seeing the glassy-eyed look of your students when you use strange foreign terminology like “tempo” and “dynamics” that your student has obviously never heard in his life.

3. You want your students to realize that as good as they may feel about themselves and their musical abilities, there is always room for criticism and lower-than-average scores.

4. You feel it’s important for students to be subjected to performance on a wide variety of pianos, including ones that are out of tune, missing keys, lacking pedals, or produce a ringing sound throughout the duration of the performance.

5. You love being scrutinized by your colleagues and forever thereafter wondering if they’ll think of you as the teacher whose student forgot all his scales.

6. You enjoy the mental stimulation of trying to keep track of all of the requirements for each of the ten levels so that you can [theoretically] be preparing your students for their evaluations throughout the year.

7. You delight in the spontaneity that ensues when you realize you have forgotten some of the afore-mentioned requirements and must quickly teach your student all the varieties of 7th chords so that she can properly play them, identify them in questions, and write them on her theory test.

8. You like experiencing the adrenaline surge that comes from standing with your ear to the door of the room in which your student is performing and hearing her take the andante-labeled piece at 200.

9.You appreciate the opportunity to expand your vocabulary while looking for creative ways to convey the scores to each student while simultaneously encouraging them to continue in their music studies.

10. You think it’s healthy to contemplate a career change and submit your resume to different companies on an annual basis – just in case you missed your calling after all.

Yes, I almost always play in my student recitals. This is mostly because I don’t enjoy performing, though, so I do it to let my students know that I’m willing to go through the same torture I put them through! Actually, many of my students and I have experienced significant improvement in our performing abilities since I started holding regular group classes with informal performance settings several years ago. From my experience as both a student and a teacher, I would say that it is always a positive thing for the teacher to perform something in student recitals, even if it’s a duet or ensemble with a friend or advanced student.

Rather than it looking like you “need an audience” or appearing showy, I think performing for your studio families lets them see how much you love playing your instrument. You are sharing your music with them, and they love to hear it! Does anyone else have input into this question? Do you perform at your student recitals? Do you think a teacher performing at his/her students’ recital could be perceived negatively? How so?

Remember, if you have a question you’d like to contribute to next week’s Monday Mailbag, leave it in the comments below or send me an e-mail sometime this week with Monday Mailbag in the subject line!

First off, I LOVED having a professional photographer! It was so nice to not have to worry at all about trying to capture pictures in the midst of everything else. Not to mention that the pictures look a whole lot better! We had a couple comments from families about the backflash being too distracting, but I’m sure that’s an issue we can work out the next time.

A stack of programs, boasting the winning artwork by Graham, that I incorporated into the final design. The cover is printed on a metallic silver paper and the inside sheets are on plain white paper.

The students all gather in the lobby area prior to the recital so that I can make sure everyone is present. Then we line up in the order of performance and sit as a group in the front section of the sanctuary. Meanwhile, several students provide prelude music for the audience members as they wait for the recital to begin.

These five students served as the narrators for the program and did a wonderful job! It worked really well to have them seated on the stage and just pass the microphone back and forth when it was their turn to read.

In addition to piano solos, we had a variety of other ensemble performances. Ryan and Joey arranged this duet of the Little Drummer Boy and had fun working together on it!

My good friend (and vocal instructor!), Lydia, graciously agreed to be the guest artist at this year’s recital. I always like to have some special guest as a treat for the students and their families.

A group shot of all the recital performers. You would have thought that I gave everyone a color scheme the way almost everyone was attired in red, white, and/or black, but I just told them to dress up. Amazing, huh?!

The Christmas gift sets that I put together for each student – a set of personalized note cards and a giant candy cane, tied with a ribbon. Simple, but hopefully meaningful and useful!

I have a couple hundred pictures from the occasion, but hopefully that will give you a glimpse into how the Christmas recital turned out. Truly a wonderful time!

Related post: 7 Tips for Enjoyable Recitals