Polyphony.(Professional Resources)

Q As far as memorizing goes, do you think all students should memorize all works in their repertoire? My teachers had me play every one of my pieces until they were memorized. Is that a good thing?

A All students are different, so no one principle holds absolutely for everyone. That being said, I do believe that for most students at the elementary to lower-advanced levels, some pieces should be memorized and others studied and played with the score (learned up to tempo, and performed appropriate character and musical understanding). Generally what happens is this: elementary to upper-intermediate students who take the time to memorize every piece studied gain experiences with less repertoire than those who have a combination of memory pieces and non-memorized pieces. What we find so often with those who strive to be piano majors in college is that these students sometimes have a difficult time learning enough music quickly enough to be successful. Perhaps their sight-reading ability is not strong or their ability to take a musical score and solve issues in the score quickly and insightfully does not allow them to learn as much music as is expected of piano majors.

Ultimately the goal of many music teachers is to teach students to be able to continue learning and playing music on their own, even after lessons cease. And, everyone stops lessons at some point. We hope, however, that all of our students will continue playing and making music throughout their lives in some way. Memorizing every single piece of music studied in the early levels, in my opinion, usually does not work for this goal. We want our students to be able to discover a piece of music at a level appropriate to them, purchase it and persist in learning it to a level that provides internal musical satisfaction for the performer as well as a personal musical outlet. The more a student gleans about how to learn a piece, and practices learning approachable pieces…