Playing without music

[Wyvern]

A friend asking me to demonstrate my travel tuba reminded me at how useless I am at playing without music. Even pieces I know well, my mind seems to go blank when trying to play from memory.

So my question for you that are good at playing without music in front of you is - how do you go about memorising a piece to play without music?

[Bob Kolada]

Sometimes I just fake it.

[The Jackson]

For me, nothing beats just continued playing of it entirely as well as listening to recordings. I have never gone out to actively memorise something, but the stuff I keep playing just goes in and becomes memorised!

[bearphonium]

bloke, sounds like a really good way to start. I do not hear pitch well (long story) but have gotten much better at it as I really work on matching a pitch in my head to the pitch on my horn.

As a high schooler, I memorized songs for parades, I have not been able to memorize Washington Post in the four seasons I have marched to it with a tuba. This just might help...

[Art Hovey]

I find it much easier to play without a chart (i.e. by ear) than with one. Of course, it comes out the way I think it should go instead of what the composer intended, which is acceptable in some situations but not all. So now I work on my reading every day too.

Pracicing scales (all of them!) and arpeggios every day makes it easy to play by ear, especially if you read a magazine while doing so. (Herbert L. Clarke read newspapers while doing his daily scales.)

At a band concert a couple of years ago we were each asked to demonstrate our instruments by playing a few notes. I was amused by the oboist, who played very well but had to carry a music stand and a chart out to the front of the band and set them up before she could play a note.

[Donn]

A friend asking me to demonstrate my travel tuba reminded me at how useless I am at playing without music. Even pieces I know well, my mind seems to go blank when trying to play from memory.

So my question for you that are good at playing without music in front of you is - how do you go about memorising a piece to play without music?

To address your actual question ... when I have had to memorize, I just run over it and try to get it in my head, but seem to recall our clarinet player mentioned that he starts from the end and works towards the beginning. Really don't know why that would help, but it might be worth a try - work on the last 8 bars or so, then the last 16, etc.

Of course it depends on where the blankness of mind happens. I have big trouble remembering a tune - simple tunes that I've played for over a decade, but ... uh, how does that go? If it has words (that I know), I'm fairly safe. That's different from remembering every note in an etude, which is different from playing a tune that you remember, by ear.

[Casey Tucker]

for me (good or bad) I find it easier to memorize passages through the fingerings and continuous playing. I can usually remember the tune to a piece. Remembering the fingerings seems to be the bigger challenge. It's also WAAAY easier to remember a piece that you like to play and listen to.

-CT

[Tubaryan12]

Sadly, because my mind wanders so much and my low level of reading skill, any fast or difficult passages that I play are purely from memory.

Music is the only thing I do where my memory works well. In high school and college, the marching bands both played from memory. I can only recall a couple of shows where I didn't have the entire halftime show memorized by game day...and those were always new shows with a 1 week turn around.

[bort]

My anecdote:

About 6 years ago, a band I was in traveled to Austria for a 2 week set concerts. By the time of our first rehearsal, for several people (including me), our music was still "lost" (though really found, and en route from Munich to Innsbruck). The director decided to go on with the rehearsal best as possible, since most people had their music.

Not having my music, I didn't set up a stand. To his surprise, I played through the entire rehearsal, rarely missing a note. During our break, he came up to me in his usual give-you-a-hard-time way and said "I thought you didn't have music? What the hell, did you memorize it all?" I quipped back "We've been playing it for 4 months! How could I not have it memorized by now? " He grinned, chuckled, complemented me, and walked away.

[Wyvern]

our clarinet player mentioned that he starts from the end and works towards the beginning. Really don't know why that would help, but it might be worth a try - work on the last 8 bars or so, then the last 16, etc.

I can see that stops reliance on what has gone before to know what to play.

Thanks for your ideas! I must have a go at putting into effect to learn some excerpts on my travel tuba while in China away from my normal playing routine.

[normrowe]

Sometimes I have trouble even WITH the music! On one of my graduate recitals, with the music right in front of my face, I blanked out on the playing. I SANG into the instrument for a measure or so and went back to playing!! It was one of those oddball Paris Conservatory pieces, so the audience probably thought it was just the way it was supposed to go. My professor, my accompanist, and I were probably the only ones who knew differently.

[Karl H.]

Memory is a funny thing...

Every day I begin by playing without paper in front of me. Can be anything: long tones, scales, flexibility exercises, Christmas tunes, excerpts... you get the idea. Just start simple, with something you can play easily, without thinking about anything but producing the best sound.

If I can use melodies, so much the better! Now you're not only building the essential link between imagination and sound, you're developing your skills as a soloist; an area that some tuba players neglect. Although I haven't practiced stand-alone scales in years, I like to take short tunes (or even partial phrases) and work them through all the different keys. Some examples:

The opening descending phrase of "Joy to the World": start in your middle register and repeat a half step lower...
" " Bruckner No. 4 main theme
"The First Noel"
"Whistle While You Work"
All of these stay within a single octave, and if you repeat "Whistle" at an octave from where the tune ends, you can work your way through all the major keys via a circle of fifths.

I guess this was a long-winded reply. I just think this sort of daily "memory" work will make playing without paper much easier. Silly anecdote follows. Stop reading if not interested...

I recently returned home to participate in a high school band reunion: JUST the band! Yes, I was/am a band geek. This was basically like "Mr. Holland's Opus" in the real world. Anyway, one of the things we did was march onto the old football field to play the school song before the Homecoming game. I didn't like the arrangement they handed me, so I just played from memory.... 35 years after I had last played that part. And on a Bb sousaphone (my personal horns are CC and F).

Flawlessly.

'Course, I couldn't find my car in the parking lot that night, but like I said: memory is a funny thing!

Karl "whose advice is worth exactly what you paid for it" H.

[eupher61]

It seems Jonathan was asking about memorization. It all melts into the same core concept of hearing. But, bloke's 3 options also have unique aspects, with unique solutions for everyone. But you gotta hear the music no matter what.