Learning music by heart

[TubaRay]

I don't have any magic to offer. I, too, have great difficulty memorizing pieces. The best advise I can offer is to repeat. Play the piece over and over until you can't help but have it memorized.

[Hiram]

Sing the music alot, this helps with memorizing the pitches. So, sing the right notes to the music, that might help.

If you can't sing, play parts of the piece without looking at the music. Play a phrase or two with your eyes closed. You can also simply turn around and see how far you can go in the music without seeing the music.

If you can't do that either, play through the music on piano, then remember the pitches themselves and play them on your horn.

The reason you have great trouble memorizing music is because you aren't learning it without the music. Trying to play something from memory after you've been reading the music the entire time is like the first time you ride bike without training wheels. Learn the music without the sheet infront of you!

Probably the most difficult of all these suggestions (difficult only because it takes us normal people a bunch of time to develop) is to train your ear. Hearing intervalic relationships and where in the harmonic structure the melody lies will greatly improve your ability to memorize music.

My chump change...

Hiram

[goldenmoose]

I find it helpful to break the music into sections. Most of the time I go in 4 bar phrases. Keep playing those 4 bars over and over until you feel comfortable playing them without music. Then, learn the next 4 bars. When you feel comfortable with them, put the two sections together and repeat them until you can play them together without the music. I keep doing that until the end of the song.

I have found this method very useful. When I play at theme parks, I need to have 40+ songs memorized. I have always used the method explained above and it seems to be working because I still have a job.

[smurphius]

I was once in an honors band way back in the day, playing alongside a tuba (who beat me that year) and happened to be legally blind. He had tunnelvision, and was nearing total blindness. He could see enough to see some of his music, but would have to rely on other people to help him get the idea of how things went dynamically. The rest he would pick up through listening to recordings. With that in mind, my suggestion is this; make a recording of yourself, as best as you can play it, and then go back and listen to it several times, with your eyes completely shut. As the old adage goes, your other senses become more fine tuned when you are absent one of the other five. Try it!

[Chuck(G)]

Can you hear a melody and then play it by ear? If not, it's time to develop that skill--it'll l go a long way as part of your toolkit.

Jaimie Aebersold relates that a part of his practice routine when he was young was to take simple melodies and play them by ear in every key. His "Jazz Handbook" is online and free for the downloading and contains a lot of very sound practice tips (most just good sense and not specific to jazz):

http://www.jazzbooks.com/jazzhandbook/Default.htm

Another way to memorize that works for some is to have the music sitting in front of you. Play it, then turn the page over and try to visualize what you just saw and play from that. Lather, rinse, repeat. This obviously works better for people who are more visually oridented than aurally.

[BVD Press]

If you have a recording, play along with it. It is a hard step to go cold turkey from the music, but at least with the recording you will be able to hear the acc. and possibly the solo part. Then repeat, repeat, repeat until you can do the whole without the recording, but always hear it in your head.

Good luck