How do you dudes memorize?
I can have every single note in my head then for some reason in performance, there will be a sudden moment when my mind goes blank. Or some dumb mistake will happen in practice that somehow lodges itself in my subconscious and ends up in performance.
It’s bloody annoying when you’re pleased with the rest of the performance but can’t get past these dam memory slips.
A pianist friend here once told me he memorizes a piece in three ways - muscle memory programming, what he called functional analysis (harmony, chord progression etc I guess) and one more which eludes me now… The idea was at least that if one fails, the other two will still keep you going.
As a happy amateur I stick to muscle memory alone, but as Pär also told me it’s the first one to give way if you get nervous - which I’ve certainly noticed. I rarely have memory lapses when playing alone, but as sson as there are people in the room… Another drawback is that it’s hard to get back on track again if you do lose your way. I’m working on Mozart’s little K.574 Gigue at the moment, and if I screw up, I can only really start again at the beginning of either section. I admire pianists who dare play things like the DWK in public for this reason, since memorywise it must be just about the most dangerous music of all to take to the concert halls.
There are even more sorts of memorizing: tactile-motorical, auditive, visual, analytical…
Best way is obviously to learn a piece a music so thoroughly that you know all notes, all details, all indications, all phrases, all fingerings and you have a perfect picture of the structure.
But even so, it’s no guarantee that you’ll never have a memory slip at one point during a performance. There are different rules when you are nervous, what helps is trying out the piece you play on different pianos and in different places.
Record the piece and analyse what parts you were not completely sure of the notes.
Perhaps there might be something wrong with your general level of concentration. Sounds simple, but not drinking alcohol and lots of sleep help.
Not drinking alcohol prior to the performance is probably a great advice. 
This is an entirely home made device… but one thing I’ve noticed is that I can find the passages most likely to fail by practicing in several different tempos. If a passage doesn’t quite work in one of the tempos - all slower than the intended - that needs attention since it’s about to cause me problems. For me it’s a good way to sort of scan for weaknesses.
I never rely on muscle memory.
Generally, memorization for me happens slower than other people I know, but I always do it in a systematic manner - phrase by phrase.
Knowing consciously what exactly changes in sections which are “almost similar” - and comparing the spots.
When a piece is beautifully structured and has consistency in the intervals etc - like Scriabin’s late works, well, they memorize quite a bit easier.
Btw I can’t rely on pitch at all, and I generally forget the cock sucking melody if I ever have a slip. Which happens very rarely. Ahem my Prok 6 from 2013 still gives me PTSD. Too bad Volodya got to hear that piece of shit live.
A book which often gets mentioned is this one. It’s got lots of methods, but if you just really struggle to memorise stuff there’s not much you can do.
I can play a lot of music from memory, but nothing that I’ve learned from the score. It sucks ass.
The best thing you can do - regardless of what method, is to memorize systematically
The Gieseking/Leimer book talks about the analytic way of memorising, which is great and I can do that, but then:
Man… I have to do this in the Mozart Gigue!
Rec it for us!
And it’s even worse when you’re accompanying singers - there are like 3,446 verses to any given Schubert lieder and you’re supposed to count them all???
Does anyone accompany from memory? Fuck that!
It doesn’t take much to memorise ‘Auf dem Wasser’ and that sort of thing - it also means you can watch carefully for when they’re going to add an extra quaver for a breath etc. I just can’t keep the verses straight - not speaking German doesn’t help…
Don’t try to be funny man. What I meant was not drinking for at least a couple of months before a performance. Really makes a hell of a difference.
(btw I’ve heard of quite a few orchestral musicians who have the habit of drinking one glass before they go onto stage. But they suffer from nerves or stage fright and don’t have to memorize anything…)
Yes, of course memorizing systematically is ze best. What Leschetizky adviced is still pretty valid:
‘In the very first composition the pupil studies, he learns how to work in the new way, which is as follows: he takes the first bar, or phrase (according to the amount he can grasp and retain), and dissects it till every marking is clear to him. He decides how he will play it—with what fingering, touch, pedalling, accent, etc. He practises each detail as he comes to it. He puts all the parts together, learning it by heart as he goes, finishing one section, making it as perfect as he can in every respect, both technically and musically, before he attempts the next. What is required of him is, that he shall study every piece of music so thoroughly that he knows every detail in it, can play any part of it accurately, beginning at any point, and that he can visualise the whole without the music—that is, see in his mind what is written, without either notes or instrument.
Every pupil must study in this way—bar by bar, slowly and deliberately engraving each point on his mind as on a map. “One page a day so learnt will give you a trunk-full of music for your répertoire at the end of the year,” says Leschetizky, “and, moreover, it will remain securely in your memory.”’
(“Theodor Leschetizky” by Annette Hullah)
XSDC - who is that chick in yo avatar? Nice curve in the back, probably a real woman.
It’s Zlata Chochieva. I saw her live yesterday. I’m crossed as hell with her atm, but she did offer some good playing, and she sure is one hell of a lot better looking than Bozhanov.
Because she subbed out the Clochette for Mephisto 2 ?
She had clearly been on holiday. The announced program was completely thrown out of the window, and she began by completely butchering the Bach/Rach Suite. The Chopin Etudes were fine, Meph pianistically competent, but the best playing came in the worst work - Rach’s Chopin Vars - which formed the entire 2nd half. All 20 minutes of it. 1 encore.
This season is just junk. This was supposed to be the highlight - now I have Levit, Ohlsson and Perahia left to look forward to. 
I’m going to emigrate to Kenya. At least they have sun there. And I can hang out with Obama. We’re going to hunt lions, run marathons and make wall paintings with red marker pens all day - far away from all American presidents and Russian pianists.
Yes I really wanted to hear the Clochette… 
That’s too bad man.
But yeah it’s also a dream of mine to visit South Africa, so I can join you in Kenya if you feel like company.
Otherwise you can join me in Paris for one of my extra ticket concerts (Freire, Vondracek, Wang)!
Thanks Brew. I fact I am going to do something about this. I’ll scout the market towards the weekend and will book something fun somewhere in Europe later in the year.
Do you still want the ZC recording?