I sat down and played through the Bach 2 part invention #4 for the first time in a week. Last week when I recorded the first video of the piece, I could play it through fine but had to really concentrate. It took me 5 or 6 tries to get an acceptable video take. Today I did another recording, this is the first take and the second time I played this today: I think it sounds better than last week’s take, there was huge difference playing it. Because I didn’t play it at all for a week after it was memorised, when I came back to it, my memory was significantly more secure. Sometimes we try too hard, bashing a piece into our brains, when we really need to just stop and let it sink in!

I have been away from the piano for several weeks. Today I sat down and played Dr. Gradus without the score. I got through it, but with a few mix ups. It seems that to really have a piece memorized, you have to have worked through it from many different approaches. It is very different to playing a piece through without the score after practicing it for a half hour, than playing it for the first time in several weeks! There are places that I forget how the music sounds, others where I forget specific notes, and others where I need to memorize the chords. I am back to daily practicing, will log my progress here.

Today I sat down and played Dr Gradus cold, without the printed music. I had to finesse some bits in the middle section. In a few places in the final part, I had some new stumbles, where I have never had trouble. This is the 1st time that I have worked specifically on memorizing a piece. Usually I just play a piece through so many times that I can eventually play it through without the printed music! I realize that if I want to have a piece memorized, I need to practice without the music every day. It seems important to keep trying to play pieces without the music before playing with the music!! After I have played through the piece from memory, I look at the score and analyze the section to find guideposts. It is encouraging that I remember so much and surprising that I have new places where I stumble.

After learning a piece through, it is important to be able to play and practice it without the music in front of you! I am still working on Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum, I can play it through without the music in front of me, but stumble in the middle part - where is it going!! I looked through it for patterns to be guideposts, it was easy to find a way to memorize this section. In the left hand part there is a little chromatic melody going from B to A, then up to C. When I memorized this little bit, the whole section came together! Often it is the harmonic progression that helps with memorising, in this case I found help with a little melodic snippet. It did not help for me to analyse the chords, because where I was stumbling, the chords were in inversions or had upper structures with non-chord notes. memorising music

I have been playing through the Back invention #8 without the music. Most of the time I can play it through with no problems, but sometimes stumble in the left hand part. There are 2 places I stumble, both are at concluding phrases, of the 1st section and at the conclusion of the piece. I realized that I had not been giving the LH part enough attention, and could not play it through by memory. So I went through the entire piece LH only, with the metronome, reading the music at first, then put the book away. Then I practiced the problem phrases repeatedly. The 2 problem phrases don’t lend themselves to practicing in a “loop”, so I composed my only little loop, with 3 beats of rest before jumping back in. It is important to always practice with strong Rhythm!! In the past I would like to just “play” instead of “practice”. Now I play at least 90% of the time with the metronome, slowly, focusing on perfect accuracy. After the slow, careful work has been done, confidence and memory has built up so that I can let go and enjoy the music making. I keep surprising myself at how much my playing has improved when I later perform for other people! playing piano