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Post by Trombonium on May 2, 2009 16:20:13 GMT -5
Hi all.. I have my own way of memorizing music, but when it comes to teaching freshmen and new people how to memorize music, I'm clueless. Anybody got some methods?
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Post by Lprdgecko on May 2, 2009 16:28:04 GMT -5
What I find myself doing is playing the song over and over, and when I go to memorize it, I play it by ear.
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Post by 84bdsop on May 2, 2009 18:23:35 GMT -5
What I find myself doing is playing the song over and over, and when I go to memorize it, I play it by ear. That's part of it, but it goes a little deeper. It's not so much about memorizing the music -- you're not seeing the actual chart in your head -- it's more about playing the piece again and again, and again -- slowly at first if you have to -- until you develop the muscle memory to push the keys without thinking about it...same goes for how the music sounds, both in notes and dynamics. Do it enough times and you might end up like me.....still able to play a large percentage (50% or so) of the Blue Devils show I did more than a quarter of a century ago. I can't play it as WELL as I did in 1984, but even while driving and playing the CD in the car, my fingers play the music....so does my left thumb for the tuning slide (old corps people will understand that one)
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Post by jazztastic on May 2, 2009 20:28:07 GMT -5
What our BD had us do iss start from the end. Play the last few measures or the ending part, and then work backward in chunks. So, you could practice: 34-40 then move to 28-40 20-40 16-40 10-40 and so on... it works for me, but you'd have to try it yourself.
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fruple
Band Nerd
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Posts: 167
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Post by fruple on May 3, 2009 1:16:25 GMT -5
Here's just the way I do it, so it might not work for some people, but hey, it's another option.
If you can get a recording of the song, do it. Just listen to it in the halls at school, or whenever you have down time.
Just read through the piece a few times, sing it to yourself, whatever. Get a highlighter and mark it up. Use different colors for accents, key changes/time changes, dynamics, etc.
Start playing through it. Make sure to memorize the highlighted stuff at the same time. Just do little sections, like two or three measures at a time. Maybe even make up little ideas about each section, and write that in. (IE: Hey, this measure is like the end of that one song we played in class! Mark it as that song).
Once you've done a chunk or two, play a different song that you don't need to memorize. Goof around, playing your horn or not. Just relax your mind a bit, maybe like 5 or 10 minutes.
Try and see if you can play those chunks. If not, it's fine, just work on those spots again. Spend a bit longer on what you forgot, just finger through it a few times first. Remember to check the highlighted stuff.
Keep chunking, stopping, trying. After about half an hour to an hour, just stop for a bit. Rest your lungs, read a book, just do something else. If you ever get frustrated, just stop and relax for a bit. Make sure to sing your parts or try to finger through occasionally.
Once you've got the chunks down, try piecing them together. First do like the first two, then add another. Try to do it memorized, but look if you need to, especially on the transition parts. If you can't remember what comes next, remember the word or phrase you put above that chunk and make them into a story.
Repeat any above steps until you can play it as a whole. It may take a few days, but whatever. Every few days, once memorized, check back to make sure you've got it right and that the dynamics and everything is there.
Yeah, I'm kinda ADD so I have to take breaks and do all the coloring and stuff or I can't pay attention. Just don't get frustrated and stop. Also, make a copy of your music and keep it with you like all the time when memorizing. Just take it out to look at during like commercials or waits at restaurants. Really helps (me, at least).
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tromboneking87
Band Nerd
The symbol of Chief Illiniwek embodies spirt, pride, and loyalty to this great university
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Post by tromboneking87 on May 3, 2009 10:24:30 GMT -5
I used to either start at the end and go backwards, like a few people have suggested, or just break the piece into smaller chunks, memorize the chunks, and then slowly put them together. This past season I experimented with a new technique. I would come to the practice field early, take out the music that I would want to memorize, and WITHOUT MY INSTRUMENT I would "air slide" all the positions while singing the melodies in my head. When I could air slide an entire song without the music, then I would try playing it for real. The results? I played every single show from last year from memory. Now, I want to put up a couple disclaimers. One, our music rehearsals are very in depth, so a few songs I memorized simply from playing them all the time. I also used the times in rehearsal where the other sections were being worked on to memorize various parts. Two, as a music major I'm developing a very strong ability to look at music (a part, or a score) and hear in my head exactly what it is supposed to sound like, including harmonies and such. With these things combined, my memorization skills are (and I apologize for bragging) pretty stinking good.
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Post by Tales From Band Camp on May 3, 2009 12:32:03 GMT -5
Do it enough times and you might end up like me.....still able to play a large percentage (50% or so) of the Blue Devils show I did more than a quarter of a century ago. I can't play it as WELL as I did in 1984, but even while driving and playing the CD in the car, my fingers play the music....so does my left thumb for the tuning slide (old corps people will understand that one) I'm like that too with marching band music. I can still finger along with a lot of the music that I played. Most of the time I could memorize something by just playing it enough. Same with piano. And of course, I have the bassoon part to Stars & Stripes memorized since I've played it so many freakin' times during my life! ;D
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 3, 2009 12:49:23 GMT -5
^What if your conductor changes it up and gives you a different arrangement? Then what?
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Post by altoclarinet123 on May 3, 2009 16:06:32 GMT -5
I'm a freshman, so last year was the first time I had to memorize music. It was weird, because I had never played without music in front of me before. I could get it to the point where I could play it without thinking about it or paying any real attention to the notes on the page, but I couldn't play it without music. What I ended up doing was playing it in front of a mirror, so I still had something to look at that wouldn't distract me from what I was doing. I did break it into chunks, too, but I tried to break it up as far as phrases go, and play the last note of the previous phrase and the first note of the next phrase, so when you go to put it all together, it is easier. Also, once I had the first and second phrases memorized, I would put them together and play them until I didn't need to think about it, then memorize the third phrase, add that and play it until it required no thought and etc. I would also listen to recordings of the music over and over again when I was doing something tedious like cleaning my room and sing along (It's a wonder my parents don't kick me out - singing and playing high notes until my embouchure is stronger and playing low notes on the contra until they are in tune, it probably drives them crazy).
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hansel2011
Band Nerd
Music expresses the words which can not be spoken...
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Post by hansel2011 on May 3, 2009 18:43:02 GMT -5
I use a lot of ways to memorize music. It just depends what kind of music it is. I will either listen to the pddf file my bd gives us which is an instrumental recording of the version we are playing it. I will split it up into chunks. I will play it over and over again and it just stiks to me. This one time it was during the summer. I had played our show so many times. I didnt know if I had it memorized or not, I just played off the sheet. I go to band camp and they see if we can play it memorized, just for kicks to see who worked on it over the summer. Well, turns out I had it memorized, just from playing it so much. I just depends for me. A lot of things work. I guess you just have to try different things and see what works for you.
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Post by 84bdsop on May 3, 2009 23:08:27 GMT -5
^What if your conductor changes it up and gives you a different arrangement? Then what? You suck it up and re-memorize. That happened to me in SoCal Dream between 2005 and 2006. Our closer both years (Kill Bill Vol 1 in 05, Vol 2 in 06) was "Esmerelda Suite"....for those who have seen Kill Bill Vol 1, it's the music when The Bride and O-Rin were fighting with katanas near the end. 05 was easy to play....very finger friendly. 06, however, had been changed to a different key to make all the impact chords on open valves (thus making them louder, since there was no tubing in the way of teh sound). Took awhile, but it eventually became very familiar.
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Post by Euphoniums PWN on May 10, 2009 7:45:25 GMT -5
I play it over, and over, and over, and over, and over....
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carlaxbassoon
Band Geek
I'd rather my band uniform over jeans anyday.[F4:1179605852]
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Post by carlaxbassoon on May 16, 2009 20:21:43 GMT -5
^^ that is what I do. xP Then my family gets so annoyed with the song.
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Phoenix Wright
Band Geek
Trumpet - noun - God's Gift to Marching Band
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Post by Phoenix Wright on Jun 4, 2009 15:05:25 GMT -5
^^^^ Same thing i do too. If i just keep playing it over and over i'll eventualy get it. I also use my weak-but-just-good-enough photgraphic memory to memorize the whole sheet of music, each position of the notes, and the fingerings.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 4, 2009 18:44:50 GMT -5
^That works really well until you change from treble to bass clef and yeah
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