On Memorizing, Part Two
(Click here for part one)
by Jamie Andreas
(www.guitarprinciples.com)
More free guitar, musician articles
I will now elaborate on the concepts set forth in Part
One of this examination of memorizing music. In
Part One, the essential point I wanted you to
understand is that Attention is the foundation of the
process of memorizing music, and you must be aware of
the quality and quantity (intensity) of your
own Attention. This is a very difficult matter,
because becoming aware of the quality of our own
Attention is like the eye seeing itself. You are being
asked to pay attention to your in-attentiveness.
Just as there must be special circumstances and
devices for the eye to see itself (reflecting
surfaces,
ponds, mirrors, etc.), you must create special "mental
circumstances", by using certain practice
approaches, in order to become aware of your lack of
awareness.
The Three Kinds of Memory
There are three kinds of memory that musicians use:
Finger Memory, Ear Memory, and Eye
Memory. They are more precisely named Muscle Memory,
Inner Ear Memory, and Mind Memory.
Think of them with whatever description serves you
best at your present level of understanding.
Finger Memory is the strongest, most automatic, and
most primitive form of memory. Like a
computer, your fingers faithfully record whatever
information is input to them, and just as faithfully,
use that information to "compute", which for us
musicians, means play or perform. If the fingers,
through Correct Practice, are only fed the right
information, the exact information that will lead to
the
result we want (the right notes at the right time in
the right way), they will give it to us. Of course, if
they are given wrong information, or "mixed messages",
sometimes right sometimes wrong,
sometimes different degrees of both, then they will
just as faithfully give that back to us. Through lack
of Attention, players often input this faulty
information, and wonder why they don't get the result
they
want.
The power of finger memory is awesome, but it is not
enough. I discovered this for myself early on,
when I began giving concerts. I must say this only
happened once to me, but it was quite a lesson. I
have always played all my concerts from memory,
sometimes up to an hour and a half of solid music
from memory, (and when you play classical guitar,
that's a lot of notes!) Well, once it happened that
I got lost, could not remember, and had to go back to
the beginning. Of course, it was quite a lesson
in how to handle major embarrassment, but it was more
than that. I came to realize that the reason I
could not get out of the jam was because I did not
have the other two kinds of memory going for me:
Ear Memory and Eye Memory.
The thing to realize is that Finger Memory is very
powerful, but also very stupid! It is not intelligent.
It can't think. I usually think of Finger Memory with
an image. It is like a mole, burrowing
underground. It keeps moving by instinct, and has an
instinct for where it is going, but it is blind, in
the
dark. It has no awareness of the whole picture (the
music in its totality as movement, sound,
emotion). That is why, when finger memory is all you
have going for you, and you get lost, you have
to rewind back to the beginning, that is, start the
music over, and hope for something better next time
around (which often doesn't happen). Even though the
fingers may know the moves to make, they,
shall we say, ain't talkin'. The more intelligent
forms of memory are Ear Memory and Eye Memory.
Ear Memory is very interesting. Some people use it
from the beginning of their involvement with
playing an instrument. In fact, it is part of the
natural approach of someone who has what we call
"natural talent". Using it produces strong results as
we develop our abilities through daily practice,
and anyone can learn to use it, but it is amazing how
many would-be guitarists don't!
Ear memory is your inner awareness of the music as
sound. Ear memory is the result of your
awareness of each note as a sound, heard externally
AND internally. Again, it is developed simply
through focusing attention on the music as sound
sensation during the practice process. Very quickly
for some, and sooner or later for everyone else, it
develops into the ability to distinguish the important
characteristics of sound, such as tone and pitch. It
results in the ability (with practice) to reproduce
the sound with our own "primary instrument", our body,
by singing the notes.
And let me make this abundantly clear. YOU MUST LEARN
TO SING THE NOTES IF YOU
WANT TO BE A MUSICIAN! I always have my students sing,
whether I have to force them to, or
they do so willingly! When you sing the notes, you
enter into a different relationship with the music, it
becomes more real for you. One of the truest things
ever said to me by a teacher was "if you can't
sing the notes, you are not hearing them". I have
found this to be absolutely correct. By learning to do
so, I discovered that many times I thought I was
hearing them, but I was not, not in the deep way a
musician must be able to hear them.
When we play, the inner hearing of the note that is to
come next, the phrase that is to come next,
guides and prepares the fingers in their actions. Many
students, especially in the beginning, do not
have the inner experience of hearing the notes. For
them, playing and practicing is just "moving the
fingers around". The teacher must test them to see if
they are having the inner experience of truly
hearing the notes. This is done by asking them to
sing. Often, a student will not be able to reproduce
the pitch, and that's fine. Once you get them to at
least make a sound, you have something to work
with. You can refine it as you go along. It is my
experience that all students are able to get with the
program with a little practice. And anyway, what good
is a guitarist who can't sing? The way I look
at it, no self respecting guitarist would go through
life only strumming chords, and having to find
somebody to provide a vocal melody line every time
they wanted to "make music". I believe all
guitarists, even beginners, want to sing. They are
just too "chicken" in the beginning. So, whether you
sound like an angel, or croak like a frog, START
SINGING!
Eye Memory is your awareness and memory of the written
music. Just as a conductor, standing in
front of the orchestra, must know every note that
everyone is supposed to play, so you must know,
in a conscious way, every note you need to play (or
every chord, if you are singing and strumming).
This means you must know, and know that you know, as
in being able to say each note or chord,
and being able to visualize, in your mind's eye, the
written music, be it tab, notes, or chord diagrams.
When defined as Mind Memory, this form of memory is
your awareness of the music as a mental
concept, as an idea. It involves your awareness and
understanding of ALL aspects of the music,
harmonically, structurally, and so forth.
A useful analogy for grasping the essence of the three
kinds of memory I have been explaining, is to
think of an actor in a play. 1)Memorizing the lines he
needs to speak in a mechanical way, solely by
repetition (like catechism in Sunday school) is like
Finger Memory.
2) Being able to hear inwardly the line that is to be
spoken next is like Ear Memory.
3) Understanding the meaning of the words, why they
are being spoken by the character, and how
they relate to all the other characters and the story
as a whole, that is Mind Memory. It is the result of
thought, and intuitive involvement with the music.
If Mind Memory is strong, you can never really lose it
on stage. Even if you forget your lines (the
notes), you can "fake it", because, being aware of the
whole picture at any given time, you are able to
"think on your feet".
How to Start Using the Three Kinds of Memory
This is done by testing yourself.
Finger Memory: just sit without the music and try to
play it. Can you do it? If not, you need more
attentive repetitions of the music.
Ear Memory: play the music in your head. Sing the
melody out loud. Can you do it? If not, keep
trying! Play the notes, hear the notes, outside AND
inside.
Eye Memory: close your eyes and SEE the music. Say the
first note to be played out loud. Say the
next note. Keep going. If you get stuck, look at the
music, and burn it into your brain. Say them
out loud.
Does it take a lot of effort to have all these kinds
of memory working for you when you practice and
play? Yes. Is it worth it? Only if you want to be the
best you can be!
Whoops, did you miss "On Memorizing", Part One?
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Jamie�s provocative writings examine all aspects of becoming a true musician�the technical/physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual dimensions. Guitar virtuoso, recording artist, composer, and teacher of 30 years, Jamie is recognized by music experts around the globe for her major contribution to the advancement of guitar education.
Her method book, �The Principles Of Correct Practice For Guitar� (1999) continues to bring the highest acclaim, world renowned as �The International Bible For Guitarists�, and the �Holy Grail Of Guitar Books.� With a straight forward writing style, her tried and true, result-oriented guitar book powerfully reveals the correct practice methods that no other book has revealed�taking the student from the beginning stages all the way to the highest levels of virtuosity.
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