3 ms·

A fine guess but actually I cycle through what I think is a pretty big range. E.g., several Denes Agay classical+romantic compilations, the standard basic Bach

A fine guess but actually I cycle through what I think is a pretty big range. E.g., several Denes Agay classical+romantic compilations, the standard basic Bach + Beethoven, simple Chopin, John Field, Philip Glass (repetitive patterns help), etc. Another frustrating thing is it's not just long-term finger memory that kills me, my real-time memory bus is slow when learning a piece -- the transfer of "what notes comes next" down to my fingers, just very slow and error-prone. I've tried a mental exercise where I try to only think about what to play "next" and just let what I'm playing "now" take care of itself. It kind of works and feels very different. Basically, to stay 2 beats ahead of the music at all times. Ugh, but it's still a struggle. My finger dexterity is fine. My musical knowledge is actually pretty advanced and I can play expressively and convincingly -- but only when I can remember the damn piece. My memory is like a balloon that won't stay inflated. https://www.amazon.com/Classics-Moderns-Intermediate-Grade-Millions/dp/0825640377 https://www.amazon.com/Classics-Moderns-Intermediate-Grade-M...

jacquesm 6y ago
That's interesting. So, personal story time: I used to have a pretty scarily good memory. But as I get older I find that I only think that I still have a good memory. Every day there is evidence that it isn't nearly as good as it used to be and if there is anything that scares me about getting older it's that. Some parts of what you write remind me of stuff I've read about flying an airplane: never let the airplane get ahead of you. In music that would be 'never let the music get ahead of you', once it does the cognitive overload becomes overwhelming. Then: I listen a lot to the pieces that I want to play, over and over again, until I have the music in my head and then playing piano becomes a lot more like singing, instead of memorizing the movements you memorize the music and playing then becomes actual playing, you now have time and braincycles to spend on making it sound nice rather than just what to play and when. I only have a few pieces in my very limited repertoire at that level but the difference is huge with the remainder, I can make them sound in whatever way I want, I can vary them when and where I want to play variations on the entire piece by changing style and so on. That is what playing piano to me is all about and I intend to spend a lot of time on reaching that kind of proficiency with more music to broaden the range a bit. I wished I had some tip to help you, also, I'd love it if you gave the software a spin and let me know if there is a way that I can improve it so that it does help you, if that requires setting up a trial version then I'm all for it. Let me know if you're up for this. best regards, Jacques
jacquesm 6y ago
More thinking about this: have you thought of breaking up the pieces you practice in to much shorter sections of maybe 20-30 bars and practice those as individual pieces of music and the stitch them together once you have mastered all of them? That might help you with the memorization, memorization of a very lengthy piece is hard if you do it with playthroughs but if the playthrough is a smaller part then it might work.
- khazhoux 6y ago
  That's actually how I usually practice, by section... I think I'm finally gonna try something I've been thinking for years: Photocopy a score, then take scissors to it and come up with a condensed version with only the parts that I blank on. I might discover that in a four-page piece, I only need a half-dozen nudges. Thanks for the thoughts, Jacques!!

jacquesm 6y ago

That's interesting. So, personal story time: I used to have a pretty scarily good memory. But as I get older I find that I only think that I still have a good memory. Every day there is evidence that it isn't nearly as good as it used to be and if there is anything that scares me about getting older it's that. Some parts of what you write remind me of stuff I've read about flying an airplane: never let the airplane get ahead of you. In music that would be 'never let the music get ahead of you', once it does the cognitive overload becomes overwhelming. Then: I listen a lot to the pieces that I want to play, over and over again, until I have the music in my head and then playing piano becomes a lot more like singing, instead of memorizing the movements you memorize the music and playing then becomes actual playing, you now have time and braincycles to spend on making it sound nice rather than just what to play and when. I only have a few pieces in my very limited repertoire at that level but the difference is huge with the remainder, I can make them sound in whatever way I want, I can vary them when and where I want to play variations on the entire piece by changing style and so on. That is what playing piano to me is all about and I intend to spend a lot of time on reaching that kind of proficiency with more music to broaden the range a bit. I wished I had some tip to help you, also, I'd love it if you gave the software a spin and let me know if there is a way that I can improve it so that it does help you, if that requires setting up a trial version then I'm all for it. Let me know if you're up for this. best regards, Jacques

jacquesm 6y ago

More thinking about this: have you thought of breaking up the pieces you practice in to much shorter sections of maybe 20-30 bars and practice those as individual pieces of music and the stitch them together once you have mastered all of them? That might help you with the memorization, memorization of a very lengthy piece is hard if you do it with playthroughs but if the playthrough is a smaller part then it might work.

khazhoux 6y ago
That's actually how I usually practice, by section... I think I'm finally gonna try something I've been thinking for years: Photocopy a score, then take scissors to it and come up with a condensed version with only the parts that I blank on. I might discover that in a four-page piece, I only need a half-dozen nudges. Thanks for the thoughts, Jacques!!