Should I memorize my music?

In the broadest sense, there are two answers to this. As you get to know me, you will (hopefully) learn to appreciate that I cannot accept the broadest answers. This must be drilled down on. NOW:)

First of all, I would like to question the question (you know -  put the system on trial). 

Let's ask questions a couple levels deeper. 

1. Should I memorize my scales?  Yes
2. Should I memorize a concerto for a performance? Yes
3. Should I play everything from memory? No
4. Should I be ABLE to play my pieces from memory? Yes

Scales and arpeggios are what most music is built on. Memorize those and it will save you immeasurable time. That one is easy.

Concerto’s should be played from memory - call me old fashioned. I believe it makes for a much more compelling delivery and audience experience. 

Questions 3 and 4 take a little more consideration.

What does playing from memory do for us anyway? In short, playing music from memory means that we KNOW our music. In an effective practice routine, we will end up memorizing our music by accident a lot of the time. Suppose you are practicing a piece to the point of being able to perform it with confidence. In that case, you should have it memorized, or accidentally memorized it, through the integrity of your practice. 

If you buy into the previous statement, I hope you also know that I am going to tell you why this is true and how to achieve it. Think about some of the great speeches of all time: I Have a Dream (MLK), JFK’s inaugural address, or Still I Rise (Maya Angelou). These orators read the speeches to memorize them and deliver them in a way that would inspire and compel the world. They didn’t hold a piece of paper in front of them. We probably would not remember these speeches if they did. 

In a perfect world, we should be able to hear the music we want to play and have it come out of our clarinet as natural as our speaking voice. Here is the thing - we are using lots more of our “bandwidth” as we play the clarinet and it is much more difficult just “know something” and play it.

An ability to play with this effortless (seeming) conversational presentation comes with a foundational principle that must be built into everything we do with the clarinet:

hear the notes before we play them. 

Within this foundational principle comes the need to do the work with our muscle memory to execute, particularly the technically challenging passages, music cleanly and consistently. 

Essentially - hear the music and access what we hear with our instrument.

Ok.

Easy to say - hard to do.

The most important thing to recognize in this sequence of events - is the cognitive difference between hearing something (in your head) and reading something (with your eyes).

When we play something “by heart” there is an entire system of processing eliminated. We don’t have to decode any symbols, whether they be note names, rhythms, dynamics, or articulation. We are free to play without using any of our bandwidth on processing things we see. 

I will let you in on a secret here - I don’t memorize much music with the intent of performing it from memory. However, I do memorize ALL of the things I play - but not in a way that would let me play it from memory without fail. I memorize it well enough that, while I have the music in front of me, I don’t have to read the music at all. I am not processing any of the notes, rhythms, dynamics, or articulation. I already know what they are. The sheet music is simply reminding me of things that I already know.

The distinction here is that I KNOW the music. If I can play it, but am still decoding the page, I don’t know it…yet. There is more than a nuanced difference for me in these two statements: I can play this piece; and I know this piece. 

There are a lot of practice techniques that I use to reach this state. They have become “just what I do” when I practice. It has taken years to develop the expertise to know which technique to use and when to use it. I will continue to share them freely. The most important part of the process is knowing when and how to use each of them most effectively. That’s what the Ninja Dojo is all about. If you haven’t checked it out, check it out here.

Happy Clarineting!

Jay