SOPP716: I want to increase my play from memory ability

Vidas: Hello and welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast!

Ausra: This is a show dedicated to helping you become a better organist.

V: We’re your hosts Vidas Pinkevicius...

A: ...and Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene.

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V:  Hi guys!  This is Vidas.

A:  And Ausra.

Vidas:  Let’s start episode 716 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Ray, and he writes:

“Hey Vidas
Thanks for your tips. Here are my goals:
- to increase my play from memory ability (given the fact that l am 71) and to perform two major pieces
Challenges:
- time is a challenge
- correct fingering (still fumbling at times)
- improve my pedal skill
Thanks again for your tips!
Regards
Ray”

Vidas:  So let’s recap a little bit, Ausra, and start from the beginning. Ray is 71, and wants to perform two major pieces, and wants to improve his memorization. Correct?

Ausra:  Yes! I just wonder why to perform from memory, because very often organists perform from the score, and that saves time, actually. But maybe he is uncomfortable looking at the score, and maybe it’s easier for him to play from memory. Because if he is comfortable looking at the score, I would not suggest for him to memorize pieces that he’s playing, because that would take him time.

Vidas:  10 times more, probably, is required when you try to learn from memory.

Ausra:  But of course, if he’s uncomfortable looking at the score, and some people have that issue, that problem, especially those who were trained in the Suzuki method, that learned all music by ear not from the score. But otherwise, I think it would be much easier to play from the score and don’t worry about memorization. But of course it is up to him. Memorization always takes time. If you really want to play from memory and to memory faster, I don’t think that there is a shortcut to memorize a piece.

Vidas:  There is a shortcut but it’s not short.

Ausra:  Yes! Because…

Vidas:  It’s a method!

Ausra:  Because it’s still based on lots of repetitions, adding, learning like two measures at a time, and then adding another two measures and so on and so forth and repeating, repeating, repeating. So it’s a really long process. Of course, there are different kinds of memory types that different people have, because if you have like good visual memory than you are lucky, like photographic memory. You would just look at the score and you would memorize it. But very few people actually possess that ability, and others have just to take this painful long and boring process of memorizing measure by measure, step by step. But of course, it might be a good way also to improve your mental state, for example, which might prevent diseases like Alzheimer or dementia. Anyway, memorization for me always gives a lot of pain. I always struggle with it because basically I have never started to memorize things on time, and the last-minute memorization would never work really well, because then you would get extremely high performance anxiety. I still have nightmares about it. 

Vidas:  I have a suggestion for Ray to use Marcel Dupré’s system. It’s solid, it takes only 15 minutes a day to do it, but with time, you can learn major pieces like this from memory. Would you like me to refresh how it works, Ausra?

Ausra:  Sure, although I’m not sure if I will use this method myself. 

Vidas:  No!

Ausra:  But I will gladly listen to your advice.

Vidas:  Okay, divide a piece into four-measure fragments. And that fragment, four measures long, will be your menu for each day. The next day, you will learn another fragment of four measures long, and the third day will be another fragment of four measures long. Not long, right? Four.

Ausra:  But it will take forever then to learn the major piece!

Vidas:  Just let me finish, because it’s kind of very systematic. You first learn one measure at a time in this fragment, in these four measures. So you learn measure one, measure two, measure three, and measure four. And the way to do it is you play five times, while looking at the score, one measure, and then the same measure, without looking at the score, five times. You start and end at the beginning of the down beat. In other words, you start and end at the beginning of every fragment—new fragment. Right? If measure one is your goal right now, you start with the measure one downbeat, and you end with measure two downbeat. Right? Until you can do it five times from the score, five times from memory. Then you do the same with measure two. Five times from the score, five times from memory. Measure three then the same way, measure four. Right? So far so good, Ausra? Are you with me?

Ausra:  I am sleeping already, but anyway… go ahead… continue please.

Vidas:  Okay. It’s a good story before going to bed. Right?

Ausra:  Yes! It’s like counting sheep.

Vidas:  And then you learn measure one and two. So you start from the downbeat of measure one and end on the downbeat of measure three. Then you learn measures two and three, measures three and four. Then three measures at a time: one, two, three, and then two, three, four. And then finally one, two, three, four. Repeat one, two, three, four.

Ausra:  One, two, three, four.

Vidas:  One, two

Ausra:  One, two

Vidas:  Two, three

Ausra:  Two three

Vidas:  Three four

Ausra:  Three four

Vidas:  One, two, three

Ausra:  One, two, three

Vidas:  Two, three, four

Ausra:  Two, three, four

Vidas:  One, two, three, four.

Ausra:  One, two, three, four.

Vidas:  See, you already memorized it.

Ausra:  But, you know, while you are telling about this method, I kept thinking about Reincken’s “Chorale Fantasy: Was kann uns kommen an für Not” which I’m preparing for our Bach’s birthday recital, and it has 222 meaures.

Vidas:  Yes.

Ausra:  So, do you know how many days it would take for me to memorize it if I would learn, let’s say, only memorize only four measures per day?

Vidas:  I agree.

Ausra:  Maybe I would be able to be able to learn it not for this upcoming birthday in March, you know, but maybe…

Vidas:  The next one…

Ausra:  ...the next one, yes.

Vidas:  It would be still a major achievement. But what I mean to say is that you don’t have to only play 15 minutes per day. This takes four measures at a time. This takes 15 minutes only. I tested it myself. But if you want, you can play 30 minutes per day the same piece, so you can learn two fragments at a time. Right? Or if you have 3 fragments, you could learn 45 minutes at a time, or even one hour. So it speeds up your practice.

Ausra:  But it still takes a lot of time.

Vidas:  Yes, that’s what memorization is supposed to do! But the trick is that you won’t forget it after even many months. You will come back to this piece and it will be easy to refresh it. Sure, you will miss some details, but it will easy to relearn it from decades not learning it afterwards. So that’s my suggestion about memorization. Time is a challenge. Well, we cannot give him time, but he has to make time for practicing. Right Ausra?

Ausra:  Yes, you know…

Vidas:  If he has a goal, he has to make time for that goal.

Ausra:  Yes, we all make sacrifices in our lives in order to be able to practice. But that’s true. We cannot give him more time. Because I think time is a challenge for everybody. Just look at your routine! Maybe you can really shorten something and add more practice hours. And… well… if you would stop memorizing pieces, then you would save time! Maybe this could help you to have more time. So maybe you need, really, to sacrifice memorization, so think about it.

Vidas:  Mmmm… yeah. Could be. And then correct fingering. He struggles to play with correct fingering. And for that, there is a shortcut, actually—to get our fingered and pedaled scores with correct fingering and pedaling. It’s not necessarily correct 100% for every person, because every person has different types of hands, but the majority of times it will work. You have to sometimes adjust some things. And they will help you play with ideal perfect legato if it’s a Romantic piece, or with  articulate legato if it’s a Baroque piece. We have designed scores like that with these fingerings and pedalings.

Ausra:  Yes, and just be sure that you use the same fingers all the time when you are playing the same piece, because that will speed up the process of learning the piece. Because if every time you will use, let’s say, slightly different fingering, then your final goal of achieving smooth playing will be postponed.

Vidas:  Ausra, can we recommend to Ray our Pedal Virtuoso master course for him if he wants to improve his pedal technique?

Ausra:  Yes, sure. Definitely that would be a really good… would we… because we have more than one course of improving pedal skills.

Vidas:  Yes. “10-day Pedal Challenge,” I think it’s a shorter one, and a longer one it takes over a number of weeks is, “Pedal Virtuoso Master Course,” if he likes playing pedal exercises like scales and arpeggios. 

Ausra:  Yes. Like one of our friends recently said he wanted to hire an organ teacher, and I just asked, “What is your goal? Why do you need to hire?” And he said, “I want to improve my pedal technique!” And I said to him that if in order to improve your pedal technique, you need to play pedals more. That’s it! No teacher can improve your pedal technique, you just need to sit down at the organ and do it yourself. So either get Vidas’s courses that he is suggesting, or for example, if you don’t have time or you want to learn only your repertoire, you could also make exercises from your repertoire, too. You know, just select the hard places and work on those many many times. That will help, too. But of course, if you will take a pedal course, that would help you improve in more various ways and prepare you for more advanced and versatile repertoire.

Vidas:  Okay guys, we hope this was useful to you. Please send us more of your questions; we love helping you grow. And remember, when you practice, 

Ausra: Miracles happen!

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