I completely agree with you ! You have no idea how many students I have that play something once and never look at the music again and totally rely on muscle memory. I do a ton of analyzing as I think that is number one in knowing what is happening if you have a memory slip. Thank you for explaining this so perfectly , I am definitely forwarding this to all my students ! 😊
Such great advice. I practiced one Chopin Prelude for my private piano institute concert. It was not a serious concert btw. A kind of hobbyists casual Trust me. I played that piece more than 100 times. My fingers "knew" the piece. But I have been feeling insecure because I knew my playing of the piece was entirely dependent upon my muscle memory. Guess what happened in a concert. I was confident that my fingers would guide me but maybe because of nervousness I got completely lost somewhere middle in the music. Just a blank picture. My hands were trembling and I had absolutely zero idea where I should go next! Well, I had to go over from the very first part to somehow finish the piece. The lesson? Ashlee is 100% right. Do not rely on your muscle memory only. It can be very fragile and can go completely useless in high-pressure settings. Muscle memory is not enough. Learn from Ashlee. Don't make my mistake. lol. It was so embarrassing.😅😅 Thanks Ashlee for another great piano lesson. 🎉
Great explanation! What me also helps with the cognitive part is finding out the fingering. Trying the best fingering, rewrite them, etc. helps me a lot to pay much attention to the structure and so.
Nice of you to include the EMDR link, for thosr of us who experienced early trauma, which I mentioned in my comment above. Never thought of trying to fix the ptsd!
I wish someone had taught me this years and years ago! I was in middle school taking piano lessons from a teacher who insisted on recitals. In those days we all got dressed up and went with our parents to perform in front of all the other students and people we had never met. I had awful "stage fright" but thought I knew my piece, a Chopin waltz, very well. However, for some unknown reason, in the middle my fingers had no idea what to do next--just blanked out the muscle memory, which was the only way I learned, by repetition, but without any conscious patterning or theory. I still can feel my distress and humiliation, 60 years later!!! And by the way, the ptsd of that moment has remained my entire life and affected my willingness to speak or otherwise 'perform' in public. Now that in my 70's I have picked up where I left off and no longer have to do recitals or anything else, I am trying to apply some of your methods to progress faster, as I want to see how far I can go before the END! Memorizing difficult parts helps me get through them without having to process reading the score, listening, and thinking about technicalities all at once. So many thanks to you for sharing this learning strategy with all of us! Btw, piano played with a great deal of 'life experience ' can be much more expressive than at a young age. Consider Yunchuan Lim--we saw him perform Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2 in Kansas City last week, and to my ear at least, he lacked the range of feeling necessary to convey the meaning of that work. Compare his performance to Krystian Zimmerman's powerful recording and you will see what I mean. However, neither artist forget the score, of course! Wonder what goes through their minds while they are performing!
Hmm, another Ashlee Young Piano Studio video? Clicked on it right away since you're a fountain of good advice. I;ve talked with my teachers about the progress I've made just from this summer. The two biggest events were when I started playing from memory, and singing. I had a ton of emotional baggage about my voice, but found that I could sing the A2 Pentascale, and built up from there. A Psychologist helped with the EMDR technique, and my ears did the rest. I sang along to Fur Elise when you sang in this video. Great lesson. merci beaucoup.
I both learn to read pieces and memorize them using visualization. I can sit in a chair without my instrument and play and hear my pieces in my head. However, you must also have muscle memory to perform a piece with confidence. The interesting thing about visual memory is that it increases the speed with which muscle memory develops.
I've definitely experienced being unable to get back into a piece without starting all over when I've lost my place, even with songs that I could play all the way through most times.
Most of us learnt the "tune" to popular songs just by listening to them repeatedly on the Radio. The "tune" and words, lodges in your head/ear and we learn them in no time .
You didn't mention transposition and playing by ear. Make a chord map of the piece you study and remember the progressions and even improvise over them. Sing the bass line right on up ftom the bottom note of the chord. Note their qualities of major, minor diminished, augmented and transpose them to other keys. 🎉😂❤
Not a big fan of visual memory. Music is a connection between your brain, your body, and your ears; the printed page and your eyes are just a shorthand that should be quickly left behind. In so many of the courses I read, the people in the comments are constantly asking "can you send me the sheet music for this in all keys?". This is the way to NOT learn music.
BUT visual memory is also about your hands on the keys so it’s not exclusively about sheet music. Unless your eyes are closed or you are visually impaired, visual memory is present regardless of if you’re using sheet music or not.
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I completely agree with you ! You have no idea how many students I have that play something once and never look at the music again and totally rely on muscle memory. I do a ton of analyzing as I think that is number one in knowing what is happening if you have a memory slip. Thank you for explaining this so perfectly , I am definitely forwarding this to all my students ! 😊
I’m so glad! And yes - I know exactly what you’re talking about because I’ve experienced it as well!
Interesting! Good ideas!
Such great advice. I practiced one Chopin Prelude for my private piano institute concert. It was not a serious concert btw. A kind of hobbyists casual
Trust me. I played that piece more than 100 times. My fingers "knew" the piece. But I have been feeling insecure because I knew my playing of the piece was entirely dependent upon my muscle memory.
Guess what happened in a concert. I was confident that my fingers would guide me but maybe because of nervousness I got completely lost somewhere middle in the music. Just a blank picture. My hands were trembling and I had absolutely zero idea where I should go next!
Well, I had to go over from the very first part to somehow finish the piece. The lesson? Ashlee is 100% right. Do not rely on your muscle memory only. It can be very fragile and can go completely useless in high-pressure settings. Muscle memory is not enough.
Learn from Ashlee. Don't make my mistake. lol. It was so embarrassing.😅😅 Thanks Ashlee for another great piano lesson. 🎉
I'm so sorry that happened! It's such a common mistake and I get it. So happy you’re on this side at this point :) and you’re welcome!!
Great explanation! What me also helps with the cognitive part is finding out the fingering. Trying the best fingering, rewrite them, etc. helps me a lot to pay much attention to the structure and so.
Yes! Very much so!
Nice of you to include the EMDR link, for thosr of us who experienced early trauma, which I mentioned in my comment above. Never thought of trying to fix the ptsd!
Thank you very much , your advise is superb
Thank you very much!
You’re welcome!
Thank you, very helpful 😊
Happy to hear that and thanks for saying so!
I wish someone had taught me this years and years ago! I was in middle school taking piano lessons from a teacher who insisted on recitals. In those days we all got dressed up and went with our parents to perform in front of all the other students and people we had never met. I had awful "stage fright" but thought I knew my piece, a Chopin waltz, very well. However, for some unknown reason, in the middle my fingers had no idea what to do next--just blanked out the muscle memory, which was the only way I learned, by repetition, but without any conscious patterning or theory. I still can feel my distress and humiliation, 60 years later!!! And by the way, the ptsd of that moment has remained my entire life and affected my willingness to speak or otherwise 'perform' in public. Now that in my 70's I have picked up where I left off and no longer have to do recitals or anything else, I am trying to apply some of your methods to progress faster, as I want to see how far I can go before the END! Memorizing difficult parts helps me get through them without having to process reading the score, listening, and thinking about technicalities all at once. So many thanks to you for sharing this learning strategy with all of us! Btw, piano played with a great deal of 'life experience ' can be much more expressive than at a young age. Consider Yunchuan Lim--we saw him perform Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2 in Kansas City last week, and to my ear at least, he lacked the range of feeling necessary to convey the meaning of that work. Compare his performance to Krystian Zimmerman's powerful recording and you will see what I mean. However, neither artist forget the score, of course! Wonder what goes through their minds while they are performing!
This is awesome, thanks for sharing!
Brilliant and very useful.
Yay! Glad you liked it!
Hmm, another Ashlee Young Piano Studio video?
Clicked on it right away since you're a fountain of good advice.
I;ve talked with my teachers about the progress I've made just from this summer.
The two biggest events were when I started playing from memory, and singing.
I had a ton of emotional baggage about my voice, but found that I could sing the A2 Pentascale, and built up from there. A Psychologist helped with the EMDR technique, and my ears did the rest. I sang along to Fur Elise when you sang in this video.
Great lesson. merci beaucoup.
Love it!
I both learn to read pieces and memorize them using visualization. I can sit in a chair without my instrument and play and hear my pieces in my head. However, you must also have muscle memory to perform a piece with confidence. The interesting thing about visual memory is that it increases the speed with which muscle memory develops.
Definitely
I've definitely experienced being unable to get back into a piece without starting all over when I've lost my place, even with songs that I could play all the way through most times.
Most of us learnt the "tune" to popular songs just by listening to them repeatedly on the Radio.
The "tune" and words, lodges in your head/ear and we learn them in no time .
You didn't mention transposition and playing by ear. Make a chord map of the piece you study and remember the progressions and even improvise over them. Sing the bass line right on up ftom the bottom note of the chord. Note their qualities of major, minor diminished, augmented and transpose them to other keys. 🎉😂❤
Not a big fan of visual memory. Music is a connection between your brain, your body, and your ears; the printed page and your eyes are just a shorthand that should be quickly left behind. In so many of the courses I read, the people in the comments are constantly asking "can you send me the sheet music for this in all keys?". This is the way to NOT learn music.
BUT visual memory is also about your hands on the keys so it’s not exclusively about sheet music. Unless your eyes are closed or you are visually impaired, visual memory is present regardless of if you’re using sheet music or not.