By Prof. Walter Aparicio, Piano Instructor at Hunterdon Academy of the Arts
When I was thinking of topics for this blog article, I originally intended to write about the importance of memorizing music for recitals and other important events such as juries, competitions, and exams. After asking myself why I thought this was an important skill, I realized that playing one’s pieces without the score is not really the end result one to which one is working. It is the internalization of the piece as a whole that one is always striving to achieve in practice and in the learning process.
When one INTERNALIZES a piece, one can play from memory but also:
It is difficult for even a professional musician to truly know when a piece is internalized from
Something that has really worked in my own teaching is not only memorizing for important year-end recitals but also FOR THE LESSON itself (at all levels). When a student has had a piece for a decent amount of time, I ask for him/her to memorize a portion or the whole piece for the next lesson. Here are a couple benefits to this idea:
Therefore, playing with the score is not necessarily a bad thing. The question one must ask is, WHY is the student (or professional) using the score? Is it a crutch? Has the student truly internalized all the aspects of the score? Is the student still reading as if they haven’t seen this piece before?
It is a fine line, but it is up to us as teachers to instill the importance of digging deep and learning their music inside and out for the benefit of the music and also for the student's own personal growth. Lastly, memorization is an ACTIVE process. Neither Google nor WikiPedia can help them. They may just have to bite the bullet and engage, even just for a couple of hours in their practice time.