Playing From Memory

Music is a somewhat elusive thing. When we listen to it, everything seems obvious and nice. When we try to produce it, the situation is different. Performing music is an art (not to mention composing music). There is the aspect of managing the instrument we are playing. Then there are generally two ways of performing. Performing from score sheets and performing from memory. If you find the first one satisfactory enough, no problem and there is nice and smooth perspective in front of you. When you are the kind of person who want to perform from memory, especially in combination with piano, the situation is more challenging. Here you encounter the aspect mentioned in the first sentence - the elusivenes of music. It's non-materialistic essence. How to memorise it?

It was written somewhere, that 80 % of professional pianists' fear when performing publicly is fear of memory lapse. We believe it is true. Professional pianists pay a lot of time and effort to master the instrument and still are not 100 % sure. There is combination of technical difficulty aspect and memory aspect. And the aspect that live musical performance is the art of the moment. You must do it perfect - right now.

Hobby pianists are not uder such a pressure but want to be close. To know, to be able. But they don't have so much time to put all of their focus to practicing. Music for them is primarly a joy. But when they want to be good and don't have so much time, they should look for - efficiency. They should seek ways how to get maximal result in minimal practicing time. If they find it meaningful and, of course, amusing.

I personally have always felt it as a challenge. I was taught playing piano from sheet music in my childhood. But I didn't find it satisfactory. I wanted to play from memory, by heart. And wasn't able to achieve such a goal. Even simple pieces seemed difficult to memorize to me. From sheets. When I learnt some, it was shallow and evaporated from me in short time. Nothing solid. Something was wrong.

There are so many good musicians. I wanted be one too. But I wasn't able to, I wasn't there. Where is the problem?

I had been thinking about it and solving it as a task. And found and realised something. There is music and there is musical notation. And they are two different things. Music itself is something human, something personal, emotional and natural. While music notation is a symbolism, a storing tool, something purely technical, non-musical. And there is a risk, especialy for students as I was, being taught using musical notation, that they would get stuck on this symbolism and wouldn't get further, they would be caught and held by it as it were.

Musical notation is a tool, necessary for pianists. But it is a technical tool and itself doesn't contain musicality. Inner musicality doesn't come from musical notation. It has to be cultivated independently, separately. And when discovered and caught up, can be developed with simultaneous assistance of musical notation. But won't come from it. It sounds like a paradox and a contradiction. Musical notation is quite an exclusive source of what we as pianists want to play. On the other hand, we need to be independent on it. We as musicians need to be independent on it's form, not on it's content.

If read this and don't understand much, then probably you are good musician enough and on the right journey. And if you understand, at least partially, then you are able to comprehent, why we created Piano Trainer application. It wasn't out of the blue, it wasn't from day to day. It took some time and it was some process. But now the application exists, works and brings the solution.

Piano Trainer application develops inner musical perception hand in hand with natural inner musical memory. Initially our musical memory is weak. But is there waiting to be grabbed, strenghten and developed to become a full-fledged member of natural triad musicality-memory-interpretation.