Memorizing

[EZYPIKINS]

The more you learn, the more you have to draw from. You might not remember today. But tomorrow It could come right to ya.

[Don W]

One of the more complicated songs in my repertoire is Ed Gerhard's "Water is Wide"...also it is almost a 5 minute piece...there are 6 others that I have learned that are similar fingerstyle pieces (Shenandoah, Si Beag Si Mhor, Ashoken Farewell). Since starting this thread I have played all 7 songs in my "recorded" repertoire about 10 times over the course of a week... and they are back...with a few mistakes that don't worry me...but the memory (generally muscle memory and a few peeks at the notation) came back. PHEW...for a while there I thought I would have to learn them all over. When I first learned these song I played them for 3 months to get them right then another couple months to memorize without the use of notation. Prior to recording I would play a single song at slow speed 10-15 times daily for a week before recording. Now I realize I need to play these songs at least weekly while I continue with new pieces. Thought I was loosing it. I recently had major surgery and thought that the anesthesia had done something to brain function that affected my memory. Thank you all for your input...made me feel as if I was not alone.

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by Andyrondack

Apparently the research shows that to retain the memory of a piece once learned the music needs to be played just before it is forgotten, how we are supposed to know when a particular tune is due to be consigned to memorial oblivion I have no idea.

This is likely referencing the "space repetition" idea. There's no alert to tell you you're about to forget :-), but what you do with this approach is repeat something often when you first learn it - even multiple times a day. Once you aren't forgetting at that frequency, increase the time between trying to remember, every day, or every 3 days. Once you can do that successfully, you go to maybe 10 days, and so on. If at any time you find you aren't remembering everything, you basically start over.

There are apps that will handle all the details for you. I've used (sort of...) just a deck of cards with tunes on each card. Pull a few off the top of the deck each day. If I can remember if play it well, it goes to the bottom of the deck. If I can't it goes back on the top, so I'll play it again tomorrow. Sort of works as long as I actually do it.

[Andyrondack]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

This is likely referencing the "space repetition" idea. There's no alert to tell you you're about to forget :-)

There are apps that will handle all the details for you. I've used (sort of...) just a deck of cards with tunes on each card. Pull a few off the top of the deck each day. If I can remember if play it well, it goes to the bottom of the deck. If I can't it goes back on the top, so I'll play it again tomorrow. Sort of works as long as I actually do it.

Yes I just bought a box of index cards to do just that , forgetting stuff has become an issue with me, I have a tendency to focus my practice time on stuff I can't do yet while the stuff I could do fades away, time will tell if I stay disciplined enough to keep it up.

[Fatfinger McGee]

Interesting thread, and some good ideas. I like the app/flashcard suggestion, as I tend to go way too long in between reps otherwise. Among other things I run into this every year in November like clockwork, with the Christmas songs I haven't played in 10-11 months.

One thing I picked up from this forum last year was to incorporate more challenging passages into my warm-ups and daily practice. I did it more to help me focus on the skill, but of course it helped keep them in memory and under my fingers too.