Read on to discover the secret techniques of leading musicians that can help supercharge your memory...
How to supercharge your memory... leading performers spill the beans
Ah, the magnificent soloist… Whether virtuoso violinists with flying fingers, dazzling pianists dashing off crashing chord clusters or stupendous sopranos defying the limits of the human vocal cords with thrillingly high coloratura, these superhuman musical performers never fail to entertain and enthral us with their moving interpretations.
But how often do we think about their feats of memorisation as we sit in our comfortable stalls seat, enjoying their performance without a musical score? When you consider the sheer number of notes in the average concerto or opera, the human capacity for recollection is nothing short of miraculous. As with all incredible achievements, however, behind the seemingly effortless performance are hours of practice, planning and thought – plus various techniques developed over the course of a long career.
So, we’ve asked four top performers to share with us the one memorisation technique they couldn’t live without… and in most cases, these turn out to be applicable to non-musical aspects of our lives as well. Read on for a peak into the life of the performing musician, and marvel at the wonders of the human brain!
Read on to supercharge your memory...
Tasmin Little, violinist
Method: Imagine musical roundabouts to supercharge your memory
One of my favourite memorisation techniques is the ‘musical roundabout’. Music is full of repeated patterns and similar phrases – and Mozart is a prime example. There’s a lot of similar material in his works, but each time this material reappears it goes off in a different direction – to, say, the dominant key in the development, or back to the tonic in the recapitulation. His music is packed with these roundabouts – almost as many as Milton Keynes! – and you must take the correct exit or you’ll end up in completely the wrong place.
To get this right you can’t simply rely on muscle memory – you must understand where you’re going and why. All too often, students believe their physical training will kick in on stage when they need it most, but memorisation is about active thinking and using the brain.
Anyone who has ever encountered a roundabout while driving will know it’s crucial to choose the correct exit – this involves mental preparation as you approach. In Mozart’s rondos, so often the final movements of his violin concertos, ideas come back in minutely altered forms and at the roundabout one exit may require a completely different fingering or hand position to enable the player to take the correct exit. Otherwise, instead of heading gaily off to Edinburgh, we’ll be on the way to Somerset!
Always do your homework and don't rely on 'muscle memory'...
The first step to identifying these perilous junctions is to study the music away from the instrument, and to take note of exactly where the points of difference occur. If you have an understanding of what is going on harmonically, underneath the solo part, that will enhance your ability to choose the correct exit. Which chords are taking us to different keys and which ones keep us where we are?
In the Elgar Violin Concerto, there is a passage in the first movement that reappears around eight times, at the bottom of an enormous scale. If you start in the wrong place, you don’t have a hope of ending up in the right place at the top of the scale. Early in my career, I temporarily forgot my starting note, but because I knew where the piece was going harmonically, I knew I had to begin on the leading note to that key. There, my general musicianship and time with the score kicked in and saved me. If you’ve done your homework, your back-up system number two will kick in, and if that fails, there’s always back-up number three!
Today I do a lot of public speaking, and although a lot of what I say will be improvised in the moment, I’ll have my bullet points for each subject. These are in fact very similar to musical roundabouts, allowing me to take the correct road and to travel along that until I get to the next junction and embark on the next subject. So, my musical memorisation techniques have been invaluable in this next stage of my career.
Read on to supercharge your memory...
Sarah Connolly, mezzo-soprano
Method: Build memorising into your everyday routine
My methods for memorising music include writing things down – I have several notebooks filled to the brim – plus recording and then listening to myself, and also thinking about it just before I go to bed. That last one can be a bit of a double-edged sword, as you can then not sleep very well. If it’s an opera role, once I’ve worked out what I’m doing, I also tend to listen to a good recording of it.
For tricky lines that simply won’t go in, I stick Post-it notes with them on surfaces all around the house: on doors, the fridge, mirrors, pictures, at the top of the landing; anywhere, in fact, except my bedroom. This method works so well, as you have to go past certain places whenever you want to get to a part of the house, so you see them every time. I remember when I was learning the part of Octavian in Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, a strange role compared to others in that it was very conversational. In this instance, I wrote short conversations down on the Post-its – not just my words but the other person’s as well, as it was so important to be able to recognise everything that was being sung.
Exercise your memory while doing household chores...
In general, learning things as I am doing jobs while moving around the house is a good method. And then, when I was laying a new garden, I used to learn verses of a song by taking the score outside, putting it on a bench and then seeing how much of it I could remember while I was digging or weeding – consequently, some of my scores have mud on them.
And when I go on a dog walk, I’ll sometimes take with me a photo of lines I’ve learned and repeat them on the walk until that verse has gone in. Somehow, I walk in the rhythm of the song, so it is a very good way of helping it physically into my body. Amusingly, when I used to live near Stroud, there was a guy who lived at the bottom of the hill who said he would often hear me singing out full blast as I went up Selsley Common. As he was a real opera fan, he’d come over and meet me and ask what I was learning. It was very funny!
As a rule, the pieces that are the easiest to remember are those that I like singing – for instance, although it has a lot of technical difficulties, the part of Jocasta in Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex was an absolute doddle to memorise as I love the music so much. Ditto Susie in Turnage’s The Silver Tassie. If I like it, it goes in, as I have an actual wish to do the work.
Read on to supercharge your memory...
Alisa Weilerstein, cellist
Method: Construct a mental maze to supercharge your memory
I usually do a lot of singing, taking the music away to make sure I can sing through a piece by memory and know it on a gut level, even before translating it into the fingers. So much of the memorising happens by osmosis.
There’s certain new music which is quite difficult to memorise; rhythmically complex things that are harder to integrate. Then there are pieces that, let’s say, are closer to my childhood training that I don’t even have to think about memorising; they just come. Some music takes more effort to memorise.
So I begin with singing, but then I also play mapping games in my mind. I look at the music as a maze, so if you take a wrong turn, you end up stuck and you have to think about how in the world you are going to get out!
Always look for patterns...
For example, if I’m memorising Bach, where there are so many sequences that repeat, but in different ways (which is quite confusing for the memory), I quiz myself: ‘What if the music actually went in this direction, how would you get out of it?’ Or ‘What if it went this way?’ You can really memorise all the patterns in that way, so that when similar patterns – but crucially not the same patterns – come back, you know how to handle them.
One piece specifically that I found I had to play more of such memory games with was Shostakovich’s Second Cello Concerto. This includes patterns which are similar but not the same, and the variation is always just slightly different! There are several of those instances, so it’s a big challenge to get them all in the right order, and to recognise rhythmical patterns that are ever so slightly different to what has come before. There are a lot of puzzle pieces that go together but not in the same way. That’s the most challenging thing to memorise, because it’s so easy to take a wrong turn somewhere and then you wind up in oblivion – which is never good.
Something I also find very helpful as a string player is learning with the left hand alone, without the bow, and going through the music with the score and then without the score several times until my left hand really knows what to do on its own. You can absolutely do that without the cello – that’s what I use plane rides for (when I’m not with the kids).
Read on to supercharge your memory...
Alexandra Dariescu, pianist
Method: Visualise the score in your mind to supercharge your memory
Memorising music is such a fascinating and personal process. It’s about both understanding the architecture of the piece and finding those methods that resonate with you personally – so that you can truly internalise the work’s sound, emotion and structure.
There’s a lot of patience and discipline involved as well. If I am setting out to get to know a new piece, I’ll often wake up at 4am as that’s when my brain is quiet – no phone calls, no emails – and I can assimilate as much of the music as possible.
For the part of memorising that is muscle memory, the key is simply repetition – play the piece again and again, until it is ‘under your fingers’. Repetition is key, but not enough on its own: you have to couple it with conscious listening, as muscle memory on its own can be dangerous to rely on. It’s fine in a safe environment – by yourself in the practice room, say – but you can’t rely on it under pressure.
Visualisation is key...
But when it comes to a ‘mental map’ of the piece, I have a few techniques. Visualisation is the most important of these. It’s a really cool process, yet until I came to university, I had never heard of it. I try to see the score in my mind, and I imagine my hands playing the piece. In this way, your mental practice often happens away from the instrument. And it comes in very handy – especially at moments of pressure.
I take the score away, to a quiet place somewhere. And I create a mental map of it, that I can access at any time. This is particularly useful on the road, where you don’t have access to a piano. Waiting for a bus, holding my luggage, I will notice my fingers moving through the piece. It’s an incredible process.
This mental map is, essentially, the music on the page. I can see the music and I know where I am at any point. And I will say those notes as I run through the piece in my mind. In rehearsals I can sing the piece: that’s obviously not an option in concert, so I mumble it instead. People have asked me, ‘Are you talking to yourself when you perform?’ But no, I am just saying the notes to myself – because this helps me to focus in the moment. You have to be 100 per cent in that moment, and really see the score in your mind.
Break down the problem into smaller pieces
That’s general visualisation: but there are some specific visualising techniques, too. For example, I’ll break a piece down into its harmonic and formal structure. When you know the architecture of the piece – whether it’s a sonata or variations, a concerto or a rondo – you’ll always understand where you are going. Key relationships, harmonic progressions – it’s like a road map through the piece.
Then I separate the different elements – melody, harmony, rhythm, voicing – and before I put them all together again I will often memorise each hand separately, and focus on each voice and how it interacts with the others. You need to understand how each part is working before you can put it all together.