10 Tips on How to Memorize Music

Why memorize?

Before addressing the how, we must discuss why memorizing is important. Playing a musical instrument is complicated. Your brain is processing 127 things all at the same time. Am I holding the instrument correctly? Was that note I just played in tune? Am I keeping in tempo? Did I crescendo enough right there? There is a LOT to keep track of. When you add reading music into that mix, all of those other thoughts fade into the background, and the notes on the page take over. If you’re a reader, it’s the equivalent of sticking your nose in a book and tuning out everything going on around you. If you love music, it’s like putting headphones on and being oblivious when someone talks to you. 

For this reason, memorization makes musicians better. We are more aware, able to focus on the details of our playing, our posture, our performance. In short, when music is memorized, musicality goes way way up!

With that in mind, here are 10 tips to help you in your memorization journey.

1. Use Tricks You Know Work

Think about how you memorize information for school. If you had to memorize a paragraph, how would you go about it? Some might memorize a phrase at a time; others might repeat it out loud over and over, looking away from the words whenever they feel they can; some might write it down several times. Chances are, you already know what works for you. Take that and apply it to your music.

2. Listen to the Music

Listen. A lot. No one has to memorize how to sing “Happy Birthday.” You’ve heard it so much that you just know it. That’s how much you have to listen to the piece you’re memorizing. You should know it in your head before you even start learning it on the instrument. Listen so much that you have it constantly going in your head, even when you’re not listening to it. My favorite thing to assign students who are having trouble memorizing is to put the song on repeat and listen to it allllll night long. It can be so quiet that you almost can’t hear it, but just let it play over and over, and your brain will absorb it while you sleep. If you don’t like music while you sleep, put it on as background music in your home.

3. Active Listening

Active listening means you sit down to listen to the music with a specific purpose in mind. For memorization purposes, you can try doing “air violin” while the recording goes–-looking at the notes, and then not looking at the notes.

4. Small Chunks

Our brains can only handle so much information at a time. Students who try to memorize by simply playing the whole song over and over will find memorization a slow game. Instead, pick a very small section that your brain can handle and work on just that. This may only be a measure or two, and in some cases, it may only be a beat or two. There’s no right answer here–it just needs to be a small enough section that your brain can memorize it after a handful of repetitions. Five to ten repetitions should be enough. If you can’t get it in that many reps, try a smaller chunk.

5. Play Add-On

Add on is simple–you memorize one small chunk, let’s say it’s one measure. Once you have it down, memorize the second measure separately. Then you add them together. Play them several times together until it feels easy and comfortable. Then work on just the 3rd measure. Once you have the third measure, go back and link all three measures together. And so on. This process is faster than it seems on paper, and you’ll soon find you have a decent amount of the song memorized.

6. Repeat, Repeat, Repeat

One of the most common mistakes students make is they aren’t doing enough repetition to fully memorize a piece. Their goal is often to memorize a section by their next lesson, and so they play through it 3 or 4 times a day, thinking that will get them to their goal by the end of the week. The only problem is after 4 reps, nothing is memorized. And then they do it all over again the next day, and the next, etc. A better goal would be to memorize a couple of small chunks every day, doing MANY reps (10-15) so that it is engrained in their memory. 

7. Plan for Review Days

In this process of memorizing chunks each day, it’s important to plan for a review day every 3 to 4 days. Don’t worry about memorizing more on the review day. Just get in some good reps on the sections you have been working on to let them solidify a bit more in your memory. Plowing ahead without these breaks will lead to brain overload, and you may start to lose what you’ve already memorized because it begins to get jumbled in your head.

8. Begin by Reviewing

Each day, plan on reviewing what was memorized the previous day/days. There will be a little memory loss, which is normal. But by reviewing and maybe doing a couple of quick reps on it, you will likely get it right back to where it was. And then you can start working on the next small chunk.

9. Memorize as You Go

Anyone who learns a whole piece and then decides to go back to the beginning to memorize it is wasting their time. It will take at least twice as long to do it this way. Instead, memorize the piece as you learn it. Take it in smaller sections that are memorizable, and make sure you have that section down pat before learning more. I promise, you will thank me for this advice. By the time you get to the end of the piece, it will likely be very close to performance ready.

10. Learn It Right the First Time

This should maybe be listed as number one. It’s very important with all of the reps you are doing to play everything correctly. This includes notes, rhythms, intonation, dynamics, etc. I think we’ve all heard the saying: “practice makes perfect, so be careful what you practice.” If you can memorize a section with accuracy, it will save you a lot of time correcting down the road. Listening to the piece will be key in helping you know if you’re playing it right.

The really good news in all of this is that memorization gets easier the more you do it. Think of it as a way of practicing your brain. In time, you may find that you can memorize bigger sections in fewer reps. And if you stick with it, you’ll get to a point where you memorize without even trying to!