But the more they have conscious memory, the more secure they will be when playing under pressure and the better they’ll be at the piece in general. Honestly, most professional classical musicians do not memorize on this level of detail, but they probably have it visualized on a certain level. Without playing it, they can walk through the piece and know what finger is doing what and what note is being played. But a person who thoroughly knows the music consciously can see the music and fingers in their head in all it’s details. So a thoroughly trained musician will have a stronger conscious memory than a lesser trained amateur, even if the former does not make an intentional effort at conscious memorization. It also depends in part on how well one knows their instrument, whether or not they know music theory, and how aware they are of what is happening musically in the piece. We’ve already talked about how you know if your muscles remember a piece, but how do you know whether or not you have it in your conscious memory? People have varying degrees of aptitude towards this kind of memory. Conscious memory is stored in the temporal lobe, muscle memory in the cerebellum. Playing from memory must be a combination of both muscle memorization and conscious memorization, two very different sections of the brain. Many mistakenly accept this as having something memorized. When you can play a piece of music, and your mind can wander while your fingers know exactly where to go just like a driverless car, you’re seeing muscle memory in full action. When a movement is repeated enough times, the muscle memory kicks in and takes over. Muscle memory is that part of the brain that records movements. But playing music from memory relying mostly on muscle memory is risky business as muscle memory is great at home, but gets shaky under pressure. One’s ability to play an instrument (or do practically anything physically) absolutely depends on muscle memory. It is the complete reliance on muscle memory. Children are especially vulnerable to it, but it can happen to accomplished adult players if they’re not careful. This is the trap that many have fallen into. After a few failed attempts, you choose either to skip the entire section, or, more probably, you go back to the beginning of the section, or worse, back to the beginning of the whole piece, desperately hoping that when you arrive at that passage again your fingers will be able to remember it. It may have been precipitated by a mistake, or perhaps not, but you now find yourself stuck and unable to remember a passage that you’ve played a thousand times and never had any trouble with remembering in the past. Suddenly in the middle of your performance you draw a blank. You’ve played it from memory so many times you could play it in your sleep. It may have been as an adult or as a child, but you’re performing something that you’ve practiced a ton. How many classical guitarists and musicians out there can relate to this experience. Say Goodbye to Memory Slips: How to Memorize Music
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