Why Some Pianists Dont Memorize Music

This is LivingPianos.com, I'm Robert Estrin. We've got a viewer question and it's such an important question. The question is, do you have to memorize music on the piano? So I'm going to read you the full question and give an in-depth answer because this is a really important question.

Jay asks, I know that you're an advocate for memorization and I continue to be amazed at the depth and breadth of your repertoire. We recently heard Daniel Trifonov play the Brahms Second Concerto from memory. Amazing. The reason I'm writing is that we've heard other performances where the pianist used a tablet.

Lang Lang played the Bartók with the Vienna Philharmonic in West Palm Beach. We've also heard Yuja Wang and Simon Dinnerstein and they were all using tablets.

My teacher, Dr. Marshall Griffith, has insisted to me the number one goal is to make beautiful, meaningful music. Especially as a 74-year-old, I'm not good at memorizing complex music.

So my question is, is there an unwritten rule that pianists play from memory? Well, playing from the score is important in many scenarios. For example, a pianist within an orchestra would certainly play from the score.

In chamber music, where the pianist's score reveals all the other parts, this too is an important time to utilize the score. Now, memorization wasn't always the standard in keyboard performance. Earlier music in the Baroque and Classical eras didn't generally jump around the keyboard a great deal. There are some notable exceptions, Scarlatti sonatas, a few Mozart and Haydn sonatas.

But aside from the exceptions, playing with the music worked fine if you're all in one place. Why bother memorizing? It's when you get to the Romantic period and beyond, with big leaps, fast leaps in Liszt and Chopin and other composers, that playing from memory became the practical solution to being able to negotiate the music. Think about it. Some accept it to use the score when playing complex contemporary music. However, generally playing solo piano music from memory is the standard for performance. It is out of practicality.

If you have ever had a piece committed to memory, you understand how much easier it is to play where you can focus on your hands instead of looking back and forth from the score wherever there are large leaps in the music. If you can't memorize, it's likely because you haven't been taught how to memorize.

Memorizing music isn't a passive activity. Like so many people believe, just keep playing your music enough and it'll seep in. You know what? It doesn't work that way.

I'm putting in the description a video I did years ago that explains the process of how to memorize music at the piano. Yes, there's a system and you can learn how to memorize.

So check that out. All my students learn to memorize as well as playing from the score. There are three essential skills all pianists must learn.

Memorization, sight-reading, and improvisation.

You know it's possible to develop one or two of these skills and be completely deficient in the others because each one has its own unique methodology.

Hey Jay, thanks for the great question. And if any one of you has questions, address them to me, Robert at LivingPianos.com and you may find them in a future video. I hope you find this interesting and helpful. Again, Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, your online piano resource.

Find the original source of this video at this link: https://livingpianos.com/do-you-have-to-memorize-music-on-the-piano/

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