{"id":221,"date":"2012-01-14T09:50:24","date_gmt":"2012-01-14T09:50:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ilovethepiano.co.uk\/?p=221"},"modified":"2012-07-18T22:48:50","modified_gmt":"2012-07-18T22:48:50","slug":"the-guardian-how-i-remember-the-pianist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ilovethepiano.co.uk\/?p=221","title":{"rendered":"The Guardian: How I remember: The pianist"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leo Benedictus guardian.co.uk<\/a>, Sat 14 Jan 2012 00.28 GMT<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"Joanna MacGregor says that when memorising music it is important to develop your intellectual memory rather than relying on your muscle equivalent.<\/p>\n

I often tell my students that developing your memory is very much like exercising a muscle. It’s not a knack; it’s something that you do week in, week out. Indeed, most of my routine for memorising a piece is very simple: I practise it like fury. Often, pianists find it easier to remember a very fast and physically challenging virtuoso piece, because there’s so much practice involved. Slower and more minimalist music takes a different type of memory.<\/p>\n

Bach’s Goldberg Variations is a good example of something especially difficult to memorise, because it’s contrapuntal and highly complex, but also very virtuosic, and it lasts an hour. If I was going to play that, I’d be preparing it months in advance, practising for five to eight hours a day at a deep, calm and practical level. I’d play slowly, and attend to the things I know are complicated. It’s like being an athlete training for the Olympics.<\/p>\n

When you’re younger, often what you’re playing is less complex, and you tend to remember pieces quite naturally. Young pianists are often very quick and rely a lot on their muscle memory \u2013 like the kind we all use typing. This is dangerous, however; if you’re nervous or tired or distracted on stage, it’s the first thing to go. That’s why you have to build up an intellectual memory as well; it’s a question of having the piece at a very deep level. The night before a concert, pianists often run the entire performance through in their heads, not sitting at the piano.<\/p>\n

Everybody has moments of forgetting. They are rare, but it’s a natural part of being a musician. Having a blank moment when you’re very young is absolutely appalling. The skill is to know the piece so well that you can improvise for a split second. With experience, you learn how to be calm and self-sufficient \u2013 and, as long as you improvise in the style of the piece, no one notices a thing.<\/p>\n

*Joanna MacGregoris a concert pianist and head of piano studies at the Royal Academy of Music<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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