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From: Ken Deifik
Date: Fri, 15 Aug 1997 11:42:58 -0700
Subject: Memorization

Anthony May wrote:
>Are there any techniques for learning melodies (both quicker and more
>permanently) other than phrase by phrase and playing them over and over? I
>know that nothing beats repetition but does anyone have any aids to
>learning melodies that have worked for them?

If you work every day, never missing a day, it gets easier and easier. It
should get to a point where it doesn't feel like memorizing at all, but
rather learning a terrain or a face.

I once learned the tenth fugue of the first book of the Well Tempered
Clavier. It's the only two voiced fugue of all the 48, and the only one I
could have played at all (on piano). Learning it revealed its beautiful
structure and amazing symmetries. By the time I got the whole thing under
my fingers the melodic bits were not notes anymore, but rather "features"
of a magical terrain. I would often get the urge to explore one of these
features in depth. If I didn't think about it I could start the piece
anywhere, but the if I tried to remember fingerings, or even the actual
notes, I had to start from the top and get to the section in question and
consciously look at my fingers to know how to play that part.

Though most songs and harp parts do not have quite the beautiful
construction of a Bach fugue, the more you work at learning pieces, the
more your brain gives you non-verbal strategies (in the sense that
recognizing a face is a non-verbal activity) for doing so.

However, on the subject of beautiful constructions and symmetries, I think
that most music that has something arresting about it, something that would
make you want to memorize it and play it yourself, has lots of beautiful
construction and symmetry. Really good players seem to create these things
without direct intention.

For instance, Gunther Schuller wrote an analysis of the construction of
some of Sonny Rollins' solos back in the late 50's, and showed all kinds of
uncanny stuff going on in them. When Rollins read the essay, he was so
blown away by all the stuff that was in his work that he didn't know about
that it took him two years of retirement and woodshedding to forget it and
get back to just doing it.

Roaming farther afield, the great genius of linguistics, Roman Jakobson,
had a lecture that he gave all over the world, where he would show
astonishing mathematical symmetries in a poem by Yeats. Inevitably, a
student would ask if Yeats had intended these things, to which Jakobson
would reply that Yeats almost certainly did NOT intend these things, nor
even know about them: what Jakobson was demonstrating was that works of
great beauty often have these qualities inherently.

And you don't have to be a Harvard professor, nor do a moment of analysis,
in order to partake in these felicities. When you learn Off the Wall or
Juke by Little Walter, you'll start finding all kinds of beautiful
features, initially improvised by Walter, but now part of the harp player's
psyche. At first you may have to laboriously memorize notes, but after a
while, like I say, it can become more intuitive.

In the larger sense, you may have found, as I have, that any activity you
wish to make easier should be practiced every day. Memorization is no
exception. In non-literate cultures memorization is an elaborate set of
skills, like house carpentry or farm management. In literate cultures we
barely scratch the surface of memorization skills, and could probably all
benefit by growing past the rudimentary stages.

Ken