“How long do you take to memorize a piece of piano music?” There’s memorizing the music, and then there’s really owning it. Owning the music will take longer than simply memorizing it.
Different students will memorize differently:
- Some will visualize the instrument.
- Others will visualize the score.
- Yet others will remember the sound of the music or the kinesthetic “felt path.”
- Find out which way you memorize best and focus on that.
According to the concert pianist Myra Hess:
As is well known, there are three kinds of memory training: that of the eye, the ear and the fingers. Although I use all three, I depend, I think, more on the first than on either of the others… (Brower 180)
Likewise, Edwin Hughes asserts:
I believe in making the pupil familiar with all of these different ways [to memorize], so that he may find out which one is most helpful to him. (Brower 52)
Thus, the key is to find out how you memorize best and make the most of it. Once you’ve figured that out, work on memorizing the piece every day for a week, every week for a month, then every month for a year.