Why You Forget Pieces You Used to Know
1. Why Pieces Fade
Over the course of my playing career, I’ve learnt hundreds of pieces to a performable level. Yet, if you asked me right now to play even a handful of those pieces in a performance, I would inevitably make a big mess of it! There are even some pieces that I have recordings of, but I can’t remember learning them and looking at the sheet music feels like seeing a new piece for the first time.
No doubt, if you’ve played for long enough, you’ll have had this experience too. You may have spent many hours learning a piece, only to find that months (or years) later, it’s no longer in your hands or brain.
This happens for many reasons, but one of the key ones is that musical memory is not just one form of memory. When we learn a piece, we rely on muscle, visual, aural and analytical memory combining together to form the experience we have when playing it.
Imagine the first time you look at a piece of music, it feels slightly alien and strange. The notes on the page can feel like trying to decipher a puzzle. However, after some time learning the piece, the sheet music feels familiar, the notes make sense, and it seems obvious that they’re written that way. This is your visual memory.
Similarly when you repeat notes in your hands lots of times, your fingers become accustomed to that pattern of movement. It’s essentially learning choreography for your hands.
However, memory is like a muscle. Our brains prioritise patterns we use frequently and deprioritise those we don’t. So, much like building muscle in the gym, if you suddenly stop using a particular movement pattern… your muscles (memory) deteriorates.
2. The Memory of Music
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The way we learn is by strengthening the synapses in our brain and building familiarity with sets of common movement patterns. This means that if the same patterns appear in multiple pieces, you’re reinforcing and strengthening those skills. It’s your brain’s way of helping you determine what’s important to learn and what is not.
We have four different types of memory to rely on and different moments within a piece might depend more heavily on one type than another.
Muscle memory - This is the physical memory of what to play. In my experience, this is the first form of memory to fade in pieces learned over a few months, but it’s also the most reliable for common movement patterns such as scales or pieces you’ve spent a lot of time with.
Aural memory - This is your memory of how the music sounds. When first learning a piece, a lot of effort is spent working out its sound and meaning. Once you’ve learnt how it should sound, this type of memory tends to last a long time.
Visual memory - This comes in two forms: first, your memory of what happens in the sheet music (the structure, page layout, where there are difficult spots), and second, your visual awareness of the keyboard and the way your hands move.
Analytical memory - This is your understanding of the theory behind the piece: harmony, structure, and interpretation. Like aural memory, this form of memory tends to last a long time if you understand the music.
When we rely on only one form of memory, a piece can easily collapse under pressure. This is why we sometimes blank in the middle of a performance. However, when we use a combination of these different systems, we’re far more likely to not only perform better but also keep the piece in our memory over the long term.
3. Keeping Them Alive
Although pieces inevitably fade without consistently revisiting them, this does allow us to return to them with a fresh perspective. It also takes only a fraction of the time to relearn a piece once you’ve already built all the different forms of memory.
That said, there are some ways to keep pieces alive for much longer if you want to maintain a wide repertoire that’s ready to play.
Firstly, you can regularly rotate your old pieces in a playing and listening playlist. Revisiting them occasionally helps cement them in your long-term memory. One of the best techniques for your long-term memory is called “spaced repetition” which is where you revisite something frequently in the short term, then gradually less often over time.
Secondly, when learning a piece initially, actively build all four memory systems. Many players rush through new music and end up relying on just one or two types of memory (usually muscle and aural memory, which are the least stable over time). To make a piece more secure over the long term, focus on also building your analytical and visual memory as well.
Forgetting old pieces is completely normal, but maintaining them is much more about making sure you revisit them before they fade.
Matthew Cawood
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