INTRODUCTION
Performing from memory, whether expected or required, can be a terrifying prospect. Pianists, singers, string players, and actors most often perform from memory, but many suffer extreme anxiety that can prevent them from achieving their full potential on stage. Others lack experience at performing from memory but want to learn how to do so with confidence. This website provides a point of departure for learning a new habit–The Memory Map. You will learn how to enhance your preparation to achieve the ultimate goal–secure, confident memory onstage!
What is it?
A memory map (or “mapping music”) is an approach to practice in which the performer writes down details in short-hand graphics, chord symbols, rhythmic stems, descriptive words or pictures—any type of notation–to trigger mental recall of a passage. Like to a road map, the memory map becomes a condensed, graphic representation of the music. This method requires critical thinking, providing a good remedy for mindless practice!
Mapping from the outset is recommended but can begin at any point in learning a piece of music. A one-page map eventually replaces the music on the stand as more details of the work become mentally embedded, until the map itself is no longer needed and piece can be performed confidently from memory. Over months of practice, the musician pulls together the elements of a piece that make it interesting and, hopefully, more expressively performed.
Why use it?
Muscle (or finger) memory is relatively easy to achieve, but that alone isn’t enough for success during the stress of performance. Perhaps you can recall a mishap in competition or a recital when one dropped note caused a stumble of considerable length. Mapping helps to achieve brain/ intellectual memory, which increases reliability.
The memory map becomes a visual log of work as it is conducted over time. The good news is that the habit of mapping becomes easier with experience, as the musician begins to think in graphic terms to suggest a theme, passage, a formal section or a page of music. Eventually it becomes a mental process that occurs even without drawing a map. It works for any age learner; the younger student can use pictures, invented symbols, and colors to represent a melody and its musical journey. Older students and professionals can include rhythmic details as well as harmony and form.
Who needs it?
Those with limited practice time. Musicians with full-time teaching positions no longer have the luxury of uninterrupted stretches of practice time for memorizing. They must find more efficient ways to memorize.
Those with reading challenges or dysfunction. The strategy of mapping music can help those with poor eyesight, dyslexia, or other impairments. Mapping can become a skill strengthener, as more time spent studying musical elements leads to integrated musicianship.
Performing from memory, whether expected or required, can be a terrifying prospect. Pianists, singers, string players, and actors most often perform from memory, but many suffer extreme anxiety that can prevent them from achieving their full potential on stage. Others lack experience at performing from memory but want to learn how to do so with confidence. This website provides a point of departure for learning a new habit–The Memory Map. You will learn how to enhance your preparation to achieve the ultimate goal–secure, confident memory onstage!
What is it?
A memory map (or “mapping music”) is an approach to practice in which the performer writes down details in short-hand graphics, chord symbols, rhythmic stems, descriptive words or pictures—any type of notation–to trigger mental recall of a passage. Like to a road map, the memory map becomes a condensed, graphic representation of the music. This method requires critical thinking, providing a good remedy for mindless practice!
Mapping from the outset is recommended but can begin at any point in learning a piece of music. A one-page map eventually replaces the music on the stand as more details of the work become mentally embedded, until the map itself is no longer needed and piece can be performed confidently from memory. Over months of practice, the musician pulls together the elements of a piece that make it interesting and, hopefully, more expressively performed.
Why use it?
Muscle (or finger) memory is relatively easy to achieve, but that alone isn’t enough for success during the stress of performance. Perhaps you can recall a mishap in competition or a recital when one dropped note caused a stumble of considerable length. Mapping helps to achieve brain/ intellectual memory, which increases reliability.
The memory map becomes a visual log of work as it is conducted over time. The good news is that the habit of mapping becomes easier with experience, as the musician begins to think in graphic terms to suggest a theme, passage, a formal section or a page of music. Eventually it becomes a mental process that occurs even without drawing a map. It works for any age learner; the younger student can use pictures, invented symbols, and colors to represent a melody and its musical journey. Older students and professionals can include rhythmic details as well as harmony and form.
Who needs it?
Those with limited practice time. Musicians with full-time teaching positions no longer have the luxury of uninterrupted stretches of practice time for memorizing. They must find more efficient ways to memorize.
Those with reading challenges or dysfunction. The strategy of mapping music can help those with poor eyesight, dyslexia, or other impairments. Mapping can become a skill strengthener, as more time spent studying musical elements leads to integrated musicianship.
