The Guitar Player's Resource
I will now elaborate on the concepts set forth in Part One of this examination of memorizing music. In Part One, the essential point I wanted you to understand is that Attention is the foundation of the process of memorizing music, and you must be aware of the quality and quantity (intensity) of your own Attention. This is a very difficult matter, because becoming aware of the quality of our own Attention is like the eye seeing itself. You are being asked to pay attention to your in-attentiveness. Just as there must be special circumstances and devices for the eye to see itself (reflecting surfaces, ponds, mirrors, etc.), you must create special "mental circumstances", by using certain practice approaches, in order to become aware of your lack of awareness.
There are three kinds of memory that musicians use: Finger Memory, Ear Memory, and Eye Memory. They are more precisely named Muscle Memory, Inner Ear Memory, and Mind Memory. Think of them with whatever description serves you best at your present level of understanding.
Finger Memory is the strongest, most automatic, and most primitive form of memory. Like a computer, your fingers faithfully record whatever information is input to them, and just as faithfully, use that information to "compute", which for us musicians, means play or perform. If the fingers, through Correct Practice, are only fed the right information, the exact information that will lead to the result we want (the right notes at the right time in the right way), they will give it to us. Of course, if they are given wrong information, or "mixed messages", sometimes right sometimes wrong, sometimes different degrees of both, then they will just as faithfully give that back to us. Through lack of Attention, players often input this faulty information, and wonder why they don't get the result they want.
The power of finger memory is awesome, but it is not enough. I discovered this for myself early on, when I began giving concerts. I must say this only happened once to me, but it was quite a lesson. I have always played all my concerts from memory, sometimes up to an hour and a half of solid music from memory, (and when you play classical guitar, that's a lot of notes!) Well, once it happened that I got lost, could not remember, and had to go back to the beginning. Of course, it was quite a lesson in how to handle major embarrassment, but it was more than that. I came to realize that the reason I could not get out of the jam was because I did not have the other two kinds of memory going for me: Ear Memory and Eye Memory.
The thing to realize is that Finger Memory is very powerful, but also very stupid! It is not intelligent. It can't think. I usually think of Finger Memory with an image. It is like a mole, burrowing underground. It keeps moving by instinct, and has an instinct for where it is going, but it is blind, in the dark. It has no awareness of the whole picture (the music in its totality as movement, sound, emotion). That is why, when finger memory is all you have going for you, and you get lost, you have to rewind back to the beginning, that is, start the music over, and hope for something better next time around (which often doesn't happen). Even though the fingers may know the moves to make, they, shall we say, ain't talkin'. The more intelligent forms of memory are Ear Memory and Eye Memory.
Ear Memory is very interesting. Some people use it from the beginning of their involvement with playing an instrument. In fact, it is part of the natural approach of someone who has what we call "natural talent". Using it produces strong results as we develop our abilities through daily practice, and anyone can learn to use it, but it is amazing how many would-be guitarists don't!
Ear memory is your inner awareness of the music as sound. Ear memory is the result of your awareness of each note as a sound, heard externally AND internally. Again, it is developed simply through focusing attention on the music as sound sensation during the practice process. Very quickly for some, and sooner or later for everyone else, it develops into the ability to distinguish the important characteristics of sound, such as tone and pitch. It results in the ability (with practice) to reproduce the sound with our own "primary instrument", our body, by singing the notes.
And let me make this abundantly clear. You must learn to sing the notes if you want to be a musician! I always have my students sing, whether I have to force them to, or they do so willingly! When you sing the notes, you enter into a different relationship with the music, it becomes more real for you. One of the truest things ever said to me by a teacher was "if you can't sing the notes, you are not hearing them". I have found this to be absolutely correct. By learning to do so, I discovered that many times I thought I was hearing them, but I was not, not in the deep way a musician must be able to hear them.
When we play, the inner hearing of the note that is to come next, the phrase that is to come next, guides and prepares the fingers in their actions. Many students, especially in the beginning, do not have the inner experience of hearing the notes. For them, playing and practicing is just "moving the fingers around". The teacher must test them to see if they are having the inner experience of truly hearing the notes. This is done by asking them to sing. Often, a student will not be able to reproduce the pitch, and that's fine. Once you get them to at least make a sound, you have something to work with. You can refine it as you go along. It is my experience that all students are able to get with the program with a little practice. And anyway, what good is a guitarist who can't sing? The way I look at it, no self respecting guitarist would go through life only strumming chords, and having to find somebody to provide a vocal melody line every time they wanted to "make music". I believe all guitarists, even beginners, want to sing. They are just too "chicken" in the beginning. So, whether you sound like an angel, or croak like a frog, start singing!
Eye Memory is your awareness and memory of the written music. Just as a conductor, standing in front of the orchestra, must know every note that everyone is supposed to play, so you must know, in a conscious way, every note you need to play (or every chord, if you are singing and strumming). This means you must know, and know that you know, as in being able to say each note or chord, and being able to visualize, in your mind's eye, the written music, be it tab, notes, or chord diagrams.
When defined as Mind Memory, this form of memory is your awareness of the music as a mental concept, as an idea. It involves your awareness and understanding of ALL aspects of the music, harmonically, structurally, and so forth.
A useful analogy for grasping the essence of the three kinds of memory I have been explaining, is to think of an actor in a play.
1) Memorizing the lines he needs to speak in a mechanical way, solely by repetition (like catechism in Sunday school) is like Finger Memory.
2) Being able to hear inwardly the line that is to be spoken next is like Ear Memory.
3) Understanding the meaning of the words, why they are being spoken by the character, and how they relate to all the other characters and the story as a whole, that is Mind Memory. It is the result of thought, and intuitive involvement with the music.
If Mind Memory is strong, you can never really lose it on stage. Even if you forget your lines (the notes), you can "fake it", because, being aware of the whole picture at any given time, you are able to "think on your feet".
This is done by testing yourself.
Finger Memory: just sit without the music and try to play it. Can you do it? If not, you need more attentive repetitions of the music.
Ear Memory: play the music in your head. Sing the melody out loud. Can you do it? If not, keep trying! Play the notes, hear the notes, outside and inside.
Eye Memory: close your eyes and see the music. Say the first note to be played out loud. Say the next note. Keep going. If you get stuck, look at the music, and burn it into your brain. Say them out loud.
Does it take a lot of effort to have all these kinds of memory working for you when you practice and play? Yes. Is it worth it? Only if you want to be the best you can be!
Jamie Andreas is a virtuoso classical guitarist from New York.
She started playing guitar at age 14, by 17 she was giving concerts and teaching guitar.
