The almost immediate playing from memory
On the face of it this might not look like a practice ailment; it may look like a blessing. However, if you’ve experienced instant memorisation in action you will have seen the havoc it can wreak on students’ reading skills and overall musical fluency.
You see, these students are not actually memorising fully and effectively but rather attempting to play by a combination of memory and ear as soon as they can. There will be many errors in their playing, and it’s unlikely that they will have observed all the details of the score. What you will hear is more like a rough idea or sketch of the original piece.
Quite often, instant memorisation is a compensation for reading difficulties – although of course it only makes the problem worse in the long run. To get these instant memorisers back on track we need to simultaneously embrace their skilled musical ears and provide situations where reading is the easier option.
Symptoms
Prescriptions
Score Spruce-up
In lesson
In order to put your student’s eyes to work before her ears can step in, you need to put the observation stage ahead of the playing stage. Select about eight pieces that you are planning to assign to your student soon, either sheet music or pieces from a book you haven’t given to her yet. Photocopy the pieces and write instructions on a sticky note for her to do the ‘Score Spruce-up’. The instructions could be, for example:
Get creative with the tasks, finding assignments that will help her to see the patterns and sequences in the music. Prepare at least two of these score studies before the lesson, with different tasks for the different pieces. Help her to complete one of these ‘Score Spruce-ups’ in the lesson but do not ask her to play the piece yet.
At home
Assign one or more ‘Score Spruce-ups’ for homework, continuing to assign her other work as normal. When she brings back the spruced-up scores, take them from her, file them away, and give her some new pieces with tasks to complete. On the third week, give her some of the pieces she has already spruced up but this time with different tasks at the top.
All of this is preparation for when you eventually do assign her these pieces to practice. You can introduce a piece for playing purposes when you have collected at least three different ‘Score Spruce-ups’ from your student for that piece. Review all the spruced-up scores with her, talking about the different things she has marked and coloured. Then give her a clean version and start to work on playing it. Continue this process until all eight pieces have been studied and practiced, and take note of whether the instant memorisation is cured or needs further intervention.
Easy As Pie
In lesson
Find a book for your student which is at least a few levels below her current assignments. Look for one that does not have familiar melodies – even better if the melodies are in unusual scales or modes. Bartók’s Mikrokosmos, for instance, would be a good choice. Be a little sneaky and tell your student that you’ll be exploring this new book together as a way to learn about technique, world music, the composer, or any reason other than “to improve your reading level”.
Take the first piece and work together to analyse the score (the steps, skips, leaps, note names, rhythm, key signature, etc.). Treat this music much like you might a sightreading exercise; the only difference is that your student will be practicing this for one week. Have her play through the piece with you once in the lesson, and then assign it for practice at home.
At home
Your student should practice this ‘Easy As Pie’ piece much like any other. In the next lesson, have her play the piece once and quickly review the mistakes and re-analyse it together. Ask her to play the piece once more and then mark the assignment complete. Start on the next ‘Easy As Pie’ assignment immediately.
Each ‘Easy As Pie’ piece only gets one week of practice, no matter what standard it reaches. The reason for this is that the pieces should be at an almost sightreadable level, so that even if your student does not practice them at home she is still getting sightreading practice in the lesson each week.
When we take away catchy melodies and long practice periods in this way, we make reading the easiest option left. Over time your student will realise this and her reading will catch up with her playing. If you want to speed up the process, you can assign multiple ‘Easy As Pie’ pieces each week, and/or take a hiatus from the rest of her repertoire. Be careful not to demoralise your student however by pushing her too far too quickly; one to three ‘Easy As Pie’ pieces is a good fit for most students.
Related Diagnoses
Articulation Anaemia
Dynamic Deficiency
Finger Hiccups
Fingering Forgetfulness
I-played-it-better-at-home-itis