Memorizing Music with Retrogressive Chaining

A very effective way to memorize music is to use retrogressive chaining.  This was method of training developed by psychologist B.F. Skinner, but it was also described in an Etude Magazine that predated Skinners work.  I’ve used the method myself successfully and thought I would pass it along to you.  Here’s the idea as described in the Etude Magazine.

Select a piece of music that you would like to learn and memorize.  Turn to the last measure!  Study the score of the last measure. Then without looking at it try to play just the last measure.  If you can’t do it, then play from notes. Then again study the score and play without looking at the score.

Make a goal of learning at least one measure a day.

On day #2, memorize the next to the last measure and play through to the end of the song from memory. By the end of the week, you will be able to play the last 7 measure from memory.   Of course, you may memorize more measures than this, but this can be your memorization minimum.

Notice that the last part of the song or piece will get the most practice because you always play through to the end. This has the beneficial effect of giving you more and more confidence as you play because the last part of the piece will be more strongly embedded in your memory.

Of course, you will probably want to often play the piece from the beginning, but your memorizing should be focused on the last part.

Rule: Once you memorize a measure, never play it again directly from notes!  

If you can’t remember a measure that you’ve previously memorized, stop and study the notes to refresh your memory; then turn a way from the notes and play from memory.

Reviewing Memorized Music — make a definitely time in your practice sessions for playing through music that you have previously memorized. It will be fun and enjoyable.  Don’t let these great pieces you’ve worked so hard on slip from your memory and fingers.

Mental Practice.  Memorizing a measure at a time can be combined with mental practice. You can handle one measure!  Without actually playing anything, imagine that you are playing that measure.  Try to feel it and hear it, but don’t actually do it.  If you can’t visualize it or feel your self playing that measure, then again study the score and then try again.   With repeated efforts, you will be able to practice the music in your mind!

This can be a great help once you learn to do this.  You can practice your music anywhere and any time: on a bus, while waiting for an appointment, while waiting in line at the grocery store or just before falling asleep.

Memorizing without your instrument. If you don’t have access to your instrument, you can still memorize music if you have the musical score to study!   One pianist was called upon to perform a concerto, but he was on a tour performing other music. Hehad to travel for long hours on a bus from city to city. So he memorize the concerto sitting on the bus.  Of course, he had time to practice each night when he arrived at his destination, but the bulk of his memory work was on done riding on a bus!

Muscle Memory.  Muscle memory is very important in playing music. But don’t rely on it alone! If you have no mental image or memory of your music but just play “on automatic” there is a strong chance that this muscle memory may just go away suddenly during performance.  If you play the same thing over and over again, eventually your fingers will memorize it and you can play it automatically without thinking. But again, beware of this. Don’t do it.  As you play sing the tune in your mind; try to anticipate the sound of each note before you play it.

Charting your Progress.  Another helpful thing to do is to create a chart showing your progress using graph paper.  Determine how many measures you need to by a specific date. Then draw a line on the chart to show the minimum progress needed per day to reach your goal.  Each day, plot a point on the chart showing how many measures you’ve actually memorized.   Drawing a line in a different color connecting the data points.

Bob Mager — a writer in the instructional technology field — has used this method, but he plot pages written instead of measures memorized, but the idea is the same.  Somehow it seems that seeing our progress on a chart gives us a new kind of feedback that will motivate us.  For example, if we see that your actual plotted line is falling below the minimum progress line, we know that we’ve got to get our “buns rolling” (work harder) to catch up.  This keeps us on track.

Improvising on the Original Tune.  Try this.  Instead of playing the music exactly as written, improvise on it but keep the basic chord structure the same.  This will force you to understand and remember the actual chord structure used in the original.  When you understand the chord structure, this will make it so much easier to memorize the music and make it your own instead of just playing from dumb muscle memory.

Super Slow Tempo. Play the music extremely slowly and thinkingly.  This is another way to ensure that you are not just playing with blind musicle memory.

Think or say aloud the Chord Names and melodic movement.  As you play in a very slow tempo, say the chords aloud and describe the melody.  For example.

I’m starting with an E-flat major 7th chord with third in the sopranto.  It’s a IV chord in the key of B-flat. The sopraono is moving up la -ti- do (or scale steps 6, 7 and then skips a 6th to  mi — the 7th of the E-flat chord.

Hope this help!s  Please let me know your thoughts by replying to this article below.