I mentioned a few times that when I learn a new piece, I always immediately start memorizing it. When I encounter seemingly difficult to memorize passage, breaking it down to find out how a composer came up with every single note in that passage will magically make it easy to memorize. This way, I never have to resort to rote physical memory by mindlessly repeating a passage.
This is what I call analytical memory, and was discussed in my other blog: Efficient Memorization
Let’s look at below example from the Liszt Sonata in B Minor:
The left hand just look so hard to memorize! Actually not so if you break it down and find out how Liszt came up with every single note!
Let’s first look at Bar 1 and Bar 2, just the left hand:
mmm… this looks chaotic and impossible to memorize?! Hey what if I hide the 2nd note in each 16th group:
Hey! Looks like this is really just the B minor melodic scale coming down stepwise! Look at the highest note in each group: G natural, F Sharp, E, D, C Sharp … (red circles below) :
yes, this is exactly the B minor melodic scale! All the other notes shown above are part of this scale.
Now going back to the original passage:
It is very clear now the function of the 2nd 16th in each group is to complete a ‘turn’, and it is always a semi-tone below the first note of the 16th group.
Ok, I am sure if you know the B minor melodic scale very well, you can now play this exact passage from memory already, just perhaps at a very slow speed. Or if you want, write it out on staff paper from memory!
The rest of the passage can similarly be analyzed this way too!
