How do I begin finally making music on the piano?

Question

It's been almost 4 years since I had too much time on my hands while living in student dorms so I decided to learn to play the piano.I always loved listening to classical and suddenly listening wasn't enough so I decided to start playing. I had really A LOT of free time, so I'd often sit for 8 hours straight without getting tired and couldn't wait to pick up where I left off the next day. Maybe it wasn't quite the smartest thing to do, but I started with a Chopin prelude (4th, the simplest) and raised the bar from there. In my defense, I never had delusions of concert-level mastery (I was 24 back then), just wanted to have some fun with my favourite pieces. It toook me months to pick up a new one but I didn't mind, the reward of a few bars of something I really loved was enough.As time went, I got a little better. Having had little in the way of musical education (some recorder in primary school which I enjoyed a lot), I relied on occasional bits of insight from my roommate who was a fairly good musician (accordion, also decent on piano), the rest I picked up from books and Wikipedia. I learned the Raindrop prelude by Chopin, some time after that the Military polonaise, got even as far as the op10no12 (revolutionary) etude. Sometimes I gathered the courage to play at some venue and it gave me great pleasure when I'd get claps and occasional praise from more seasoned pianists, but not as much as I had from the knowledge that I knew how to play my favourite pieces and even play around with them a little (tempo, expression etc.). Then things started to get complicated. I had about 20 pieces in my modest repertoire when realized I couldn't play the 4th prelude anymore, so I worked to get it back together. Then I developed problems with parts of other pieces I thought I knew. Everything started falling apart. Suddenly I realized I was just a trained monkey who learned how to type the works of Shakespeare without knowing language. I still don't know how I really remembered those pieces. It can't all be muscle/visual memory, can it? On the recorder, it was simple to play things by ear and my friend said I'd eventually 'get it' on the piano so I patiently kept playing and waited. Then I got really depressed and stopped playing for about two months. Every now and then I'd sit and try to play a Bach variation or something else, but I'd just get in despair at how it'd break apart. All the joy was gone.I tried to begin anew, but this time simpler. I would listen to some simple pop music I liked and try to play it (sometimes with the help of chords from the net). I was determined to make it work, but after a two weeks' break, I can't remember how to play those pieces either. I wish I could just sit and play something I hear clearly in my head, but I just can't. Any advice on how to make this happen?

Answer 1

You are facing a very normal, very human issue with memory. In a pop-psychology explanation, memory works like this: you experience an event, and it gets coded (or “written on an index card”); this “index card” gets put away into storage until you need it again. The act of remembering that experience, or in the pianist’s case remembering all the notes and intricacies of a piece, is called “memory recall.” The recall is your brain searching for that one specific index card. Memories we use more get put into more convenient places to make the recall process more efficient, and memories we don’t use as much get buried in the archive. Like high school algebra when you don’t work in a math-related field.

Applying this to piano shows us how important it is to practice frequently and deliberately. Analysis (noticing the patterns) of your pieces is also of paramount importance.

Let’s tackle the first part, frequent and deliberate practice, by going back to our index card analogy. The index card is an experience, and for a full piece, you’ll have a whole pack of them: notes themselves, the way they make you feel, the way your hands feel, the memories you’ve made in each performance or practice session, but most importantly the road map of the song (which ties to analysis). That’s a lot to file away and pull back out. The recall process is going to be like a scavenger hunt if your brain doesn’t learn to file all those away efficiently, and it can only learn to do this if you use the recall process frequently (and if you don’t make mistakes during that recall). This involves referring back to the sheet music even after you’ve memorized the piece. The more times you accurately play, the better.

The “practicing deliberately” part is important because you have to think about each note or group of notes in order to practice recalling them. If you zone out in certain spots, you won’t remember them. Sure your fingers may get you through a bit, but I imagine this is where your pieces are falling apart. This leads into the next point: analysis.

You touched on this in your question when you mentioned typing the “works of Shakespeare without knowing language.” First off, cut yourself some slack. If you feel anything at all from music, you’re no stranger to the language. Analysis just comes from noticing patterns, and this is definitely something you can do! It helps us remember more because it allows us to break up entire pieces into smaller chunks and gives us a road map to help the recall process.

Let’s look at the Raindrop Prelude. The first 4 bars are the theme. Everyone knows that part of the song, and you could probably sing it in your sleep. The next 4 bars are just a repeat (minus the last bit)! That means for 8 bars of music, you only need to know 4. Then there’s a little interlude that occurs in two 4-bar phrases (that repeat). So 16 bars of music for only knowing 8 (we can call it AABB if that helps). Then! The theme comes back with its repeat. So 28 bars of music for only knowing 8. Then we’ve got a texture change, so looking at chords will probably help you here (I don’t want this answer to be too long, so I’m not getting into that), but then the theme comes back, and you probably get the point. Just find the natural repeats in your pieces, or if there aren’t repeats look for other patterns like chords or ideas.

Thinking of this roadmap as you practice frequently will help memory recall. It organizes all those index cards into order. Same with pop tunes; you just have to understand where the songs are going.

If you get nothing else from this rambly answer, take this: memory takes practice (and strategy). It is a skill that like any other must be practiced and built up. You are human; don’t think of yourself as anything less. Give yourself the tools to succeed, and you will. You just have to decide to do it.

Playing something you just hear in your head is something a little different than memorization, but it still takes practice in the form of aural training. Don’t despair; the more you do it, the easier it gets.

I really hope this answers your question and helps. Best of luck to you as you explore the music-making process more in depth, and keep making awesome music!