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This article is from the Piano Playing from Memory FAQ, by Isako Hoshino rmmpfaq@yahoo.com with numerous contributions by others.

6) Appendix - some psychological notes (Piano Playing from Memory)

Since memory is an object of study by psychologists and
neurologists, I spent a little time trying to find out what they
discovered that would help us to play the piano from memory. I
did find a few practical suggestions (see "Posing Difficulties"
above). In general, much of what they say tends to confirm the
methods that have evolved through the practical experience of
pianists and piano teachers. However they provide a different way
of understanding some of the phenomena. Here are a few
psychological points.

Nearly all our voluntary movements involve motor skills. These
motor skills are not reflexes, at least not in the sense that
swollowing is, nor are they exercised without using the mind. The
muscles are all connected to the brain by nerves, and as such are
extensions of the brain. It is not accurate to say that rapid
passage work is in the muscles or in the fingers. It is executed,
unconsciously for the most part, under control of the brain's
motor cortex, basal ganglia and cerebellum, and is monitored and
modified in flight based on conscious or unconscious feedback
provided by the senses to the brain. (Some musical passages are
executed too fast to be modified at the note level by feedback.
In those cases, feedback is used to modify the on-going contour of
the passage at the note group level.)

Complex skills are built upon previously learned component skills:

"The child first combined reaching and looking into
grasping; the grasping of single objects evolves into the
passing of objects from one hand to the other; the use of
sets of objects for daily tasks is transformed into the
building of simple structures..." (Gardner, p. 221).

There are analogies in playing an instrument, which is quite a
complex task indeed. All one's previously acquired musical
experience and skills are involved in learning a piece as well as
in playing a piece from memory. This experience includes such
things as facility in playing scales and memories of such things
as where notes are on the keyboard and what notes make up a
particular chord. What you learn becomes a tool for further
learning.

The "site" of the interaction of conscious behavior and learned
unconscious behavior is referred to as "working memory". This is
where music is processed as we are memorizing it and as we attend
to playing it. There is a limit to not only the speed of the
conscious mind, but also to the quantity of things with which it
can deal. Psychologist George Miller in his landmark paper "The
Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two" placed this limit at
about seven discretely different things. This explains why we
need to learn in small units, and also why we need to make lots of
our actions automatic. It also supports one of the benefits of
memorizing. The more we make playing the notes automatic, the
more we can focus on interpretation and making good music.

 

Continue to:

• prev: 5) Some further reading (Piano Playing from Memory)
• Index
• next: 7) Acknowledgements (Piano Playing from Memory FAQ)

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