(More) thoughts on visualization and memorization

Here is my current progress on remembering the Sor D major...got all the way through it :)

The only time I have ever visualized the fretboard is when trying to fall asleep - doing 6-string scales in your head is much better than counting sheep! Even though it's my understanding that visualization is an important part of memorization for guitarists (and other musicians), it's not something that I've ever thought I could do.  Sometimes I can't even remember how to start a piece until I pick up the guitar, and then my fingers do that muscle memory thing (AKA context-dependent memory).

However, I recently started to work on a piece for orchestra (see below) - all single line melody but in just about every position on the fretboard between 2nd and 14th, the way our conductor has it arranged.  I concluded I would actually have to learn the piece (as opposed reading along after familiarizing myself with it beforehand) because of all the shifts (for more info on shifting, check out Zane's excellent lesson here!).

So after I replaced the strings on my guitar  - again - (what is it with those handmade strings still not staying in tune 10 days later??), instead of torturing myself with the out-of-tune guitar I was idly perusing the sheet music for the orchestra piece.   And I found myself visualizing where it would be played on the fretboard.   I don't know if it it's because it's a single, uncomplicated melody line, or because I've spent a lot of time trying to fall asleep with scales recently (!) but it didn't seem nearly as impossible as it has the few other times I've tried, and failed, to do this. Of course I was just doing what I do with the scales, figuring out the positions of the notes, ignoring the right hand and left hand fingering.  But If I have those it wouldn't be a large step to repeating the process without looking at the music. 

And maybe that's the key - make it super-simple to start with then add what you need later -  maybe the reason I've not been able to do it is because I've been trying to do too much at one time - pieces that are too hard, memorizing everything at once.  Instead maybe it needs to be digested in small chunks.  It could in fact be a stepwise process - I might need a lot of steps, but not so many compared with a hundred partially correct repetitions perhaps!

So this is my draft plan for the orchestra piece this week (maybe in sections, not the whole thing at once).

1. With Guitar... ( I did this already, so will be starting on #2)
- Work out where to play it on the guitar with the score and mark in positions and fingerings
- Read it through with the guitar until it's "familiar"

2. Without Guitar...
- Read score trying to remember positions on fretboard.
- Remove score and visualize notes and positions.

3. With Guitar
- Read score playing silently with LH trying to remember, i.e. adding kinesthetic memory to the visual memory in 1.
- Remove guitar and visualize playing the piece with the left hand, remove score and repeat.

4. With Guitar
- Try playing piece from memory.  Work our RH fingering/issues.  Mark them on the score.
- Remove guitar and visualize playing piece both hands using score.

5. Visualize piece - no guitar, no score.


I'm a little hazy on the steps that might be needed, but have a suspicion I might need all of these and then some ;) I'll update when I've had some practice at it, and believe me, I will be practicing because we have to rehearse it next week!

 Stay tuned (groan)!

Thinking ahead when sight reading, or when playing from memory ...

I've spent a lot of that twilight time half way between sleeping and waking musing on why it's so difficult for me to think ahead when I'm sight reading.  I know that the only effective way to sight read is to read ahead, but except in the simplest examples I just can't seem to do it.  I become totally absorbed in the note that is playing now, with the result that what comes next can be a complete mystery until I have to play it - with inevitable consequences.  No matter, I console myself.  I'm OK at memorizing and I don't need to sight read (much) at this stage.

And then came the Bach piece, for which I am thankful, really I am.  It's not a hard piece with multiple simultaneous voices - indeed most of it is single line music.  And although it presents some unique challenges for me, I shouldn't have any problem memorizing it, right?   Wrong.   Despite learning individual sections fairly well, when I try to string it all together my mind goes AWOL at random places.  What on earth is going on?   "It's just Bach" people say - but that doesn't explain why it's causing me such a problem.

I set out to see if I could figure out a way to overcome this mental ditziness.  The first thing I tried was actually reading the music ( I know, not my thing) while playing.  This led to the usual issue I have, which is I'm not good at playing without looking at my hands, and of course I can't look at both at the same time.  OK - I thought - I can remedy that - I will practice the piece with my eyes closed - there must be large parts of it I can actually play without looking, I'm just not used to it.   I did have the usual problems with hitting the right place on shifts, but apart from that, a very strange thing happened - I wasn't forgetting where I was. In fact I found myself actively visualizing what was coming next.  Which led me to the realization that this is unusual for me - even when playing from memory I am focused on the here and now and not what is coming next.  There is evidently something about staring at my hands that stops me thinking ahead.  This explains why I sometimes "lose my place" - no doubt exacerbated in the Bach where the different phrases have so many features in common that if muscle memory fails I can't instantly figure out what's up next.

Of course this leads me to an unfortunate realization that in order to better learn pieces, I first have to be able to map my left hand to the fretboard without looking.  This is something I've avoided rather successfully up until now.  Best case scenario - maybe I don't have to totally learn not to look, instead the attempt to play without looking will retrain my brain to think ahead.   We shall see.