For the longest time, I’ve struggled to memorize music at the piano. I recently discovered it was because I wasn’t doing it right. It’s actually a different kind of practice.

Here’s how I used to do it: I would play the piece repeatedly, until I could more-or-less play the whole thing from muscle memory. If I tried to perform it, I’d have frequent lapses, and two weeks later, I couldn’t even play past the first few bars.

Guess what? That’s the wrong way. It’s not that I’m surprised — when I was young, I did have teachers who suggested better ways, some of which I’m applying now. But I didn’t really listen to them, because…well, I think it’s because I didn’t really understand why they were suggesting the things they were suggesting — so I didn’t really believe they would work. More on that in a moment, but first, here’s what I’m doing that works for me:

Small chunks

When you’re learning a piece from scratch, you should work in small chunks. At a certain point, you’ll be able to play longer sections fluidly. When you start memorizing, you must stop, return to working on only very small chunks at a time, and build back up to longer sections. Like many of these suggestions, this requires discipline, because it feels like a step back, and because you love the music, so you want to hear it. Resist the temptation to play. Work in chunks.

Hands separate

A member of the piano group I facilitate suggested this one recently, and I think she’s right. When you first learn a piece of music, you should always practice the hands separately. At some point, you’ll put them together and be able to play it. At that point you’ll be tempted to keep playing it. Don’t. When you decide to start memorizing, pull them back apart. As you’re learning the music for the first time, you’re probably getting a better grip on one of the hands than the other. Then, as you’re playing, you’re either using that hand as a kind of crutch to help the other hand along, or playing that hand partly from memory so you can continue reading the other hand…or both. By pulling them apart and memorizing them separately, you’ll quickly see which one is weaker. Then you can strengthen it.

Play / sing

This is an excellent strategy for learning anything contrapuntal — Bach fugues and the like. But it can also help you memorize. As you’re working on memorizing one hand at a time, make a point of humming or singing a line from the absent part. Or double something from the part you are playing. Both will help you solidify your memory.

Three Steps

So you’re working on a small chunk, in just one hand, in memorization “mode.” What do you actually do? What works for me is the following sequence: play the chunk while looking at the score. Then cover the score and play it while looking at your hands. Then play it again with your eyes closed. If you stumble — if you can’t remember what comes next — uncover the score and start again, but — and this is crucial — not mechanically. Consciously take note of what you failed to remember — where you got stuck or lost. Really notice it. Say it out loud — “Ah! It’s a B-flat,” or “oh — I use the thumb there.” Or if you rely more on visual memory, then fix the image of the note, or marking, or whatever in your mind’s eye. As always, resist the temptation to keep playing.

An Ounce of Analysis

If you have some music theory under your belt, use it. Write significant harmonic changes in your score. Maybe you can’t confidently identify every chord — doesn’t matter. It still helps. Because then, as you’re working on a chunk, you can say the names of the harmonies out loud as you play them. Say something like “E flat major…chromatic alteration of E flat major…” More challenging in passages with more chromatic / unexpected harmonies.

Interlocking pieces

Say you’re working on two measures at a time, and you start by memorizing the first two…

(1 2) 3 4

And then you work on the second two:

1 2 (3 4)

Before you take on (1, 2, 3, 4), make sure to attend to the middle chunk — measures (2, 3). Apply this principle at multiple levels of hierarchy — make sure you can play smoothly through the natural transitions.

Mental practice

Cultivating the capacity to play the music in your head will also solidify your ability to actually play it from memory. To some extent this will happen automatically, just like the muscle memory. But it’s worth the energy to make a point of rehearsing the whole thing in your head, even if it’s just the melody. Make a photocopy of your score and carry it around — you can practice this any time. Note that this also helps you avail yourself of one of the joys of committing music to memory, which is that you don’t need to be at the piano to hear it — you can visit it any time you want.

Be consistent

You’ll accomplish much more in 10 hours spread out over 10 days than from 5 hours per day for 2 days. This is partly because sleep is intimately connected with memory formation and consolidating. And partly because memory itself is dynamic, so that you strengthen your memory by retrieving it repeatedly and consistently.

Variety

The more different ways you practice, the faster you’ll memorize the music. Play it on a different piano. Play it an octave higher, an octave lower. Play arpeggios as block chords. Or if you have a repeated figure like an Alberti bass, invert it. I like to imagine that what we’re doing as we memorize is weaving a net out of silk to hold a heavy object. The muscle memory that comes from repeated playing is just the first thread. Every variation — whether it’s interlocking chunks, verbalizing the harmonies, or taking careful note of each lapse — adds a strand. The more you can vary the routine and be creative in finding new ways to challenge yourself, the stronger the web becomes.

Mindset is the most important thing

Once you recognize that memorizing is actually a distinct process from learning the piece the first time through, and polishing technical problems, you can start to reason about and reflect on what works for you. That’s the real key — all the rest is just details. The important thing is to take an active, curious stance towards your own mind. You may even find that, as you cultivate that stance, the benefits will reverberate through the rest of your life.