Mastering the 4 Core Components of Memory
Memorization isn’t about perfection — it’s about knowing how to recover. In this livestream, Dominic Cheli will walk you through the 4 essential components of musical memory: auditory recognition, visual mapping, muscle memory, and analytical awareness.
You’ll learn how each layer works together to build confident, secure performances — and how to train each one intentionally. Whether you’re aiming to memorize full pieces or just key passages, this session will give you the tools to practice smarter and perform with freedom.
We’ll also take your questions live — join us and make memorization feel a little less mysterious and a lot more doable.
6 replies
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Hi Dominic! Zak again. I find that I play much better all around when I have a piece memorized. As in, not looking at the music and paying attention to everything else. But sometimes this feels like a chicken or egg dilemma... as it often takes more time for mastery of technically difficult passages etc than it does to memorize a piece, but perhaps memorization should be a first step? Should I try to memorize first, at the risk of not playing very well, but having that memory foundation to utilize for improving on the piece?
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One more question, how do concert pianists memorize the extremely nuanced technical long concertos and such... are most playing a piece thousands of times literally before memorization kicks in? Some pianists seem to even have hundreds of pieces memorized...
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Hello Domenic, How do you calm and focus yourself prior to a performance? What is going through your mind right before you begin?
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Hi Dominic, I’m in the early stages of learning how to memorise, and I notice that I find it easier to remember phrases when the left and right hand rhythms line up together. However, where there is a difference in the rhythms and the notes don’t line up in both hands I have much more difficulty. I would welcome any advice! I’m really looking forward to this livestream, it’s another great topic!
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Thanks for the great session!
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- You asked in the stream for us to send you specific pieces we are having trouble with. At the moment, mine is the third movement of Schumann’s Op. 12 (Warum?). It seems simple, but it has so many complex layers. The melody shifts between voices, and the harmonic progressions are intricate. (FWIW, I am able to memorize pretty complicated stuff, but it takes me a while.) TIA