The 4 components to SECURE memorization (with Dominic Cheli)

I had an “ah ha!” Moment in this video about memorization.  I also play classical guitar (although I am still quite new at it compared to the piano)……and I have always found that with guitar music I tend to memorize things almost instantly and I think, after watching this video, that it has everything to do with the fact that on the guitar I am looking at my hands far more than I am the score because I absolutely cannot (at this point yet) play without looking at where my left hand is.  I think the CONSTANT visualization of where my hand is on the fret board and even the shape of my hand and where my fingers land on the strings etc all basically force memorization much faster.  When it comes to the piano, I am usually watching the music much more than I’m watching my hands. As for playing in public, I have learned the hard way that sometimes performance anxiety can make me forget what the very first note is for a memorized piece……I just “blank out” so to speak.  This happened on a piece that I was doing for a ragtime competition that I could play EASILY memorized at home…..but when I got up on that stage and the terror struck, I couldn’t even think of where to start (yes for me I feel like it’s more than just anxiety my fight or flight kicks in hard).  So one thing that has helped some with this hurdle is making sure that I can mentally visualize at a minimum those first few measures.  If I can just get going then sometimes I can start to go on auto-pilot.  Another really great thing that a guitar instructor had me do was when I practice, to just randomly pick places in the music to start.  I don’t mean a certain passage that you’ve been drilling with the metronome but on a piece that you have memorized and feel like you know well, with the score in front of you for this just pick any measure and start there.  Many of us “get into” a measure or a section of music in the same spot every time but doing this exercise it really also forces the brain to get to know in fine detail each part of the score.  Anyway thank you for the fantastic video!