Memorising music is an activity that I encourage, but do not insist on. Musicians vary greatly in their ability to memorise. Sometimes an exam board/college entrance exam will insist that one piece is memorised. This may seem impossible for you. But, even if you still need to look at the printed score (treble and bass clefs) after quite a lot of practice, the chances are that you have memorised the music to some extent without realising it. Ask yourself: Have I improved at all? Have I proceeded from practising hands separately to hands together? If you have progressed in this way, then you have probably become more acquainted with the music and have therefore memorised to some extent. It is worth mentioning that for professional musicians, memorising is often required, such as in the pop and rock world. (How often do you see musicians at festivals reading sheet music?) The classical world can be more lenient, such as the daily experiences of orchestral and chamber musicians.

There are different aspects to memorising:

1. Visual (you can see the page in your mind’s eye)
2. Aural (you can hear the music in your head)
3. Tactile/physical (you can remember what your hands have to do as with, for example, fingering and hand position changes).
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I suggest that you start with small challenges such as memorising scales and arpeggios. Almost everyone can do this quite well, although the usual problem is remembering fingering patterns for scales. Alternatively, you could try memorising 4 bars of a piece hands separately to start with, and then try both together.

In the Pianist Magazine (issue 85) Lucille Chung (Canadian concert pianist) reveals a very individual approach to memorisation: she approaches new pieces very mathematically from the outset and looks for patterns (eg melodic) in the intervals and chords. She doesn’t talk about what she does when the piece lacks patterns: composers don’t always oblige with nice regular phrases. She admits that she has to be very determined about this. She also writes out her fingerings: she believes that this tactile approach aids memorisation. Stockhausen (an avant garde German composer) would tell his composition students to write out by hand his pieces, as this was the best way to learn them in his opinion.

It’s interesting that Lucille comments that one reason why she adopted this unique approach to memorising was that in her early piano days she never learnt to sight read. I also encourage all my pupils to practise sight-reading as it is a doorway to independence from a teacher. This is particularly relevant to pupils who focus on classical music and want to prepare for classically orientated exams (eg ABRSM).

There are many interesting articles online: try wikipedia and musiciansway.com by Andre Watts: although Watts comes out with phrases such as “Fashion a vivid interpretive map” (which can be rather intimidating) it is an interesting read.

So, to wrap all that up, we make little progress with learning any musical instrument, unless we memorise to some extent. If you practice one day for 30 minutes at learning a new scale, the next day it will be less “new”; some aspects will have become embeded into your memory and on the next day you are not starting from the beginning with this new scale.

If your piano is acoustic (as opposed to digital/electronic) then tuning is a vital part of basic maintenance. By “acoustic” I am referring to traditional pianos (upright and grand) which require no electrics to produce a sound. “Digital” pianos are those which do require electrical power. Although digital pianos do not require tuning, they can require maintenance after a few years. Generally speaking, acoustic pianos will last longer if looked after carefully.

Pianos have many moving parts which will wear out in time and after a while, some parts will need replacing. 

My piano is regularly serviced by Robert MacDonald. I have no hesitation in recommending him to you.  ​His contact details are: tel – 01506 811642; mob – 0759 382 5548; email – robertthepianoman@hotmail.co.uk