Memorizing Music

While I await for the new piece of music I plan to tackle to arrive, I plan to re-learn and polish-up some old favorite piano pieces. This will help me remember my lessons as well as give me a shorter timeline for having a special ready for church.

So this week I picked-up "The Lord's Prayer" and began practicing. One of the lessons my piano teacher tried to impress upon me was the importance of achieving a certain level of competence with each section before moving on to the next one. In the past I always chaffed at the suggestion and found myself wanting to plow through a piece without stopping.

Now I find myself quite willing to play the same four measures over and over dozens of times until my fingers have learned the proper way to go. The added benefit of this is that I find I am quickly memorizing the music, something that I did not actually set out to do at first. I have already memorized the first page of music in two evenings of practice. Of course it is the easiest page, but still, it is noticeable progress.