Memorize music the right way!

[@lettersquash]

Holy moly, Diego, this is absolute gold. I just watched another video - about the same length - that literally just went over and over CHUNKING and REPEATING chunks, as if it was all anyone needs to know. I don't like that method and I don't approach new pieces that way on the whole, but was still aware I'm taking longer to learn pieces than I thought I should be. Yours was so full of well-researched ideas there's a lot for me to work with, and you also debunked the idea of just going over and over little bits and then stringing them together. Maybe it works for some people. For me, your bonus tip undermines it, because I have to enjoy playing a piece - or the attempt! - and it makes no musical sense chopped up into bits, nor does it really elicit any enjoyment or emotion other than irritation and boredom. I'll consider each of your tips again in more depth. I'm pleased I'm doing a few things quite well, but not with enough focus or intention. For instance, in learning a piece, I expect that my memory of it will develop to where I begin to play it without the score, but I think of this as happening in two stages, and almost by itself. I will now put more effort into memorizing without the score, probably using that additive method. Thanks. Subbed.

[@Pupin57]

songs, pieces that I like and want to learn, I listen to exhaustion, for days... it just pops into my ears, after what you say, I go to work or wait for the bus and hum... I call it like listening to an advertisement, which non-stop appearing and deeply rooted in synapses. (By the way, I don't have a TV, I only watch KZbin and when an advertisement comes on, I press M (mute) to disable them). And my commercials are a piece I want to learn! Days and later with a passage of time of several months again, and again and then by ear, (I sift the notes more weakly and not from the list), I "got know" the thing. I've never had a problem with harmony, it's a natural talent for me, but I have to learn a lot about rhythm... I started with the piano at 36, I also help myself with Arranzers, which neglects my left hand, but I'm 67 now... As a result, I eventually succeed, and the audience, which does not deal with music, but has an ear, gives positive feedback... Now I devote more theses to rhythm and my left hand on the piano, (I think I will live to be 85+), I am vital, and my brain works well. Also, the technique of doing several things in parallel, over a long period of time, has an effect. What doesn't work for me, I try, then I leave, then I come back and after a period of 1-2 month, even years, it just suddenly works for me! I always come back and improve the repertoire as far as the way of performance is concerned. Whenever I listen to that piece from various artists, I get to know details and details, ... intros, patters, fills... I play alone and in a group with a guitarist for now, but before I played organs in a group where I had a drummer and a bassist... 1979 for 2 years. In any case, I mostly play from my head, from memory, eventually I use a reminder from the harmonie, note chord progressions for exotic ones, for me. I'm more of a guy who likes minor keys, and even there I have a lot more possibilities to rework the reharmonization progression... In any case, your advice is a huge help, I'm sorry I didn't have it when I was young... All the best.!

[@edcohen9843]

Thank you, Diego! I'm not a guitarist, but a saxophonist. And I appreciate your excellent, clear discussion on the techniques of memorization.

[@DiegoAlonsoMusic]

Thank you so much!

[@johnnyjaime123]

This is the best produced lesson I've seen on KZbin. Concise, yet complete explanations. Time markers with proper titles to remember the topic. Proper visual cues. Clear language. Perfect video. I hope you get more subscribers someday so you can make more videos like this.

[@DiegoAlonsoMusic]

Thank you so much for such a nice comment! I’m glad you enjoyed the video!

[@MrJvieira72]

This is super helpful. Memorization has been a huge stumbling block for me and this has been eye opening. Thank you for sharing your insights.

[@bearworm]

Thank you sir! It’s people like you that keep the world goin round with your learnings, wisdom, advice and teachings!

[@DiegoAlonsoMusic]

You’re very welcome! Thank you so much for your kind comment!

[@musicd3vil]

As a Classical pianist this has helped me to memorize difficult peices.

[@DiegoAlonsoMusic]

That’s great to hear! I’m very happy to have helped. Thank you for your comment. 🙏🏽

[@gtberg]

Mnemonics is good. I used that through college to help me memorize things in history classes. Got an A from it. Songs with a lot of chords give me problems. I'm working on creating pictures representing the chords, so I can create movies in my brain to help short term memory.

[@DiegoAlonsoMusic]

Great idea! Memorizing the chord shapes visually and by touch is very helpful. Thanks for commenting!

[@jeffh5388]

Thank you for such a professional and accurate explanation. It’s nice to hear advice from a real pro. Thank you Diego “10 stars”

[@DiegoAlonsoMusic]

Thank you so much for your comment!

[@alexpishvanov736]

Forced to reduce speed of the video to 0.75 to catch the info. You are speaking so fast ))) Thank you for clear explanations ) will fix some of my wrong habits in memorizing music )

[@DiegoAlonsoMusic]

Good to know! I’ll be posting detailed videos of many of these strategies in the future as well so please look out for those. Thanks!

[@RobBudge]

Lots of great info. I will be trying this with piano music. Thanks.

[@DiegoAlonsoMusic]

Thanks Rob! 😃

[@stevegardiner8627]

This is my favorite video on memorizing music and I've watched alot of them. Two music books that I have found helpful on this subject, are 'Practicing Music By Design' by Christopher Berg and 'The Musicians Way' by Gerald Klickenstein.

[@DiegoAlonsoMusic]

Glad you enjoyed the video! Both of those boos are wonderful. Check out Peak and Make it Stick as well. Thanks for commenting!

[@nickk8416]

Thank You for these ideas! Outside of muscle memory I don't have one. :) Maybe some of this will work. I'll try these many ideas.

[@rafaelgomez1989]

Just discovered your CHANNEL = 5 STARS indeed, high-quality content. Will do all your recommendations. Gracias Diego !!!! - you just won a new subscriber here

[@DiegoAlonsoMusic]

Awesome, thank you!

[@elenamusic763]

Great tips

[@joel6427]

That is excellent information, Diego. Speaking of memory, you reminded me that I have the book!

[@DiegoAlonsoMusic]

Ha! That’s a great book. One of my favorites.

[@alvendi2012]

You forgot that you had the memorization book? 🤣

[@jillmcaleese6514]

I appreciated the clear concise well paced presentation

[@DiegoAlonsoMusic]

Thanks so much for commenting! Glad you liked it :)

[@jimperonaguitar]

Wonderful, Maestro!

[@DiegoAlonsoMusic]

Jim!!! Thanks so much! Please share with your students :)

[@gv1014]

Great strategy. Thank you.

[@StevenBrener]

Should really bookmark this one. Lots of great material and suggestions in here - but need to view many times for it to start sinking in.

[@DiegoAlonsoMusic]

Great suggestion, Steven! I just made the timestamps much clearer. I appreciate the feedback! I’m also planning on making more detailed videos on each strategy at a much more natural pace. This one came out a bit rushed!

[@ayarezk8684]

You are a fantastic teacher! I started playing music after the age of 30 and it feels really tough. These tips actually helped me through medical school but I never considered them for music. Such a great insight, and your evidence-based scientific supplement material is the chef's kiss!

[@DiegoAlonsoMusic]

Thanks for your comment Aya! :)

[@ricomajestic]

Great video on various memorization strategies. You summarize all the strategies very well.

[@DiegoAlonsoMusic]

Glad it was helpful! Thank you so much for commenting! 🙏🏽

[@johnwisdom5213]

Your videos have some seriously good content. Thank you!

[@DiegoAlonsoMusic]

Thanks so much John! Glad to hear you like them. Comments like yours motivate me to create more more of the same. :)

[@eugeniustheodidactus8890]

My piano life is _a recall attempt!_ I only memorize music, and have never sight-read anything. I use the "Rubenstien Method" of playing it 5x correctly, using 5 coins. If you practice with stress... you will learn to perform it with stress, and this is an awful trap.

[@DiegoAlonsoMusic]

Yes! Totally agree. Thank you for commenting!

[@billclarkcomposer7719]

Excellent video.

[@DiegoAlonsoMusic]

Glad you enjoyed it! Thank you so much for commenting!

[@sovereign142]

I thought that musicians had a special talent and I should not try to memorize the music. How wrong am I I hope my teacher notices!!

[@bjm2762]

Great advice Diego. How do I know if a piece is too hard for my level? Should I just jump in and try it? Thanks

[@DiegoAlonsoMusic]

Hi! Thank you for commenting! In general, if a piece feels too physically challenging or is taking me far too long to learn, then I consider it too hard for my level. I find that my practice is most effective when the piece of music I’m learning. It’s just a little outside of my comfort zone so that I can make a good amount of progress in one or two practice sessions. There are also some really great resources for graded repertoire in Classical Guitar that can help guide your practice. This is my favorite: amzn.to/4eqegvx Unfortunately, for flamenco guitar, this doesn’t really exist outside of Juan Martin and a few others. (Juan Martín’s material and the techniques presented in his books, although very well put together, are also very a bit outdated.). I hope this helps!

[@katiastefanova7600]

amazing teacher

[@LibertyWarrior68]

Backed by science, doesn't give me a lot of confidence, but let's continue.

[@DiegoAlonsoMusic]

I know what you mean. There’s a lot of pretty bad “science” out there that isn’t empirical or isn’t carried out using proper statistical tools. There’s also the problem of having too much confidence in single-study results. Because of this I make sure to only list top-tier research and do my best to list validated results when possible. Of course, some studies are new and are, consequently, single-result publications. As long as we understand that all properly executed empirical research simply suggests a probability of results rather than definitive or absolute results, than we can try out the strategies presented knowing that there’s a fair to high chance that they’ll work for us. I like to find good publications that may give most people a high probability of success, but of course, nothing is guaranteed. Thanks for commenting!

[@lettersquash]

Oh, I forgot to add one gripe (assuming you read comments). I make this complaint a lot on youtube - background music can be really distracting, and on a video for musicians it seems like a particularly bad idea, because we're the kind of people likely to be distracted by music. On a music video about memorizing and learning, it's even less appropriate. I had to turn down the volume until I could barely hear your voice.

[@DiegoAlonsoMusic]

Thanks for your feedback! I’ve gotten that same feedback from other people so I no longer add background music to my current videos. Glad you like the video!

[@guitarplay888]

Really informative and substantial practice information. Very fast 💨 in explaining it all though. It’s hard to catch all that your saying.

[@DiegoAlonsoMusic]

Thanks Guitar Play! I know 🫣 I tried to go through it pretty quickly to keep the video succinct. But don’t worry; I’m planning on posting detailed videos on each of these strategies in the future! Thanks again for your comment and support!

[@samrogers9515]

very good video

[@DiegoAlonsoMusic]

Thanks for your comment!

[@RanBlakePiano]

Helpful!

[@DiegoAlonsoMusic]

Thank you so much!

[@scottjones6624]

You reference "Science based practice hacks" as a video you recommend for us at 5:26 of this video, but I cannot find that anywhere on your site and the banner that shows up on the screen does not click through. Can you help with this?

[@DiegoAlonsoMusic]

Hi! Thanks so much for pointing that out. Looks like I changed the title of the reference video and forgot to update that on this video. 😵‍💫 It’s called “4 Ways to Learn Music Faster” and it’s focused on using Spaced Practice to improve memorization of new information. I’ll add a link to this video in the description. Thank you so much for catching this and for commenting! Much appreciated 🙏🏽

[@lunchmind]

chunking and chaining. hOlistic.

[@jrcello]

Noah is a violinist

[@DiegoAlonsoMusic]

Oops, I misspoke. Just fixed it. Thanks for letting me know!

[@Krzyshtoph]

why does it say it was released 5 days ago? I've been seeing lots of his videos what were supposedly released in recent days that are older videos. What is going on?

[@DiegoAlonsoMusic]

Hi there! That’s very strange. On my end YT displays that my video was posted on July 16, 2022. Not sure why you’re seeing a release five days ago. 😵‍💫

[@guidofeliz8384]

What is your nationality?

[@DiegoAlonsoMusic]

Hi Guido! I was born in Peru and raised in the US. :)

[@guidofeliz8384]

@@DiegoAlonsoMusic : Peru? Are you a Trump or Biden guy?

[@DiegoAlonsoMusic]

I prefer to keep my channel non-political.

[@guidofeliz8384]

@@DiegoAlonsoMusic : Your answer is very political. I can see right through the words but whatever.

[@sandrafrancis3631]

​@@guidofeliz8384No sane person would support Trump! Why even ask? Does this guy look crazy? I don't think so!😅

[@stevensynhorst1217]

Diego: Great concepts and video production. ---- But you talk too fast - much too fast. Maybe not for fellow musicians, but for we pupils. we need a bit of time to absorb the brilliance of what have just said. Poor instructional technique. You advise mini breaks in practice; I advise it in your presentation, after each paragraph or key phrase. That is when we might learn a bit. If you rush us on we will retain little. And we may search elsewhere.

[@DiegoAlonsoMusic]

Hi Steven! Thanks for your feedback. You’re right, I definitely rush through these concepts. In retrospect I should have broken this up onto 2 parts. But…I am planning on making individual videos on many of these concepts to help break down some of their nuances (at a slower speaking speed)! :) Thanks again!

[@williamash6776]

I liked that you presented quickly. We can always stop to read, or go back to repeat. So many too wordy presentations on Youtunbe. You're always on point, thanks!

[@DiegoAlonsoMusic]

@williamash6776 Thank you so much for your comment! I was a bit worried about my speaking speed, but you’re right. The option to slow down the video is super helpful when needed. Thanks again!