In order to learn by heart and avoid accidents during a performance, it is necessary to work on various forms of memory. I believe that a pianist, while playing, call upon 4 memories:

An intellectual memory: We know the tonal path, structures…
A kinesthetic memory: By dint of repetition, the fingers find alone their way on the keys.
A visual memory: We have a mental image of the score which takes place. We can visually anticipate the fingers position.
An auditory memory: We hear intervals or chords in advance.

The pianist’s work will thus strengthen each of these memories and teach them to complement each other or replace themselves if need be. I would classify the mechanical memory as the most uncertain, it is very risky to only rely on this one. It is what most of pianists do though…

Let’s now come to my 10 tips for improving your memory at the piano. All are based on my experience, but have proved their worth among many others. They enable to practice the 4 forms of memory and to feel at ease in order to play by heart in concerts.

1. Analyze what you have to play. What is the tonal path? What form has the piece? What specificities do you notice?
2. Be very attentive to the music itself: what is this chord, what interval do I hear here or there?
3. Do not allow doubt to set in. If you doubt, open your score and check through.
4. Do not try to memorize big sections but limit yourself to few bars.
5. There’s no point in repeating 50 times the same thing in order to retain it. You only train your mechanical memory.
6. Play as slow as possible by heart, each hand separately first, then together, while mentally visualizing notes before playing them.
7. Practice away from piano: take time to read the score and to memorize all its informations: phrase, rhythm, dynamics…
8. Inwardly visualize your playing and play your piece mentally, each hand separately, then together.
9. Be able to begin from anywhere: in the middle of a phrase, a bar or a beat.
10. Always finish a practice session by playing your piece very slowly: you will thus correct the mistakes or inaccuracies which have occurred while playing at the tempo.

I hope these advices will be useful for you and will make you feel more at ease during auditions or concerts!

Related posts:

1. Memory and piano performance
2. On piano keyboards
3. Leoš Janáček’s piano works