I've just been preparing a programme for a concert I have on 13th October as part of Landulph Festival and part of that preparation has involved learning the pieces from memory. As I was doing this I began thinking about why pianists perform from memory. What are the advantages? Is it really necessary to learn a whole recital programme from memory?
When it comes to performing a piece for an exam, festival or concert you should know it from memory even if you still choose to have the music in front of you. The piece should be so well known by the time you come to perform it that you could play it through without music if you needed to. However, you may still choose to use music as a prompt or just for added security. If you do choose to perform from memory it is important that you are able to keep going even if you have a memory slip.
There are, however, some advantages to not having the music in front of you. Having music means you either need to worry about page turns or else get a page turner to assist you. However, having someone constantly popping up to turn pages can be a distraction to the audience and also to the performer. Being able to play from memory does mean that you're able to focus so much more on the music. It also looks more professional. When a pianist plays from memory the audience know that the performer knows the music thoroughly and therefore can give a confident performance. In a sense it can help the audience feel more relaxed and enjoy the performance more.
So, it is good practise to play from memory if you are able to. If you don't have the confidence to do this in front of an audience yet at least try it at home. However, if you choose to play from memory always make sure you can keep going should you have a memory slip. If you feel safer using music then do so but work out in advance how you can manage the page turns.
0 comments:
Post a Comment