Anybody Can Play PIANO 

MEMORIZING

The Anybody Can Play PIANO method uses the learning of language as a model. First we hear language. Then we combine hearing with speaking. Then we add reading. This language ability is made possible by the memory reflex. The memorization that takes place in this process is astounding!

With piano lessons, the memory reflex can be further trained. A young child will tend to memorize the beginning songs just because they are so easy to remember! They also like to play the songs they already know, which is a good thing. Encourage them to keep playing the songs they know. Compliment them on how much better they are playing that song then they EVER did before! Ask them to play that song for Daddy, for Grandma, for Grandpa, for.....

Encourage them to continue to memorize each song before they go on to the actual learning of the next song. Memorizing is actually the first real step in learning to play a song. Once memorized, the song can be played with ease, with passion, with direction - all things that tend to happen once the song is memorized.

Children like to "check out" the next songs on the app and that is okay, but keep encouraging them to memorize the songs in the list from top to bottom (easier to harder). Also encourage them to keep playing all the songs they already know. Let them know you enjoy their "concerts". And, again, have them play concerts for others. For those of you who do not play the piano, playing memorized songs is very enjoyable. They become a "part" of a person, just like language.

When a child continues to memorize, the memory becomes so well trained that even the more difficult music becomes easy to memorize...amazing! I always required that my piano students memorize their main lesson piece before going to the next piece. One of my students, who majored in music, told me that the piano professor said their lesson needed to be memorized by the next week. She said all the other students gasped! She thought it was funny that they would all gasp at something so easy to do.

If a person continues this memorizing habit, the memory reflex gets extremely well trained. If this process is dis-continued or done sporadically, this special training of the memory reflex ends. What is additionally wonderful about this is: this trained memory reflex transfers to math, science, literature, foreign languages……

A pianist who sits down at the piano and plays for hours is playing thousands of pages of memorized music!