Welcome to Gaia! ::

I've been in band for 5, going on 6, years and there is one thing that has always bothered me. I can't seem to memorize music at all. Even after I've played it over and over I still can't memorize it. Even the scales won't stick (the only one I've memorized is Bb major). Does anyone have any tips for memorizing music or even just the scales?

When I was in the 7th grade (last year) I remember leaving my music at home and I couldn't look off of someone else's cause I was the only 1st alto saxophone player and I surprised myself....I actually didn't need to look at my music cause I memorized it all.

Play one phrase over and over and over. Turn the music around and try to play it again. Look at the music again, see what you missed, then turn it around and try to play it again. Repeat until you've got the phrase.

Play the next phrase over and over and over. Turn the music around and try to play without it. Fix your mistakes. Then try to play it without the music with the previous phrase as well. Look at the music to fix what you've missed, then try again without the music.

Repeat for the full song. smile

yes i agree with repetative practice also sometimes tunes just get stuck in your head and you remember the music but sometimes that's a negitive because it might be a song you already know and you start to remember it they way the first time you heard it. sweatdrop

what helps me is by listening to a recording of it several hundred times XD. Yeah, helps a lot. if you could find a recording, great. play it several times and try playing along. what also helps is take it section by section. the first few times, you'd want to play the recording, and then play the music a little slower, then gradually get faster until that section is the same tempo as the recording, then play along with the recording so you can get the rests in as well. it helps me find rhythms and stuff too.

singing your part helps too!

now that you mention it, I've noticed that it is really difficult to memorize band music. There were very few that i ever did (one of which was for a music festival). Yet for my guitar I seem to memorize just about everything confused hmmm strange how that works...

Memorizing music used to be really hard for me in like 7th grade and a little bit of 8th grade. But once I got into a position where I was the only baritone that could play loud then I really tried harder to memorize my music. I usually just play it over and over again. And usually when we are in rehearsals with the whole group then I just use my music and put it down once I feel I have most of it and just see if I can do the whole thing. But once you play it so many times then it becomes muscle memory. (especially if you play a mallet instrument)