JPF Home Page Forums Musician Gear and Techniques Keyboard and Piano Forum Memorization help

Hi,

I hope this is the right spot to post this. I'll post over in Vocalists as well.

I know I'm here with some of you who are concert pianists. I'm not. I play well enough to sight-read quickly and to entertain myself. I got to John Thompson's 3rd grade book in lessons as a teenager--and that was teaching myself that 3rd book, mainly. So I missed out on a ton of theory, as well as--well, let's not start counting.

Anyway. I'm more of a singer/vocalist/songwriter, but the piano is my only instrument. I'm looking into starting out with some open-mike venues, and I'll need to find a way to accompany myself to do that. I'm worried my playing isn't up to par.

I can improvise from sheet music well enough to "play with" the chords I see; but I'm absolutely lousy at memorization, and I always have been. (My 13 yr old daughter memorizes every single lesson just for the heck of it--I'm amazed.)

Anyway--I'm just wondering if any of you have any memorization tricks or things that have helped you in your careers with getting it right. I've been studying the Theory topics and that's helping me realize what I missed. Knowing those basics alone will probably help tons.

Still--anything you've got that helps you either 'play by ear' or pick up an accompaniment quickly, or remember all those notes. . . I could use it.

Thanks!
Linda



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Linda Adams
www.alyssastory.com