Survey: Perfect Pitch V Memorization Options

[Bing]

Wondering if anyone fancies answering a few questions for a college paper I'm writing.

I'm interested in finding out whether having Perfect Pitch hinders secure memorization. The idea being that there are several forms of memory used for memorizing music - auditory (hearing), visual, muscle memory, analytical,etc. It seems that people with perfect pitch can often play well by ear, sightread well, but instead of using several forms of memory, rely too heavily on auditory memory - having always had an advantage in this aspect. This doesn't lead to really secure memorization. Or perhaps no-one has any problems in this respect? So I thought I'd take a random survey here.

1) At what age did you start musical training
2) Do you have perfect pitch
3) Do you play be ear and/or sightread fluently
4) Do you memorize classical pieces easily
5) What form of memory comes easiest to you - visual or auditory
6) Anything else you want to add

Cheers everyone.

Bing

[fsharpminor]

1) nearly 6
2) No
3) Fairly well
4) Not really, depends on period Im best at memorising clasical sonatas.
5) Auditory

[maggiemay]

1) nearly 7
2) Something very close to it
3) Yes - both.
4) Moderately easily to a point of about 80% accuracy - take that as a no if you like !
5) I really don't know - both are fairly strong. If I had to choose one, probably auditory, but I have an almost photographic memory for things like the spelling of words.

6) Also have synaesthesia. (and fingers crossed that's spelled correctly !! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif) )

[YetAnotherPianist]

1) At what age did you start musical training
2) Do you have perfect pitch
3) Do you play be ear and/or sightread fluently
4) Do you memorize classical pieces easily
5) What form of memory comes easiest to you - visual or auditory
6) Anything else you want to add

1) 6
2) Yes
3) Yes, both
4) Yes
5) Auditory
6) I use both auditory and muscle memory whilst playing from memory - my hands know what to do, and I know what it should sound like. Likewise, when sight-reading, I use a combination of spatial mapping and listening: I can hear a score in my head whilst reading it, so my hands do the work and independently of this my ears listen to what it sounds like and makes sure it's correct. It helps if say I have to do a big leap and hit a D instead of C - the aural feedback allows my hands to reorientate without affecting the flow of the music. The whole thing is a great big unconscious process really, I just let it happen.

[Dulciana]

1) At what age did you start musical training
2) Do you have perfect pitch
3) Do you play be ear and/or sightread fluently
4) Do you memorize classical pieces easily
5) What form of memory comes easiest to you - visual or auditory
6) Anything else you want to add

1/ 7
2/ No
3/ Not much - can do easily, though, if melody only/ sightreading is fairly good - but this question is a bit like 'how long is a piece of string!' I'm reasonably fluent to about Grade 6 standard pieces, sometimes 7, depending on the style, which is still, I suppose, a fair bit behind my standard of playing what I've practised, if you know what I mean. (Somewhere between an A and an L diploma.)
4/ No
5/ probably auditory but am similar to maggiemay's answer for this one!
6/ muscular memory is pretty good, but if something new to me is sightreadable I know I will never memorise it. Might just be a lazy mind taking the easy option - the visual.

[jacobpianofluteorgan]

1) At what age did you start musical training:
Just before my 12th birthday

2) Do you have perfect pitch:
Yes and No. I can probably tell you a fair few note names if they were played on the piano, and i can sing a fair few notes accurately without using the piano, but i wouldnt say I had PERFECT pitch, because sometimes i dont have a clue!

3) Do you play be ear and/or sightread fluently:
I can play a fair bit by ear, but im no way near as good enough as my grandad who is very good at it.
sightreading, i'm pretty good at it, because of all my accompanying choirs, and HAVING to keep going and hit most of the notes, and this has been very good for me, because my sightreading is always getting better. also, picking up a different piece of music everyday and trying to play it has helped, and so has playing hymns in church, as you are usually reading at least 4 different parts.

4) Do you memorize classical pieces easily:
Fairly well, and my finger muscle memory is good, and i can play blindfolded (have tried this a few times when messing around with friends! they think it's hilarious to jump on your back when you're blind folded!) If i spend a fair amount of time on the piece, i can play it without out music, and it doesnt sound too bad, but with my grade pieces, i can usually play them all from memory, and i can still just about play my grade 1 pieces from memory because my fingers seem to know what to do (i took grade 1 two and a half years ago).

5) What form of memory comes easiest to you - visual or auditory:
Probably a bit of both. I can picture things in my mind very clearly, and remember faces and number plates well, but i can also remember big pieces of music in my head, and i hum them to myself all the time (much to the distgust of my teachers!), which helps with the playing by ear.

6) Anything else you want to add:
Can't really think of anything else to add! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) I can touch type? that might have something to do with it!

Jacob. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[katyjay]

Hiya Bing

1. 6
2. Yes
3. Yes and fairly fluently
4. Yes
5. auditory


I'm not convinced that using my auditory memory as my primary way of memorising music leads to any less secure a memorisation than someone else using a visual or muscle memory as their primary source would have.

For example, I can, and regularly do, have a couple of dozen songs, half a dozen recorder pieces and three or four violin pieces memorised to the point I can perform them straight off, and probably two or three times that quantity at the "back of my mind", in that a quick run through a piece with the music brings it back into my memorised repertoire.


It works in other areas as well, not just music. When I was younger, I was set, as a punishment, to memorise the whole of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream". It took me two evenings to get it all memorised (by reading it aloud), and I can rattle off most of it to this day.

I don't believe that it's the type of memory used that makes the difference, it's how, and how often, you use it.

[joolsters]

1) 12
2) No
3) Better at sight reading
4) Yes up to classical symphonies
5) Both along with muscle memory

Very interesting topic!

[ad_libitum]

1) At what age did you start musical training :

Aged 4

2) Do you have perfect pitch

No - perfect relative pitch I'd say

3) Do you play be ear and/or sightread fluently

Yes and yes. Sightreading probably more fluent though.

4) Do you memorize classical pieces easily

Yes but Baroque is the easiest for me (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

5) What form of memory comes easiest to you - visual or auditory

A mixture I think. I can remember patterns from a score while I play but I can hear where I going too. Muscle memory plays a big part too.

6) Anything else you want to add

No thanks!

[freda_bloogs]

1) At what age did you start musical training
2) Do you have perfect pitch
3) Do you play be ear and/or sightread fluently
4) Do you memorize classical pieces easily
5) What form of memory comes easiest to you - visual or auditory
6) Anything else you want to add

1) 14, seriously, but I'd often done things like recorder and violin in primary school.
2) Nope, but I can instantaneously recognise certain chord voicings with their pitch if it's one that I've used a lot.
3) Play by ear quite well, depends on the genre. Sight reading is only good when I'm completely knackered and not concentrating.
4) Yes.
5) Depends on the instrument. Always auditory for singing and guitar, pretty much always visual for piano.

[Rosemary7391]

1) 7
2) No
3) Sight read fluently, practically hopeless by ear!
4) Not really, better on piano
5) A mixture, mainly visual and muscle memory. I tend to try and be familiar with the structure (Overall and harmonic) when I seriously want to memorize a piece.

[Violinia]

1) 6, but mother started training me from earliest
2) Almost if not always
3) Play by ear and sight-read fluently
4) Yes I memorize classical pieces easily
5) mainly auditory but use visual as well

[iona]

Hi Bing

1. Age 7
2. No
3. I sightread pretty fluently. It's one of my strengths. Playing by ear is getting better as my confidence improves and I trust myself more.
4 Yes
5. Auditory. Can't say I use visual to memorise music at all, just to examine the score for detail. (Sorry had to edit his one. I thought you meant memory generally. You mean musical memorisation..yes? )

Anything to add: Well I started with piano and found I didn't have to use my ears to get by. That all changed when I switched to a string instrument. I found the best way to practice then was by closing my eyes!

[cellocase]

1) At what age did you start musical training
5.
2) Do you have perfect pitch
Yes.
3) Do you play be ear and/or sightread fluently
I sightread pretty fluently; I play simple things by ear fluently, but would stumble on the more complex - I'd only be able to play a simple version of a more complex piece by ear fluently.
4) Do you memorize classical pieces easily
Yes, especially on the cello, where it really only takes me a couple of play-throughs to memorise
5) What form of memory comes easiest to you - visual or auditory
Auditory - by FAR. Never use visual.
6) Anything else you want to add
Not really.

[ffliwt]

1) 6
2) More like relative pitch... can very often recognise notes by hearing them but not always, and can always tell intervals
3) I sightread fluently and can play things by ear but don't often play by ear
4) I play by memory most of the time - can usually memorise pieces after playing them a few times - obviously this depends on length, difficulty of the piece etc.
5) auditory
6) not that i can think of (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) except that the near perfect pitch thing didnt come until the past sort of 6 months, and also since that time i've been playing by memory most of the time. this is all also since i started playing the violin...