From time to time my daughter's clarinet teacher remarks that she really ought to perform something from memory. This week he commented that when she takes grade 8 (still months away) she should do at least one of her pieces from memory. She won't, of course, because she will be too anxious that she will slip up and sacrifice marks. She won't consider performing from memory in a concert or festival either in case she ends up looking a twit in front of people she knows.

Anyway, something said in another thread made me wonder if a performance assessment with piece(s) played from memory might be a good place to start - slightly stressful, but no risk of missing the pass mark (there isn't one), and she'd be unlikely ever to see the examiner again. Great plan, I thought, until I looked into this further and discovered that under 21s are not eligible for these unless they are post-grade 8 or have special circumstances (learning difficulties/sensory impairments/physical disability) which mean that grade exams are not an option. I'm wondering what the reasons or justification for this are. It seems a bit unfair that children can only access assessment by exam, whereas adults have a choice. Is it just that children are not expected to have the maturity to say just what they hope to get from the assessment do you think?

LCM offer something similar

http://www.tvu.ac.uk/lcmexams/Exam_levels.jsp#Leisure_Play

I think these are open age wise.

these might be another option from trinity.

http://www.trinitycollege.co.uk/site/?id=1686

Don't know anything about them as it's not something we've looked at.

I'm curious to know why he's saying this. The only part of the exam which must be from memory are the scales, and whilst there's the option of playing pieces from memory in an exam, there are no extra marks for doing so.


It also seems a bit unfair that so many performance options close once one leaves school, and not necessarily the school-based activities - around here, quite a few festival classes have an upper age limit, and only a few have a lower age limit; even the open classes are dominated by children.

But yes, some kind of all-age non-exam assessment would probably be A Good Thing.

I don't know. Performing from memory is a bee that buzzes in his bonnet from time to time! He suggests it but never pursues it. I think it's partly that he finds it impressive in others; I also suspect (don't know for sure) he feels it's a weak spot in his own playing and performing. I do think it's easier for an audience (and maybe even an examiner!) to feel in touch with a performer when their view is not obscured by a music stand, so I am generally sympathetic to his point of view that daughter should make the attempt - but probably not in her grade 8 exam.





Point taken!

Thanks. I've had a very quick look at these. The nice thing about the ABRSM assessment, as I understand it, is that there are no marks - just comments. This doesn't seem to be true of these alternatives, and, I fear, daughter would be reluctant to give up her printed music if she thought it risked her ending up with a "bad" mark. It's just the way she is, I'm afraid.

If I'm performing on clarinet I don't stand directly behind the music stand. I position it a little to my right usually so that it's not between me and the audience (well not all of them anyway ).

I've got her match here. Has to have the music even if she's not using it

Playing from memory generally does enhance performance, and is a useful goal. However, I'm not sure that finding an exam context in which to do it is going to be helpful to someone who is not confident about doing it anyway and is fretting about lost marks.

Why not try it out in some less stressful situations first? - play to friends in informal settings, arrange to overlap lessons with another student and play to each other, play from memory in lessons etc. Very few people (in the UK that is) go into AB exams and play from memory - it is not a requirement, and few have the confidence to try. I understand that in some countries, it is expected that all performances will be from memory, from the outset.

I definitely wouldn't be trying to hassle a teenager into playing from memory if she wasn't keen - too much potential for upset and aggravation!

Interesting... I think it may be possible that because exams are such a big part of musical education in the UK and they don't require memorization, it's considered less important than in the US... In the myriads of studio recitals I have played in, I have very, very rarely seen anyone perform with music, and only under exceptional circumstances. Local recital auditions and festivals also require performances from memory (at least those that I've found). I did both grade 8 and DipABRSM from memory - to be honest, having the music there is uncomfortable for me! I do feel that one internalizes the music better once it is memorized, which usually leads to better performances. But on the other hand, some of the greats (notably Richter) didn't play from memory, so...?

In France they seem to expect pianists to perform from memory (and right from the start) but not other musicians.

I think, however, that the longer you leave it, the harder it gets. The music gets longer and more difficult and while the performance opportunities may not be exactly prestigious they're a bit more "high grade" than the "tea time concert" back in year 4. To some extent I do feel that if she is not pushed to do it now she never will. I don't think her teacher will push her very hard (or even at all) to play from memory in her grade 8 exam, and I certainly don't think that's a good place to start. However, I do think performing from memory is something she could do, but that she will never believe she can do because of lack of a suitable opportunity to try.

She has played from memory in lessons a bit, and I've asked her to play to me from memory, but this lacks the stress element of a real performance. Overlapping with other students so they can play to each other is not an option because her teacher comes to us.

It seemed to me that the AB Performance Assessment might be something she would care enough about to prepare for thoroughly, and be nervous about, but that she might accept really didn't matter (which is not her view of exams in general). Thus it seemed it might be an ideal stepping stone to performing by memory in a more stressful situation.

Rather than just ask her to play from memory wouldn't she need to work up to it? I'm not a memoriser as far as piano music goes but if I were going to memorise a piece I would need to be able to play it really well and then practise it from memory for quite a while to iron out problems and feel really secure.

However, my youngest seems very comfortable with memorising and tries pieces he's not even learnt properly from memory. So maybe that's another route. Don't wait for the piece to be good, as I would if I wanted to play from memory, but encourage attempts from memory almost as soon as the piece is started. And do it for the challenge rather than with a goal of playing on a particular occasion from memory.

We've done this. The evidence is that she can memorise perfectly well - though possibly better on piano than clarinet. I don't think the problem here is with the actual memorising but with believing she will still be able to do it when the pressure is on!

Emsoboe is no pianist but she generally memorises her Piano pieces. Even though she knew them really well she wouldn't play without the music in her exam.

Her Recorder teacher has told her he expects her to start playing form memory though there is no timescale for this to happen.