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A Theoretical Model of Musical Memorization.

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Jennifer Mishra
Jennifer Mishra
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Abstract

The purpose of this article is to describe a model of how music is memorized for performances. The process of memorization appears to comprise three stages: preview, practice, and over-learning. Previous experience and enculturation also are very important in informing the memorization process. Each stage is subdivided. The preview stage is divided into notational overview, aural overview, and performance overview. The practice stage is divided into notational practice and conscious memorization. The over-learning stage is divided into re-learning, automatization, and maintenance rehearsal. For the purposes of this model, the four most commonly discussed memorization strategies (aural, visual, kinesthetic, and analytical) are divided and grouped into sensory learning styles (consisting of aural, visual, and kinesthetic memories), and an analytical learning style (discussed separately). Four processing strategies also are discussed: holistic, serial, additive, and segmented. The amount of time and effort expended during each stage is a matter of individual preferences, performance goals, task difficulty, training, and ability. Furthermore, the stages and the subdivisions are flexible and not necessarily sequential, nor indeed compulsory, for all performers.
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A THEORETICAL MODEL OF MUSICAL MEMORIZATION
Jennifer Mishra
Psychomusicology; Spring 2005; 19, 1; ProQuest Direct Complete
pg. 75
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... Incidental memorization refers to memory recall that occurs automatically (Eagle & Leiter, 1964;Mishra, 2005). It occurs when individuals engage in behaviors or activities pertinent to a specific domain. ...
... If incidental memory does not yield sufficient results, musicians engage in meaningful strategies to memorize music. This phenomenon is known as deliberate memorization (Mishra, 2005; see also Ginsborg, 2004). Deliberate memorization has been studied at length in novices (Flowers, 1987;Frewen, 2010;McPherson, 1995McPherson, , 1996McPherson, , 2005, collegiate students (Hallam, 1997;Lehmann, 1997;Lim & Lippman, 1991;Mishra, 2002a;Nuki, 1984;Woody & Lehmann, 2010), experts (Chaffin, et al., 2007;Chaffin & Imreh, 1997;Hallam, 1997;Miklaszewski, 1989;Noice, et al., 2008), and idiot savants . ...
... Incidental and deliberate memorizations occur as individuals participate in mental and deliberate practice of domain-specific material. Mental practice is defined as the cognitive process of encoding and rehearsing aural or visual input void of self-perpetuated muscular movement or auditory feedback (Coffman, 1990;Highben & Palmer, 2004;Lim & Lippman, 1991;Mishra, 2005;Rubin-Rabson, 1941). Examples include visual score study or listening to a recording. ...
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... In the current research, we tried to identify whether the strategies that pianists used in the current research in order to memorize atonal music fit in their models. According to Mishra's (2005) model for the memory, the memorization procedure includes three stages: the preview stage (where the performer acquires a visual representation of the music (notation preview), an aural and a performance representation, the practice stage (where the performer can choose a strategy either the segmented, holistic, serial or the additive strategy) and over-learning stage (which is based on discovering repetitions and patterns and focuses on the recognition of the structure and finding familiar patterns). Matthay (1926), Hughes (1915), Gieseking andLeimer (1932/1972) described the aural, visual and kinaesthetic methods used by performers in order to memorize the music. ...
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... For fluent expert performance with or without a score, multimodal mental representations of the music need to be securely encoded in memory in order to be recalled under performance conditions (Chaffin & Imreh, 2002;Hallam, 1997). Auditory, motor, conceptual, structural, visual, and linguistic images may all concurrently contribute to performance (Chaffin, Logan, & Begosh, 2009;Mishra, 2005;Williamon & Valentine, 2002). The manner in which performers attend to different aspects of a musical image is likely to be context-dependent and idiosyncratic. ...
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Theories arguing that specific skills are acquired through extended practice cannot easily account for some musicians’ ability to perform unfamiliar music without preparation at first sight (sight-reading). This study identified the source of individual differences in this ability among expert pianists by relating component abilities of sight-reading and biographical indicators of skill acquisition to actual sight-reading performance. Sixteen advanced pianists of comparable skill played music without rehearsal (sight-reading) and after brief rehearsal (accompanying). Performances were paced by a recorded melody line. Pianists then performed experimental tasks designed to capture isolated subskills of sight-reading such as improvisation, recall, and kinesthetic ability. Sight-reading and accompanying performance correlated significantly with performance on the component tasks and with interview data on subjects’ training background, including the accumulated amount of time spent with accompanying-related activities and the size of accompanying repertoire. After controlling for the effects of subskills, age, professional specialization, and an indicator of general pianistic skill, accumulated accompanying experience and size of accompanying repertoire still accounted for significant unique variance in sight-reading and accompanying performance. Individual differences in unrehearsed performance among expert pianists reflect the consequences of domain-relevant activities (accompanying) and deliberate skill-building efforts (increase in size of relevant repertoire).
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The Value of Performing from Memory
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Performances of the Preludes from Cello Suites I, II and III by J. S. Bach were recorded on video-tape across five separate conditions, differing with respect to menmorisation and the presence of a music stand. Fifty "musicians" and thirtysix "non-musicians" were asked to watch and rate one video-taped performance of each Prelude on four performance aspects: overall quality, musical understanding, technical proficiency and communicative ability. Ratings indicated that (1) performing from memory was superior to playing from the score, (2) visibility of the performer influenced audiences' ratings of performances in a favourable direction, (3) the extra time spent preparing for the memorised performances was beneficial and (4) musicians seemed biased in favour of performances without a music stand. Results are discussed in relation to possible implications for musical performance and pedagogy. © 1999 by the Society for Research in Psychology of Music and Music Education.
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