MUSICAL MEMORY - online book

A System To Cultivate The Musical Memory For Musicians.

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	MUSICAL MEMORY.                                                     I 3
	or minor and chromatic, the points where it differs from the form which chiefly prevails must be carefully noted and retained by some other form of memory. Should the order of the progression established in one octave be repeated in subsequent octaves:—
	Ex. 4.                                                                                                   Chopin, Op. 23.
	the task is considerably lighter than when no such regularity prevails. But in every instance we should associate it primarily with that normal form which it most closely resembles, in order that we may have the smallest number of differences to remember intellectually* 25. This method of memorizing scale passages is only suitable in its .application to passages of considerable extent, and that move in one direction for some length of time. Scale passages in which the direction of the movement changes every few notes, as in Ex. 5 :— will generally be found to be based upon some progression of chords, and the bass of this progression will often supply a rough outline of the moving part. In such passages the memorization of the harmonic framework is the safest method of procedure.
	* The principle of reducing everything to its smallest and simplest form will be more fully discussed in Chapter VI, on Intellectual Memory.