MUSICAL MEMORY - online book

A System To Cultivate The Musical Memory For Musicians.

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	10	MUSICAL MEMORY.
	30. The above passage (Ex. 10) continued to tne 14th bar from that which we have numbered 1, affords an excellent example of passages in which, with regard to some points, the reliance upon muscular memory is unsafe. Confining our attention to the treble part, we see that bars 1 to 7 are repeated an octave lower in bars 8 to 14, with the exception of the first figure of 6 notes in bars 3 and 5, corresponding to the first figure in bars 10 and 12.
	The alteration in the form of the figure is the same in both cases, and this somewhat simplifies matters ; but in the memorization of this passage, and all others which start alike but differ in the course of their progress, we must retain all such differences mentally, and rigorously control our muscular memory at every place where there is a likelihood of a false step. 31. Class III.—The last class which we have to consider in connection with this form of memory, comprises passages which are not constructed upon any regular figure, or if some design does underlie them, the imita­tions of it are of such an uncertain character that they may be legitimately described as irregular. Many passages belonging to this class demand for their performance considerable extension of the hand and fingers, and also in their progress traverse a large portion of the keyboard,
	and, as a consequence of their difficulty, receive in practice a far greater number of repetitions than passages of simpler and more obvious construction. Thus we often memorize such passages by muscular memory in merely learning to play them with ease and accuracy, and even when the music is before us, we frequently play such from memory;