From: GUEST,LDT - PM
Date: 21 Oct 08 - 09:00 AM

"I can't remember music off by heart...any tips for how to?"

Measure by measure. Repeat a measure until you can play it without looking at the music (assuming you're learning from music). Then learn the next one the same way. Then try to play both together, referring back to the music until you can do it without looking. Continue memorizing small segments and combining them into larger ones. It requires lots of repetition. It will probably take a couple of days and when you go back to it, you will find that you've forgotten a lot of what you could do, but it will be easier to learn it the second time.

Some people find visualization helpful. I don't particularly like this technique and never use it for memorizing music.

Really, what I find helps the most is the ability to play by ear and basic knowledge of harmony. That way, it's not really necessary to memorize something perfectly, since one eventually comes to "just know" what's coming next. It's taken me a long time and I'm far from perfect, but I have noticed a big improvement in my ability to do this recently. I find that it makes it much easier to figure out songs, too.

Many songs have simple harmonies, too. If you can "feel" when a tonic, sub-dominant or dominant is coming, you don't need to sit down and memorize the song. I find I'm sometimes able to do this when playing without too many mistakes, but I need to be playing; I can't do it without a guitar. Perhaps that will come.

Do you have trouble whistling a melody? Most people, even non-musicians, don't. The trick is to be able to do that on one's instrument. I wish someone had told me this when I was a child taking music lessons. If you've got the melody, the chords are usually (but not always) a piece of cake.