[Op.69 No.2] Memorizing vs Reading

As I begun learning Op. 69 No. 2 I tried not to memorize the piece, just read from the sheet in performance speed. But this was – and is – an incredibly hard task to master. So, I tried to read from the sheet and it felt impossible – again … Everything new always feels impossible, but this felt impossibly impossible 😉

I think I tried this the first 2 weeks until I realized, that it’s somehow the wrong way … At least I won’t be able to read fast enough to play in performance speed. One second experience was, that it’s not possible to look at the keys while reading from the sheet, because it takes to much time to find the right position again. But that means, it would have been necessary to play blindly, which is too difficult (for me).

So, it turned out, that memorizing is still easier 😉

Somewhere in the internet, I read, that there are two kinds of people … The one only memorize pieces, because they think, reading is too difficult and the others, who only read sheet music, because they think, memorizing is too difficult.

I’m not sure what kind of person I am, but I wish to be able read sheet music in performance speed … It would make everything easier and – hopefully – faster to play.

Buuut, the two weeks coping with reading sheet music turned out to be a good training for learning reading faster, so it was easier to memorize the piece, because I was able to read a bit faster than before.

To put it into a nutshell, I think it’s essential to explicitely learn both, because with the skill of reading sheet music, memorizing a piece becomes easier. But that means not only try to read one or two measures and than repeat them from mind, it means trying to read fast and really to play from the sheet. Otherwise it seems, that there will be no improvement in reading abilities.

Last but not the least, I’m done with memorizing 🙂