16085 / 18210 · Workshop 118 — Memorizing Music as Structure: How to Stop Depending on Finger Memory and Learn a Piece So You Can Recover, Transpose, Reharmonize, and Play It Flexibly← prev⊞ allnext →
118.1What does “I know this piece” actually mean?
At minimum, you should eventually be able to:
- sing the melody
- play the melody in another octave
- identify the key
- describe the form
- play the bass skeleton
- name or functionally describe the harmony
- begin from several landmarks
- recover after an intentional interruption
- transpose at least a simple version
- simplify the texture without losing the piece
That is much closer to musical ownership.