The development of memorisation strategies in musicians: implications for education

Strategies for memorising music change as expertise develops. Twenty-two professional freelance musicians and 55 novice musicians were interviewed regarding their approaches to memorisation. Strategy use was found to depend on the nature of the material to be memorised. There was also evidence of considerable individual diversity in preferred strategies, learning being based on combinations of automated aural, kinaesthetic, or visual strategies. The professionals also made deliberate attempts to assist the memorisation process by developing an understanding of the structure of the music through analysis and devising strategies to avoid confusion when passages were similar. To reduce anxiety related to performance several strategies were often adopted simultaneously.