Mapping music for faster learning and secure memory: a guide for piano teachers and students (Hardcover)

by Rebecca Shockley (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Pro Am Music Resources (August 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0912483814
• ISBN-13: 978-0912483818
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Useful to a point, but generally misguided, November 16, 2008

By	musiclover88 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mapping Music: For Faster Learning and Secure Memory, A Guide for Piano Teachers and Students (Spiral-bound)

Mapping Music for Faster Learning and Secure Memory teaches you how to make a graphic "map" of your music using lines and arrows showing contours of lines, and letters showing starting notes.

In my opinion it is useful up to a point, but generally a monumentally misguided avoidance of what should be the foundation of "faster learning and secure memory": True UNDERSTANDING of how music is put together (music theory), which means an understanding of the RELATEDNESS of notes, which leads to seeing music not as hundreds of random, INDIVIDUAL notes, but rather as LOGICALLY GROUPED notes.

I've never seen a book that does a good job teaching you how to memorize music. I had to stumble on the answer (for me, at least) by myself. For me it means doing Roman Numeral Analysis of every piece I play and memorizing the piece as STEP ONE in the process of learning to play it.

Doing Roman Numeral Analysis forces you to see that instead of Piece X having 253 individual notes, it really has only 42 individual chords and better yet, there is logic to how those chords relate to one another (one should be aware that there are chord progressions that are ubiquitous). From there one notices how melody notes relate to the underlying harmonies (chord tones or non-chord tones; circling one or the other can be a big help). In other words, they are not just random notes either. Why memorize as step one? Because you want to force your brain to have to work - to be cognizant of the theory behind the notes - BEFORE tactile memory kicks in.

Shockingly, doing Roman Numeral Analysis on the music one is actually learning to play is typically completely absent from piano teaching curriculum. Sadly, it is usually reserved for the music theory class, often not even taught until college, and even then never applied to music one is learning to play. It is a hugely powerful tool for both learning and memorizing, not to mention the benefit of having a deeper understanding of the pieces we play.

This all applies to homophonic music, but the message is the same for polyphonic music - thorough analysis of the piece. Of course, in polyphonic music this means identifying motifs, subjects, answers, countersubjects, strettos, etc., etc., but personally, I find doing RNA on polyphonic music is tremendously useful as a tool to seeing notes in "groups" as well, no matter how horizontally the piece was conceived. Even though polyphonic music is horizontally driven, that does not mean there is total disregard of the vertical. One just needs to be aware that one will often identify both "logical" harmonies as well as what could be labeled as "incidental chords" or "incidental harmonies" - harmonies whose existence in a given chord progression can only be explained as resulting from the convergence of the horizontal lines.

Of course there are other forms of memory, and they are important as well, but in my opinion avoiding true understanding of the "theory" behind the notes is neglecting the most obvious and fundamental, and ultimately most reliable.

So... if you're looking for a book that will help you memorize music I'd say pick any good theory book and use it as a guide to analyze the music you are actually learning to play and memorize.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great supporting text, October 13, 2008

By	Simon Horsey "Progress isn´t about how m... (Bath, UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Mapping Music: For Faster Learning and Secure Memory, A Guide for Piano Teachers and Students (Spiral-bound)

I bought this book 3 years ago thinking it looked an interesting read... and it sat on my bookshelf for a year! I remembered it when i started teaching a student who had some reading difficulties and began using some of the exercises. The results were amazing. He actually found it much easier than I did to create maps of music and I saw a great improvement in his sight reading, as well as his general ability to read music.

Following this success I began using the techniques with other students. Those of a more visual persuasion found it easy and helpful to produce the maps which certainly aided memorisation. Using maps also made the students think about the structure of the overall piece more, as opposed to the individual notes and their playing flowed and was more musical as a result.

The book is clearly divided up with a short introductory section describing how the system works followed by basic, intermediate and advanced mapping. There are clear examples of mapping of actual repertoire in each section followed by a very useful section on how to use maps in your teaching. The student maps at the end are also an excellent resource for those who are finding it a little difficult to get started and an interesting comparison for those who have a clear idea of their maps.

Not necessarily something for every student, but certainly worth trying with most and invaluable for some who find reading the dots challenging. Highly recommended.