Yesterday in a lesson one of my students got stuck with memory in one of her pieces. She asked me what I had previously written about memory because she once saw something about it in 31 Days to Better Practicing.
A quick search reveals that I've actually written a lot more about memory. Here are some articles I've written from The Collaborative Piano Blog over the last few decades (has it been that long?):
30+1 Ways to Help You Memorize Music Flawlessly - Written in 2007 and still one of the most-read articles on the blog, this was a compendium of ways to fit memory into the bigger picture. There are a lot of links here to articles from early days of the web, some of which are still working.
Memory as an Emotional Place - How to use a series of questions to build emotional resonance with what you're playing.
5 Reasons to Memorize Music: The Why of memory is important to understand. What resonated with the student I showed to last night was the final reason - to stop thinking like a student and start thinking like an artist.
Talking About Memory - The most recent article from 2023 looks at Angela Hewitt's article in the Guardian about how she keeps her memory in shape.
Memorizing for Adults - Some thoughts on the challenges of memorizing music as an adult, at the same time that other processing-related skills such as sight reading become considerably easier.
3 Ways to Memorize Music When Nothing Else Works - Many of us just get plain stuck when memorizing. Here are some ways to deepen your understanding of the music to get over that hump.
15 Ways to Add 10-minute Practice Blocks to Your Routine - Even back in 2007 I noticed that many of my students were overwhelmed and didn't always have as much time to practice as they would like (the problem has only become worse in the last 20 years). Reviewing memory in short bursts throughout the day is a useful way to integrate what you've already worked through in previous longer sessions.