Memorization is Getting A Bad Rap (3/25/2022)

Memorization is Getting A Bad Rap

Ed Dumas

Memorization is getting a bad rap these days. When I ask students to memorize the note names of the staff, most are okay with getting on with that task. But there are always a few that honestly believe that they “cannot” memorize information. So, when I then ask them how they can communicate with me, they look at me kind of confused. “Well,” I would say, “you seem to have memorized a basic understanding of the English language fairly well, so how is it that you ‘cannot memorize things?’”

Usually, at this point, I get not much but a blank stare, because their whole denial system is now called into question. My next question would be along the lines of “Since you can read, which you have demonstrated well, how is it that you have learned to read without memorizing the alphabet?” Once the students realize that I am serious about calling into question their lack of memorization skills and their self-professed inability to memorize, then we can often begin to have an honest discussion of how to go about memorizing new data.

Now don’t get me wrong. Some special needs students truly cannot memorize new data, or at least will complete that task at a fraction of the rate of the general population of students. These are not the students that I am concerned with here, and I would never suggest you take them to task for not memorizing note-names. I am far more worried about the students that refuse to do memorization because it requires that old four-letter word – work. It is far easier for those students to tell their ego that they “can’t” memorize than to admit to their ego that not wanting to work at it is the source of their problem.

The education system got to this point when computers and the internet started making big gains in schools. I remember as a kid memorizing all sorts of factual data which does not necessarily need to be memorized today, such as the principal food crop of France. When the internet first arrived, so many students quickly learned that they need not memorize the primary food crop of France because this information could be quickly looked up on Google. As a result, the school system has tended to overreact and has made the teaching of memorization skills something to be frowned upon, rather than something that should be valued. What should have changed is the context of memorization, and not the memorization skills themselves.

You see, your need to memorize information is based upon the context in which you use it. This means depending on what you are doing, some things will need to be memorized that you may not normally need in everyday life.

Imagine if you were the Canadian ambassador to France. Now you had darn well better know and memorize that the principal food crop grown in France is wheat because that information will help you understand that French wheat exports will be in direct competition to Canada’s primary food crop exports, which is also wheat. You will also need to memorize that one of Canada’s other major crops, wine from grapes, is also in direct competition with France. This is the context of your job as ambassador to France, and without that knowledge among many other items, you will be hampered in your ability to function.

Now when students tell me that they “can’t” memorize their note names, I like to provide for them an illustration of how important this is to the job of making music in the band program. I give them an illustration of how many students I have started as beginners on band instruments over the length of my career. Without exaggerating, I honestly believe that the number is well into the thousands, and more like several thousand. That does not count all of the second, third, fourth-year players and so on, just beginners.

Out of all of those beginners, how many have decided to come back into the band in the second year if they have not yet memorized their note names in the first year? The answer is “I cannot remember any. None. Zero.” I would never ask a student to not come back into band class, as we want everyone to make music. But the reality is that this is a stat that we should all pay attention to. So instead of the student denying their need to memorize the note names, they can now hopefully begin to get on with the task of learning some processes for memorization.

As a music teacher whose livelihood depends on memorization skills, you may need to actively teach memorization techniques to your students early in their musical careers. These could be memorization activities such as saying it out loud, repetition, flashcards, writing it down, and so on. As a successful university grad, I am sure that you have learned tricks to help you remember new information, and you might find those useful to your students as well.

Now one technique that I have found that is particularly misused and abused is the “write it down” method of memorization. The idea is that the information goes from your eyes to your brain and then down to your hand when you write it down where it is visually seen once again. This makes a complete self-reinforcing loop. Writing it down is a very good method of memorizing new information. But the trouble in memorizing note names comes when students write the letter names below the note heads directly on their band music.

Briefly, the “write it down” method here will work only during the initial “writing it down” step. But then it is completely undermined by the follow-through which has the student ONLY looking at the letter names that were written on the page, and not at the note-heads themselves. This then actually works AGAINST the memorization of the note names as they relate to the position of the note head because the note heads are now being ignored entirely. You see, A-B-C-D-E-F-G is only important IF you know which note head those letters belong to!

So, instead of writing the letter names below the note heads, do this strategy for much better success. Take a piece of blank paper and place it just below the line of music that the student is attempting to learn and play. Write the note names of that music on the piece of paper below the music. Then, remove the piece of paper that you wrote on, and now play the music without the written letter names on the page. If errors are made, that is okay. Just run the process another time or two.

This strategy will not take long to have all of the note names memorized, likely a couple of weeks at most. Students should understand that this does NOT have to be a lifetime activity, just a couple of weeks. Once those note names are memorized, the rest becomes so much easier.

There is a previous blog article titled “6 Steps to Success” that is worth revisiting if you teach beginning-level band. These steps help students memorize the note names associated with each note head by saying them out loud. Following that, they are asked to move the fingers on the instrument, and then move the fingers while saying the note names out loud. These steps further reinforce the link between the note head, the name of the note, and what their fingers must do to create the sound.

If your students learn nothing from you in your music class except some strategies for how to memorize new information, their time will have been well spent. This is a skill that will come in useful in more ways today than before computers and the internet arrived. Computers themselves have created a whole new group of terms to memorize such as RAM, ROM, DISK, Harddrive, mouse, USB, HDMI, Thumb drive, Port, and on and on. Most of those new computer terms have names that have no evident meaning to what the term describes, so memorization is important.

Most advanced-level jobs today require high levels of memorization. If you doubt this, consider this thought the next time you visit your family doctor. Just imagine the vast amount of memorization on human anatomy, countless medical conditions, vast numbers of medical drugs & their interactions, and rapidly developing medical procedures available for various conditions. This list is breathtaking at the vastness of memorization needed, and I am sure that the full list is considerably larger than briefly described here.

Now consider that your life could depend on your doctor having good memorization skills! Students that do not learn solid memorization skills could be condemned to a life of menial, low-paying, undervalued and unfulfilling work. Giving them skills for memorization as part of learning music could be a valuable gift that they may never thank you for, but should.

Ed Dumas, B.Ed., M.A.Ed.