Is there a way to memorize tenor music in a week for a parade ?

try to find a pattern in it, an learn how it sounds. But most of all practice it snugglebunny. any free time you have sit down and play it, you should get it no problem. I memorized my marching band's entire third number in a week doing this.

the same way you memorize the snare/bass part.

if you're drumming all the time drumming is your life. if you're drumming what you need to memorize all the time it becomes part of your life. so...while you're watching tv (if you were serious you wouldn't be watching t.v.) drum your sh|t during the commercials, work a few bars at a time, when the show comes back on watch it, when there's another commercial break play the bars you worked on the last break without looking at the music.

i have bad eyes and i don't practice/read music in a well lit area so memorization is really the only option. it seems that when it's forced it doesn't work at all, just drum....drum....drum.

also, get a recording of the band or drumline playing the tune, that always helped me, especially because most parade tunes s^ck and aren't really written for the player to enjoy (and are most of the time old school parts unless they're written or re-written by an instructor).

Start by just doing a few measures at time with the music and just ramp it over and over until you can play it without the music, then do the next section. Also go through and mark repeated sections and learn how many times you do something before it changes. It also really helps if you can play with a recording. You also have to have a lot of discipline and play it a lot, and when you think you have it , play it some more. Especially if you have to march a show to it. Knowing music enough to play it standing still, not moving with no pressure is a lot different than to know it for a field performance.

i use what my old teacher taught me. if its not already divided into sections (A,B,C, etc...) then divide it any way you like i suppose. go through each measure of the section and learn it. then use the metronome to make sure ur in time (if that isnt obvious) and play the section. then turn it around and play what uve memorized. turn it around and pin point ur mistakes. work on those and pretty much keep memorizing and playing. and just keep going. hope that helps

I always got a recording or a MIDI of the piece, like Demonllama said. I would just play my part along with the recording over and over that way I not only learned my part, but I knew what was going on around it.

get to the point that you can hack your way through it (all the way), then rep it as many times as possible. rep, rep, rep.

If you play it enough,you'll memorize it on accident.

Heres a free lesson.

Learn it BACKWARDS. start at the last measure, learn it, then learn the measure before that and keep going. That way, even if you dont play perfectly the measure your trying to memorize, you can keep playing and further solidify what youve already done. It sounds like it would be confusing but its not. Give it a shot.

Learning backwards is very effective... I use it all the time, and generally pick up memorization a great deal faster. I'll definitely reiterate the learning from the end to the beginning point.

Memorizing music is really easy if you have a recording of the full band playing it. Listen to that until you get to know the melody really well, like you can recite it (helps if your director picked good music) and then play your part along with the melody. You will see how your part fits in with the music and automatically remember it when the time comes around to play it with the band. This really works for any instrument... but I find it best on snare.

Read the first measure. When you get it perfect play it and add the second measure. when you get both perfect, play the fist 3 measures. Ect... it takes a very long time, but you will have the entire song memorized. Except you have to work a tad harder on the last measures because you didnt play them as many times. You can also do that with just like the first 8 meausres. Then restart the process for the next 8.

Best tip is to read the music without playing it and put it with a recording... other than that everyone has there own unique way to Learn and teach Music.

-David Rojas-

Play it a lot

Besides what everyone has said - Try to make it so that it's just muscle memory. You'll play it without even realizing it. And make sure that when you memorize it, you don't learn it wrong. It's really hard to fix something after you've been playing it the wrong way, especially if it's muscle memory.

Every once in a while, play without the music and see how far you can get. I think you'll be surprised.

ok no offense but i think this thread is a waste of time, not b/c it's a bad question but u will never get a right answer, no two ppl play exactly the same, so no two ppl memorize the same just try different things and find out what works for u, this is from somebody who learned almost 400 measures in a week

what part about no offense didn't u get? :P i didnt mean to sound mean but i guess i kinda did my bad i just meant that nobody hear is going to be able to tell him how he memorizes music, but he should try everything on here and see if something works for him, if not then he should try his own ideas

If you think it's a good idea for this guy to try the suggestions here so that he can develop his own method of memorization, why did you say this thread is a waste of time? For whom is it a waste of time?

memorize the x axis and the y comes pretty naturally

here a weird theroy about memrizetion my teacher taught our line
it isnt memorized untill you can play it alone
all that means is no music aka sheet or other people playing it. allso hackaway at the music make some sort of sence to you . then do as many repitions as posible
if your doing it for a parade them mark time and try to do as much as possible with a metronome

i break the music down to only play 4 bars slow untill i got it down,then the next 4 slow... then both. then the next 4 bars, the next, then all.... over and over i do this untill i got it

That's really good advice. I think I'll try that with the line one practice to see what happens.

While this may or may not be true for ease of memorization, I think learning parts this way gets your brain thinking about them all wrong. I encourage my students to have a solid understanding of what's going on rhythmically and dynamically (y-axis) before they worry about how to move it around (x-axis). It is better to be thinking "I have to play two sixteenth notes at 6 inches" rather than "I play a scrape from 1 to 2"

this works really well for tenors too..i sat down with recordings of next years show music and had it memorized in about 30 mins or less..its honestly not as hard as it seems...and if ur having any kind of practices for it then eventually u'll play through it so many times it jsut sticks.




i agree w/ this dude as well

break the music down...measure by measure

yeah, breaking down music bar by bar works. idk, but i memorize music very quicky within a couple hours for something hard.

I completely agree with the memorize backwards idea it truely helps. Also, a point you missed out on is you have to stretch your brain for the first few seconds of music. Eventually the ending will become second nature so as you add more and more on it'll be easier the farther you get the through the music.

you know..i have no idea how memorizing it backwards can help. i think i get it, but im not sure. but i think i might try it though. im on tenors and having trouble memorizing the music. so im gonna try this.

all i do is play it over and over and over again and find patterns. i memorized my bands 3rd song in a day somehow. another thing i do is to memorize it to the sets on the field so its easier to play but since its parade music this wouldn't apply.

learn it on one drum first
and them put it around them

tenor parts are definitely harder to memorize than snare. if you keep on playing, it will eventually become muscle memory.

If you play the music enough times you will have it memorized without realizing it. Start playin the music with the sheet music and then stop looking at the music for the 1st measure or so. keep expanding the amount your not looking at. taking in chunks helps too.