April 1999: On Memorizing - Unit 4: Kinetics

Kinetics refers to how the music feels in your hands as you play. As you practice, repetition creates a familiarity with the various patterns of movement. In a relaxed situation (e.g. practicing or playing for yourself) this process happens automatically and for the most part accurately. But the moment that any stress occurs (e.g. an audience or even a different venue) kinetic memory is apt to falter.

Although kinetic memory is an important and valuable component of your playing, it cannot stand by itself as the primary form of memorization. Suppose that you have learned the following in which letters are notes, numbers are fingering:

As you ascend from C to D to E there is a skip of one note from E to G before the line descends in a simple scale. Suppose you accidentally play an A instead of G. Your hand is used to descending from the thumb note in a scale line so you end up with:

The moment that you perceive the error you will either:

• Freeze or fumble because you have lost the "feel" of what you should play, or
• Immediately shift to another memory mode to solve the problem.

Next month we will address how to respond to an error using the four modes
we have discussed so far; hearing, pattern and structure,
visualization, and kinetics.

See you then.

Stephanie

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