Memorising piano music: What the research offers teachers

Ever since Franz Liszt began the tradition of memo-riztng piano recitals (Walker, 1983), memorization has become the bane of piano teachers and students alike. Teachers seek a method for teaching memoriza-tion, while students search for a technique of memo-rization that will be reliable under the stress of per-formance. The question then is: Are there any princi-ples or techniques of memorization that have proven effective? Much of the lIterature regarding the memorization of piano music is speculative or reflects individual teachers ' personal experiences in assisting students with memorization tasks. There appears to be little systematic research available on this subject. As far as can be determined, the only series of studies con-cerning the memorization of piano music is the land-mark research conducted by Rubin-Rabson betwee