Music-related memory

Musical memory refers to the ability to remember music-related information, such as melodic content and other progressions of tones or pitches.

Quotes

• The possession of a reliable musical memory is valuable to all musicians, is important to some and is an absolute necessity to others. The composer who can retain his own musical ideas, wherever and whenever they may occur to him, without the use of his cuff or a scrap of paper, may well rejoice in his independence of material aids. The critic who is able when placed face to face with the first performance of a novelty to hold in his mind's ear the subject matter of importance as the work develops will be in a position to write an intelligent account of what he has heard.
  • Edwin Hughes, "Musical Memory in Piano Playing and Piano Study", The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 1, No. 4 (Oct., 1915).

• Nervousness in playing from memory in public is largely a result of the mental defect of lack of concentration, when it is not directly caused by a run-down physical condition.
  • Edwin Hughes, "Musical Memory in Piano Playing and Piano Study", The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 1, No. 4 (Oct., 1915).

• Piano music may be memorized in three ways: by ear, by visual memory, either of the notes on the printed page or the notes on the keyboard, and by finger memory or reflex action.
  • Edwin Hughes, "Musical Memory in Piano Playing and Piano Study", The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 1, No. 4 (Oct., 1915).