I saw a clip where a pianist was playing and someone was turning her pages for her, but they fumbled and dropped the sheet music. The pianist kept on playing, but it got me wondering why have the sheet music if she knows the song anyway. Do they really need it? Why can’t they just learn the songs like all bands do?
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>I saw a clip where a pianist was playing and someone was turning her pages for her, but they fumbled and dropped the sheet music. The pianist kept on playing, but it got me wondering why have the sheet music if she knows the song anyway.
Everyone already gave you some good answers, but no one is really addressing this point in particular.
Basically, there’s not a binary of “memorized/not-memorized.” There’s a big spectrum from “completely unfamiliar with the piece, reading off the sheet” and “know every note by heart.” Maybe you don’t know every single note but you can approximate it without the music. Maybe you do know the whole piece, but you aren’t 100% confident in your ability to recall it under pressure in a performance setting, so you want the sheet music as a safety net.
As a pianist it’s kind of strange/inscrutable what happens in my head when I read music to a piece that I already know well. If I had a piece memorized but it’s been a while since I played it, then I often can’t remember what comes next, until I just *glance* at the sheet music. I’m definitely not looking in enough detail to consciously read every note, but somehow just seeing the contours of the lines, or whatever, reminds my brain of enough to be able to play everything.
Point being, memorization is kind of a spectrum. It’s not as simple as a yes/no “do you know it or not.” And generally, no one wants to perform anything from memory until they are on the 100% “yes, I know it” side of that spectrum.
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