Memorization

by Sharon Kaplan
Originally published in the MMTA Newsletter, November 2009

Kids are so overbooked these days.  If it's not a lot more homework with higher scholastic expectations, it's time consuming sports or other extra-curricular activities that take up more time than in any of the almost 50 years that I have been teaching.  So it was imperative that the Piano Exam Development Committee consider these changes in students' lives when we worked on the program.

What we haven't talked about yet was our very long deliberations concerning memory.  Several people have asked that not all pieces need to be memorized.  We very seriously considered that proposal, but were hung up on two issues: 1) students that did memorize all the pieces deserved to be given credit for their accomplishment and 2) the logistics of laying out the exam in a way that wouldn't cause confusion at the site and possible mistakes by judges. 

Our solution, after much research, was to change the number of points allotted to memorization.  We found that this rewarded the student who did the extra work necessary to memorize all the pieces, while not significantly altering the score of the student who had not memorized all the pieces.  It also gave us the opportunity to realign the percentage of points in other areas, rewarding musicianship to a greater extent.  We charted the exams using 3 points for memory, 4 points for memory and 5 points for memory, and this combination brought things closely into alignment with the original concept of the exams in 1970.

2002 Syllabus

Level	Skills	Studies	Repertoire	Memory	Questions	Sightplaying
Prep	-	-	-	-	-	-
1 & 2	20%	10%	50%	7.9%	-	13.2%
3 – 6	17%	8%	50%	12.5%	4.5%	7.6%
7 – 9	20.5%		55%	14%	3.5%	7%
10 - 11	17%		57%	17%	3%	6%

 

2010 Syllabus

Level	Skills	Studies	Repertoire	Memory	Questions	Sightplaying
Prep	26.3%	-	52.6%	7.9%	-	13.2%
1 & 2	20.2%	-	60.6%	9.1%	-	10.1%
3 – 6	19.7%	-	60.6%	9.9%	3%	7.6%
7 – 9	21.9%	-	58.4%	8.8%	3.6%	7.3%
10	20.4%	-	61.2%	8.2%	3.4%	6.8%
11	17.6%	-	64.7%	8.8%	2.9%	5.9%

This excited us.  What about you?