As a follow up to my topic on preferred keyboard playing methods (lead sheet/chord chart, sheet music, or solely by ear), I'd like now to initiate a discussion on how each of us tackles the task of song 'memorization'.

Here's what I do. I first memorize the chord progression, either by ear or with the help of a lead sheet. As 'the Pro' pointed out so well earlier, lead sheets (and sheet music) don't necessarily reflect all the correct notes/chords actually played on the hit recording, so I may need to figure out some of the chords by ear, by listening to the original CD recording. The first thing I do when memorizing a song’s chord progression is to look for commonly occurring chord patterns and cadences (II-V-I; IV-V-I; blues progressions, etc) used on many songs.

Once I’ve memorized the chord changes, I'm then able to fairly easily pick out the melody (by ear) with my right hand, as the melody notes typically include the chord tones and/or its passing tones (chord scale). Probably the most difficult thing (for me) is retaining in memory, all the many different chord changes to the hundreds of songs in my repertoire, making it often difficult for me to feel confident playing without a lead sheet , chord chart , or lyric sheet available to jog my memory if needed.

Some musicians are able to play any song ‘on the fly’ that they can hear off the top of their head, and be able to flesh out the chord changes ‘in real time’ as well. Who among us can do this?

In addition to finding out how others of you go about memorizing songs, I’m also interested in finding out how to master the technique of performing songs completely by ear ‘on the fly’.

Scott