Exploring memorisation and sight-reading and their inter-relationship in undergraduate piano students

Abstract

For musicians, the ability to sight-read and memorise are skills required for ease of learning and performing. The competitive nature of the classical performing world requires of solo performers, especially pianists, to play flawlessly from memory and to be able to sight-read any genre of sheet music. By their own admission, many pianists claim that they are able to memorise well but are unable to sight-read, while others sight-read very well but are unable to memorise. The aim of the study is to explore these phenomena in pianists. Numerous studies have been conducted on the sight-reading and memorisation abilities of pianists respectively, while only two investigated the relationship between these skills. In this dissertation, I address the gap in the literature by qualitatively exploring the possibility of a relationship between the two. This study utilised a constructive grounded theory approach through semi-structured interviews with undergraduate music students, focusing on their self-reported abilities and beliefs regarding the two skills. The main categories that were identified in the data were: participants’ self-appraisal of their abilities, reflexive engagement with memorisation and sight-reading, and formative influences. The results of my study suggest that music students are better able to memorise music than they are to sight-read music. Prominent factors mentioned by the participants that influence their sight-reading and memorisation abilities included stress, formative experiences, genre of music and the influence of teachers and lecturers. An interesting and unexpected finding of this study was the lack of suitable tuition in sight-reading and memorisation skills. In conclusion, this dissertation provides a platform for further research into the relationship between memorisation and sight-reading skills in pianists, but also provides insight into the respective phenomena in the context of undergraduate music students. The resulting theory from the data is that individuals who have well-developed skills in sight-reading are less likely to struggle with memorisation tasks, while those who have well-developed memorisation abilities struggle with sight-reading tasks.