After 5 years playing classical piano, I find that seldom can I play any piece cleanly. I believe that memory faults are the reason. I always play from memory, because my sight reading isn`t instantaneous. But my memory is meanly finger and keys memory, not notes memory. Recently I read that every player must have every note in his/her mind. It`s seems surprising to me. Is that really possible?

i`m trombone player, but i used to play piano by pure memory playing, and i find it the easiest way and i always pass well in examinations with it. Basically you just have to play bar by bar and keep learning each bar until you get everything right. So its like: Learn 1st bar, done, play, Learn 2nd Bar, done, play 1st and 2nd bar, learn 3rd bar, done, play 1st 2nd and 3rd bar and it goes on and on. It makes sure you remember everything in the end. I figured this way out when i was trying to learn a canon in grade 2...

Yap. That`s even how I do it now. One more thing to add on : pls do by sound after yr quite familiar with the pc. Don`t just memorize the `order of the keys`.

it`s not about knowing every note, i fou,d that it`s more of having it in your fingers, not really having to think witch note comes next just automaticly playig it. It`s just that when you played a bar 200 times you know whats comming. More or less like tipping, you don`t have to think where a specific letter is at the keyboard, your fingers know where it is.

After your kind replies, I was wondering if one should recall the notes well enough as to be able to write, from memory, the complete score away of the piano, is it so?
Definitively I know that only finger memory is not enough, because when a finger fail, I can`t continue and have to start the piece again.

for sight reading, try sectioning the keyboard. find an easy peice that has notes only in one small section of the keyboard and learn how to reach those keys with one hand. to start off, keep your thumb on middle c and find a sheet music that has notes only near middle c. memorize where the keys are to hit those notes and do learn to do it without looking at your fingers. when you learn how to hit all the keys in that small section by reading the notes, add another section to the section that you just learned. or if that`s still hard, add another key and learn learn how to stretch your length a little at a time. it is possible to learn how to do that with both hands. it takes time but you`ll eventually be playing while reading notes. if you want something that`ll give you only a small range of notes for a small section of the keyboard try finding sheetmusic for the clarinet. i was a clarinet before i started learning how to play the piano. it`s a trick clarinets were forced to learn because we had to feel around on the clarinet to make the note, we couldn`t cheat and jump out of our bodies just to see where to put our fingers. it didn`t take me long to learn how to sight read easy notes for the piano, i`m already learning how to play with my eyes closed. of course i had the notes memorized because when i set my mind on something i learn each note, one note at a time. plus i can flawlessly play one set of notes on the keyboad just by looking at the sheet music i just aquired and haven`t learned how to play yet. when you hear yourself play the song without learning the notes but reading the notes, you notice how beautiful it sounds.

I say this to lots of people at school. It`s about time I said it here.

"Play the piano! Don`t just push keys!"

What does "pushing keys" sound like? Listen to A Thousand Miles, Beautiful, or anything marked with meccanico.

I never try to learn to remember a piece; after I`ve played it long enough it will stick in my mind. The trick I have found is that every time I hit a note with my right hand, the name shouts out in my head. So when I play twinkle twinkle little star I hear "C C G G A A G..." in my head. See if you can get into a habit of this and I think you`ll find it works well

Well... about losing the finger memory, do you encounter that often? It becomes kind of rare after you do it alot, you can even get to the point you can actually talk and play at the same time. This is what i call the "Imprintion Period" of memorizing a piece totally. Its almost ultimately impossible to miss any note. This happens ironic to me in more complicated scores then on more mechanical scores. You just have to use the method i taught you to learn the piece, then keep playing it. (You know its imprinted when your mind doesn`t need to think when playing the song). But bare in mind that the "imprintion" wears off after about 2 months of not touching the piece (thats my case).

Oh yeh and these sort of Musical piece memory is more like "Dead Memory" then to normal memory.

To Ella: How do you do when playing a polifonic piece? Can you hear also in your head the notes of every voice?
To Christine: Thank you for your kind advice about sight-reading. I`ll take it into account when I start a systematic sight-reading training.
To TySpLo eViL: Yes, my experience is that after some time, in spite of playing a piece 2 or 3 times daily, the finger memory starts to get damaged gradually. I read that a solution is to reinforce the memory by reviewing the score often. I`ll try this, but I regret for having to invest time relearning, at the expense of the time I need for my new pieces.

Play from the heart! Not the paper! Listen to what you`re playing, feel the music!!!! My teacher says I have great skills because of my ears...But, don`t play like a robot...It`s so much easier to memorize by ear!

I just play each section a few times (but I`m very good at memorizing pieces, but I suck at sight reading) bit by bit to memorize the piece. Some other people say memorizing kills the dynamics and emotion but just memorize the emotion along with it. I don`t hold all the notes in my head like the starter asked, it`s more like this:
Your holding the beginning of a chain, the first link is the first measure, and you can see a few measures/links ahead ahead. As you move down the chain/song, you can recall/see more links/music, and forget what`s behind. it`s just feeling my way down the song. Or at least that`s how it works for me. Eventually I get to the point where I can play some songs at double the tempo with my eyes closed.
SO I just think finger memory is more like the chain links, meanwhile holding songs in your head should be no effort at all otherwise it`s a waste of time imo.

sorry, just wanted to mention my opinions not professional, I`ve only taken piano for nearly 2 years, I`m only 13, and I can only play songs like Aufschwugn and the long version of Alla Turca. So it`s not like the opinion`s fact or anything, it`s just opinion

Couldn`t have put it better It`s an opignon i play better from memory so....
But i must sometimes it helps remind u!!