7 tips for performing from memory

Memory-playing is your next step towards advancement in music. It will open up many new and bigger opportunities to you as well as a higher standing and recognition.
Reginald Foort, The Strad, March 1928

First take a precise mental photograph of the bar as it looks in case your idea of the sound should not be trustworthy; secondly, when you have considered each detail of the passage, trust your fingers. When the student is about to perform in public for the first time without notes, let him leave his music in the dressing-room, because he is liable to feel, suddenly, that he cannot get on without it.
L.H.W., The Strad, February 1910

With the right concept and skills, any musician can successfully learn music by heart. Secure memorisation rests on a foundation of deep learning. more