In this video blog Classroom Guitar expert Mike Christiansen gives you tips and tricks for memorizing music. Here’s a short summary:

Before you even play the music…look it over

Before you start playing the music take some time to look the music over. Count it out and mentally rehearse the music. Locate trouble spots and areas that will be more difficult than others.

Play accurately from the beginning

It’s critical to play the music accurately when you first start learning a piece. If you don’t do this then you have to “un-learn” the parts you learned incorrectly. This is both time consuming and difficult. Make life easier on yourself and learn it right from the start. Play it slowly…that’s okay…but play it accurately from the first time you start playing it.

Memorize a section at a time

Break the piece down into manageable sections and memorize them one section at a time. Once you get two sections memorized start putting them together.

Memorize the dynamics as well as the notes

You will sound much better if you memorize the dynamics as you go…along with memorizing the notes and chords.