As I see it, there are five stages of engagement between an ensemble and a piece.
- Sight Read
- Learned
- Memorized
- Polished
- Performed
Sometimes we can alter the order – you might polish before you memorize, you might perform before you’ve finished polishing, you might skip memorization and learn/polish at the same time, leaving you with three steps.
But my ideal is to move as quickly as possible away from the page, so polishing comes after memorization, so this is my default order.
It’s my intent to make this process visual this year, with a line for each piece and boxes for each stage.
How do you keep track of where you are in the preparation of all your repertoire?