It is that
time of year again when I lecture about practical memory methods. Last
year I remembered π to 100 decimal
places. This year, I am more
interested in some remembering some practical musical information. I plan to
start my Thursday class by walking through the room, ukulele in hand, telling
the following story:
I open the
front door of my house and step into the vestibule. There on the wall I see a
huge saw, obviously for cutting logs.
However, this saw is extraordinarily curved, its entire length bent
around so that it takes the form of the letter ‘C’. I cannot imagine using such a tool.
Stepping
beyond the vestibule, I look into the walk-in closet. . I am surprised; I expect to see my dog in his
crate. Instead, there is a full-grown jersey
cow, cheerfully munching on tall grass-like plants that grow from the
floor. The brush-like heads of these
plants take the shape of the letter ‘G’
Walking through
the house, I look next into the main floor bathroom. There I see a tall, robed,
bearded man – he looks like Gandalf! I
realize that he is actually Noah. He shaves
at the sink, using a large D-shaped tool, much like an oversized potato peeler.
Walking
towards the kitchen, I hear a loud buzzing sound. I stop and glance up the staircase that leads
to the second floor. On the landing, I
see a large honey bee leaving a hive that is peculiarly shaped like the letter ‘A’.
The buzzing bee generates the sound that attracted my attention.
Turning
towards the kitchen, I continue my walk.
I glance down the basement stairs.
At the bottom landing, I see an enormous bottle of rye whiskey. The bottle is exceedingly strange; it has
three long horizontal tubes coming from its side, giving it the shape of the
letter ‘E’.
I finally
reach the kitchen. I see a small child, a tot, working by the gas stove. He stands on a chair in order to reach the
burners. He skewers the letter ‘B’ onto
a long stick, and toasts it over the open flame. How will it taste?
In the
middle of the kitchen is the large, yellow kitchen sink. I glance into it. There I see an enormous, braided, rawhide dog
chew. Someone has painstakingly shaped
it into an ‘F♯’. Ah, I think, a new musical
dog chew!
At the end
of the kitchen is a room that contains the refrigerator, and has a small
counter upon which the cats have their containers of water and kibble. My cat Phoebe is there, watching me. She is wearing an enormous, long, wide black
tie. The tie has a musical theme, covered
with gaudy yellow ‘C♯’s of different sizes. I think that the ‘C’ stands for
cat, and the ♯ indicates ‘sharp-dressed’.
I leave
the kitchen, and enter the dining room. On the table rests a large bowl filled
with red juice, and decorated with the same pattern as a bottle of V8. I look at the juice in the bowl. On its surface, perhaps created using sour
cream, I see the shape ‘G♯’. I assume
that G means that it is good for me, and that the ♯ warns me that it is very
spicy.
Beside the
dining room table is my Baldwin piano.
On its bench sits my mother. She
is repeatedly pounding a single, enormous, black key. The key is ‘D♯’, her favorite note.
I pass from
the dining room into the living room. There, on the couch, reclines a
woman. I only see her bare feet. Her toes, covered in elaborate nail polish,
draw my attention; each bright pink toenail has a green ‘A♯’ inscribed on top.
At the end
of the living room, I notice my favorite brown recliner. A tired policeman rests there, his feet
raised. He is in full uniform, with many
decorations. I notice a distinct ‘F’ on
the sole of each of his shoes. I realize
that he is Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair, and that he has been stomping on
the Fords. This has marked his shoes.
The images
in the story above are novel, bizarre, and dynamic; this makes them highly
memorable. In fact, after designing the images, I learned each of them as well
as their position in my ‘memory palace’ – the main floor of my house -- after
only a couple of walk-throughs.
So what is
the purpose of this story? Why am I
carrying my ukulele when I tell it?
First,
each part of the story pairs two key images together. One image is of a ‘peg’; this is an image
that is first converted into a word, and then is converted into a number
according to the famous Major Method, which maps consonant sounds into digits
as follows:
Consonant Sounds
|
Digit
|
s
|
0
|
t,d
|
1
|
n
|
2
|
m
|
3
|
r
|
4
|
l
|
5
|
sh, ch, g, j
|
6
|
k
|
7
|
f,v
|
8
|
p, b
|
9
|
In the
first image, the ‘peg’ is the saw, whose consonant sound is ‘s’, which is
converted into a 0. The peg of the
second image is the cow, whose consonant sound is ‘k’, which is converted into
a 7. The table below lists the full set
of peg images in the story.
The second
image concept in each part of the story is a shape that maps into a musical
note. For instance, the shape of the saw
in the first story image brings to mind the note ‘C’, while the shapes of the
heads of grass in the second story image brings to mind the note ‘G’. The table below also provides the full set of
note images.
The
purpose of the story is to help me remember key information about the
ukulele. Currently, I am learning ‘closed
form’ chords. These chords involve pressing
down each of the four strings of the instrument. They are practical because one can move the
same chord shape up and down the fret board, playing the same kind of chord,
but in a different musical key. For instance,
if I use my index finger to press down on each string along the same fret, the
result will be a 6 chord. The specific
chord depends upon which fret I use: if I press on the first fret, I will play
a C♯6 chord; if I press on the seventh fret, the result
is a G6 chord.
Each of
the twelve images in the story connects a particular number to a particular musical
note, linking the root of the chord (for the subset of chords whose root comes
from the C-string on the ukulele) to a fret number. So, if I want to remember what fret to use to
play a chord whose root is A (such as A6), then I remember the A-shaped beehive
on the stairs, with the buzzing bee, and realize that I must use fret 9
(because bee = 9). Each of the twelve
images in the story provides musical meaning to my hand positions on the
instrument!
Location
|
‘Peg’ Image
|
Image
Translation
|
Major Method Logic
|
Note Image
|
Root
|
Vestibule
|
saw
|
0
|
S = 0
|
C (saw shape
|
C
|
Front Closet
|
cow
|
7
|
C = 7
|
G (grass heads)
|
G
|
Washroom
|
Noah
|
2
|
N = 2
|
D (razor)
|
D
|
Stairs
|
bee
|
9
|
B = 9
|
A (bee hive)
|
A
|
Basement stairs
|
rye
|
4
|
R = 4
|
E (bottle shape)
|
E
|
Stove
|
Tot
|
11
|
T T = 11
|
B (letter cooked)
|
B
|
Kitchen sink
|
chew
|
6
|
Ch = 6
|
F♯ (chew shape)
|
F♯
|
Cat dish beside fridge
|
tie
|
1
|
T = 1
|
C♯ (tie pattern)
|
C♯
|
Dining Room Table
|
v8
|
8
|
V = 8
|
G# (floating in bowl)
|
G♯
|
Piano
|
Ma
|
3
|
M = 3
|
D# (giant piano key)
|
D♯
|
Sofa
|
toes
|
10
|
T S = 10
|
A♯ (on toenails)
|
A♯
|
Leather Chair
|
law
|
5
|
L = 5
|
F (on soles)
|
F
|
Importantly,
there is even more to the story. I used
a classic technique, the method of loci, to associate each two-concept image
with a particular location in my house.
As I move through the house in my memory, I encounter these images in a
particular order. The order is deliberate:
I retrieve the different notes in the same order as given by a key musical
concept, the circle of perfect fifths.
That is, the G in the walk-in closet is a perfect fifth higher than the
C in the vestibule; the D in the washroom is a perfect fifth higher than the G
in the walk-in closet, and so on. The image
below shows the complete circle of fifths; note how it matches the order of the
root notes in the rows of the tables above.
Playing chords in the order given by this circle is a standard technique
in jazz, and generates particularly pleasing changes from one chord to the
next.
I could
practice my closed form chords – for instance, all of the 6 chords – simply by
moving up one fret at a time (start with C6 (all strings open, fret 0), then C♯ (fret 1), D (fret 2), and so on).
This exercise is excellent for strengthening my index finger, but hard
on the ear – it is not musically interesting.
I get the same workout, but one that is much more musical, by playing
the same chords in a different order: the order given by the circle of fifths. I start with C6 (fret 0), move on to G6 (fret
7), then to D6 (fret 2), and so on according to the table above. By keeping my story in mind, and using its
images, I play the entire chord sequence in a musical order, and learn to
associate finger positions with chord names.
All without having to look at a single sheet of music!