ABSTRACT
Music and music careers in the twenty-first century are becoming increasingly complex, with the result that professional musicians need to learn and perform music deriving from a diverse array of styles, often working under considerable time pressure. This chapter highlights the importance of regularly reviewing the curriculum of tertiary level music institutions in order to prepare students for this demanding environment. Here, expert performers who also engage in teaching and research play a key role. The authors identify an area which often seems to be overlooked in this context: memorisation, specifically the memorisation of contemporary music. Three guitarists were asked to memorise one traditional and two contemporary pieces within a restricted time frame. None was an experienced player of contemporary music and each had total freedom as to how to perform the task. Results showed that they found it easier to memorise the contemporary pieces, in spite of their greater complexity. All participants stated that practice-based research should be included in the curriculum, exemplifying the experienced performer’s unique function in leading curricular change through robust empirical research.
