Why Memorisation Tricks Fail — and What Really Keeps Music in Your Head

Yesterday’s practice felt like a breakthrough — the runs were clean, the memory secure. But today, you pick it up again and it’s as if half of it never happened. The fingerings you thought were solved feel uncertain, the phrases you drilled need reworking, and the progress you expected isn’t there. For many musicians, this sparks the same sinking thought: I must not be practising enough.

I used to think the same. Whenever music slipped away overnight, I blamed myself — fatigue, not enough repetition, or poor technique. But the pattern kept repeating, especially after late nights. A light dinner before a concert, a snack around midnight, bed at 1–2 AM — and when I sat down to practise the next day, much of what I thought I’d learned had evaporated. The problem wasn’t just my practice methods. It was that my brain never had the right conditions to store what I’d worked on.

Practice Builds Memory — If the Brain Can Hold It

Musicians rely on two systems when they perform:

• Serial chaining — the “autopilot” of one note leading into the next.

• Retrieval cues — landmarks that help you re-enter if you slip.

Think of retrieval cues as markers in the music that your brain can grab onto when recall falters. They can be structural (a cadence), motor (a fingering or bow change), aural (an interval you hear internally), or emotional (the feeling of a phrase). Marking them in your score during practice makes recall far more reliable under pressure.

But whether those cues consolidate into long-term memory depends on two things outside the practice room: circadian rhythm and metabolic stability.

Circadian Rhythm: Timing Shapes Memory

Research by Prof. Satchin Panda shows that memory consolidation is controlled by the body’s internal clocks. The hippocampus — where new memories are stored — works best when the brain receives strong timing signals from light, food, and sleep.

• Light: Morning light tells the brain it’s daytime and sets the 24-hour clock. Bright or blue-spectrum light at night (from stage lighting, phones, or screens) delays melatonin, reducing deep sleep — the very stage where memories are filed.

• Sleep: Irregular sleep-wake times fragment memory. A consistent window allows the hippocampus to replay and strengthen what you practised. Skipping that rhythm is like pulling the plug mid-download.

• Meals: Eating late keeps the digestive system active when the brain should be clearing waste and repairing connections. Panda’s research shows that late meals impair glucose handling and reduce overnight recovery.

For musicians, this explains the familiar cycle: play late, eat late, lie awake, and lose much of yesterday’s practice by morning.

Metabolic Stability: Fuel Determines Recall

The fuel your brain runs on is just as important as practice time. When blood sugar spikes, neurons get briefly overfed, then under-fuelled once levels crash. Over time, this rollercoaster can lead to insulin resistance — where brain cells stop responding properly to glucose. This problem is increasingly common, even in young, lean musicians.

Ketones provide a steadier fuel source that bypasses these glucose roadblocks. They also support neurotransmitters such as GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid), the brain’s main “calm signal,” which helps musicians steady nerves and focus under pressure.

Where Timing and Fuel Meet

The real power comes when circadian rhythm and fuel stability work together.

• Practising late at night? Your hippocampus may not consolidate those cues.

• Eating a carb-heavy meal at 10 PM? Your brain spends the night fighting blood sugar swings instead of storing yesterday’s practice.

• Getting strong light exposure before sleep? Melatonin is delayed, deep sleep is cut short, and memory slips by morning.

It’s not only about how many hours you put in. You still need repetition to learn, but most of us overdo it because our brains aren’t given the conditions to actually hold on to what we practised.

Practical Steps for Musicians

• Morning light: Spend 10–15 minutes outdoors soon after waking, without sunglasses. Direct light to the eyes (not through glass) anchors your circadian clock and improves sleep quality that night.

• Breakfast swap: Instead of cereal or oats, choose a high-fat, high-protein breakfast with no or very low carbs. For example, eggs and bacon form a strong base; add cheese or salmon if you like.

• Lunch before rehearsal: Common options like sandwiches, pizza, or a burger with fries overload you with starch. The swap is simple: eat the burger, but leave the bun and fries. Or choose chicken with butter, salmon with cream cheese, or cold cuts with cheese and salad. These keep focus steady into rehearsal.

• Coffee timing: Coffee can help, but only in the morning and never past 2 PM. Have it black, or with heavy cream, butter, or MCT oil. Avoid oat or soy milks — most contain seed oils and sugar that inflame the brain.

• Before evening concerts: The goal is to avoid hunger after the concert while staying light enough to play. Eat a meal rich in animal protein and fat — beef with butter, eggs with cheese, or salmon with cream. These foods fill you up without the heaviness and sluggishness carbs create.

• Meal timing: Try to keep food within an 8–10 hour daytime window. Even if you can’t do this every day, aligning meals with daylight helps both memory and energy. And as a rule of thumb, stop eating at least three hours before bed.

My Routine

These days, my breakfast is four scrambled eggs in butter with 4–5 pieces of bacon. That single meal keeps me clear until an early dinner around 3–4 PM. It’s not willpower — it’s stable fuel and timing. When I combine that with consistent sleep and morning light, I don’t just wake up remembering what I practised — I’ve noticed I need less practice time overall, and my recall keeps improving over time.

Try It This Week

Think back to that opening frustration — progress that felt secure yesterday but slips away today. You can protect against it.

This week, try a dual experiment:

1. Mark at least three retrieval cues in your score — structural, motor, or emotional — and practise returning to them.

2. Align your rhythms: get morning light without sunglasses, avoid caffeine after 2 PM, stop eating at least three hours before bed, and start the day with a high-fat, high-protein breakfast with little to no carbohydrate.

Notice how much more of yesterday’s practice survives into tomorrow.

References

1. Georgia Ede, MD. Why Sugar Is Bad for You. Diagnosis Diet. https://www.diagnosisdiet.com/full-article/why-sugar-is-bad-for-you

2. Georgia Ede, MD. Change Your Diet, Change Your Mind. Hachette Book Group, 2024. https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/georgia-ede/change-your-diet-change-your-mind/9780306830834/

3. Chris Palmer, MD. Brain Energy. Penguin Random House, 2022. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/688249/brain-energy-by-christopher-m-palmer-md/

4. Georgia Ede, MD. How to Diagnose, Prevent and Treat Insulin Resistance. Diagnosis Diet. https://www.diagnosisdiet.com/full-article/how-to-diagnose-prevent-and-treat-insulin-resistance

5. Ozan E, Chouinard V-A, Palmer CM. The Ketogenic Diet as a Treatment for Mood Disorders. Curr Treat Options Psych. 2024; 11:163–176. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40501-024-00322-z

6. Satchidananda Panda, PhD. Circadian Code. Rodale Books, 2018.

7. Georgia Ede, MD. Preventing Alzheimer’s Disease Is Easier Than You Think. Psychology Today, 2016. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/diagnosis-diet/201609/preventing-alzheimer-s-disease-is-easier-you-think

8. Diet Doctor. Does the Brain Need Carbohydrates? https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/does-the-brain-need-carbs