A Lasting Impression: Performance Memory Persists After a Single Musical Exposure

Despite the centrality of memory to music reading and performance, little is known about incidental long-term memory retention of music that is performed at sight. In this study, 19 undergraduate pianists sight-read a series of short, unfamiliar pieces, and then returned 1–3 weeks later to perform the same pieces, without opportunities to see or practise the music in the interim. Pitch, rhythm, and metre errors were all found to decrease in the second reading, with error counts dropping on average by 13% from Reading 1 to Reading 2, while error types and sizes tended to persist across readings. No significant differences were found between those who had a 1-, 2-, or 3-week gap between readings, suggesting that a single brief encounter with a score can have a long-term priming effect. These findings illustrate how robust musical memory can be and may have implications for our understanding of how motor and memory systems support long-term retention in skilled performance.