The Body as a Memory Board
A medieval monk taught singers with the joints of one hand. You will use ten places on your body to keep ten things in order.
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The singing hand
Northern Italy, about a thousand years ago. In the choir school of a cathedral, a monk named Guido, from the town of Arezzo, has a problem that every choirmaster had. The great church chants had no written notes that anyone could easily read. A boy learned each melody by listening to an older singer sing it again and again, and it could take many years to learn enough to sing in church.
Guido wanted a quicker way. He is remembered for several ideas, but the one that lasted longest was strangely simple. He taught his singers to use the palm of their own hand.
On the left hand, every fingertip and every joint stood for a note, from the lowest to the highest. The teacher pointed at the joints one after another while the boys sang, and the boys learned to think of a note and a place on the hand as the same thing. Later they could do it silently. The hand was a map of sound that they carried everywhere, and no one could lose it or forget it at home.
Even the names of the notes came from a song. Guido used a hymn to Saint John whose lines began with the syllables ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la. Each line began one note higher than the last, so the singers could hear what each name sounded like. Those syllables are the ancestors of do, re, mi.
The 'Guidonian hand' stayed in music books for centuries, drawn in the margins of manuscripts and printed textbooks. People simply found it useful. It was always with them, it was a fixed order, and it was easy to touch while they thought.
That is exactly what we want from our first memory place. In this lesson you will not use a hand but your whole body: ten places from head to toe, always in the same order. They are the simplest possible memory board.
Words worth knowing
Say what you think each one means, then open it.
The Guidonian hand is traditionally linked to Guido of Arezzo (about 991 to after 1033). Retold here in our own words.
Ten pegs, always in the same order
A peg is a fixed place you hang a picture on. If the pegs never change and always come in the same order, they can hold a list for you.
| Peg | Place | Peg | Place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Head (hair) | 6 | Chest |
| 2 | Eyes | 7 | Stomach |
| 3 | Nose | 8 | Legs |
| 4 | Mouth | 9 | Feet |
| 5 | Neck | 10 | Toes |
- Say the pegs in order. Head, eyes, nose, mouth, neck, chest, stomach, legs, feet, toes. Do it until it is automatic. It takes a few minutes.
- Turn each item into a picture. If you cannot picture it, substitute a sound-alike (see lesson 2).
- Put the picture ON the peg. Make it touch, cover or attack that part of your body. You should feel it there.
- Add movement and a sense. It moves, it makes a noise, it has a smell.
- To recall, walk down your body. Start at the head, and see what is sitting on each place.
Turning a name into something you can place
Brazil is not a picture. But Brazil sounds like bra. So you place a giant red bra across your chest (peg 6), with straps made of snakes. Russia sounds like rushing: a torrent of water rushes down your head. Hard words always turn into something. If one resists, pick any sound-alike.
one trip down the body.
same order
every time.
What the body can and cannot do
- It is portable and instant. No building needed, and you can use it on a bus.
- It holds ten. More would need places that are crowded or hard to tell apart. For longer lists you will use a building (lesson 4).
- It can be reused once the list is no longer needed. Clear the pegs by imagining them empty and clean.
Now you build
Have a go before you open any answer. A rough attempt teaches you more than a perfect model you only read.
Say the pegs
Item and peg: BANANA on EYES
Item and peg: PIZZA on HEAD
Hard names
Which peg?
The walk
Drill
Flash cards
Say the answer first, then tap the card.
Quick quiz
The memory challenge
Memory challenge: the first ten elements
Put the first ten chemical elements on your ten body pegs, in order. Sound-alike hints: hydrogen = hydrant, helium = high voice or balloon, lithium = lit-up, beryllium = berry, boron = boring, carbon = car, nitrogen = night, oxygen = ox, fluorine = floor, neon = neon sign.
A picture for each, placed on pegs 1 to 10, head to toes. Then type them in order, one per line.
The list has gone. Type what you remember, one item per line.
Look back
These reach back to earlier rooms. Answer in your head or out loud, then check.
What I can do now
A thought to keep
Where, in daily life, would a list of ten things be useful to hold for a day or two? (A shopping list, tasks, points for a talk.) How would you use the pegs?