Rote memorization is a skill that's quite useful, but it's only one skill among many others that people should take away from school or university. And just as it's wrong to dismiss certain teaching as "just" rote memorization (e.g. knowing vocabulary in a foreign language) it's also wrong to just omit the teaching part altogether and train people to do well on standardized tests.
Alternative method include something directly guiding student physically and practicing in such a way that you get immediate feedback if you are wrong.
Edit: to clarify, I'm probably in the top 35-45% when I'm rusty, which is a massive drop. I can't play top .1% without spending a few months grinding
At least with memory you can recall enough to relearn quickly.
I've learned the name of every note and commited it to my memory through spaced repetitions
Even if you play any complex melody, i can split it and tell you names of the exact notes.
Is this training? Rote learning? Intelligence?
When i show people this, they say you are gifted but I've simply commited things to my memory.
The core knowledge of intelligent thinking, in mathematics and beyond, is the rules of mathematical derivation in the most abstract and universally applicable form. Those rules can be applied in a myriad of daily situations. This universal applicability in problem solving makes the basis of what others consider an intelligent person. If properly formulated and represented for learning, these rules can be memorized in a standard way; in other words, memorization can be a way toward intelligence!"
