Memory exercises?

[twostone]

If you gott'em post them. It's hard to remember 60-80 cover tunes

[BigVoiceTenor]

 

If you gott'em post them. It's hard to remember 60-80 cover tunes

 

 

We run the same amount of cover tunes as well and I have a HORRIBLE memory. I actually have a cheat sheet of lyrics I attach to the bottom of my monitor. I can always take a peek if I'm not sure what line is next.

 

Of course I take ribbin' from the guys but they know damn well they can't remember all the words either. If we kept the same 45 songs ALL THE TIME, then it's easy but we switch up to accommodate the audience.

[Jersey Jack]

Rhyme itself is an ancient mnemonic device, as is meter, or rhythm. The purpose of each was to entertain through pleasurable repetition and to enable traveling poet/singers to remember and recite long passages before the emergence of reliable and reproducible writing technologies.

 

I do two things--I try to memorize only the rhyming words. For instance, how about this: "time, fine, dime, prime." Can't you all recreate this verse from these four words? Well, how does it feel?

 

I also name verses--that is, I'll call one the "how it was" verse, the next one the "dark road ahead" verse, etc. Such thematic tagging often jogs the memory cells.

[twostone]

 

We run the same amount of cover tunes as well and I have a HORRIBLE memory. I actually have a cheat sheet of lyrics I attach to the bottom of my monitor. I can always take a peek if I'm not sure what line is next. Of course I take ribbin' from the guys but they know damn well they can't remember all the words either. If we kept the same 45 songs ALL THE TIME, then it's easy but we switch up to accommodate the audience.

 

 

Have a light show with a lot of strobing and dimming color changes it's hard to see the cheat sheets if you know what I mean. Plus the monitor is not directly in front of the singer their more towards stage L/R aimed in a angle which you can hear just fine and usually have to keep them down because they'll blow your ears out because in this position it keeps the pesky screeching FB bug out of them.

[SevenString]

If I'm fuzzy on a song, it's usually the second verse, so I tend to focus on remembering the first couple of words from each line. The rest of each line will just sort of naturally follow if I've sung it even once or twice in the past.

 

 

 

Masquerading as... a man with a reason ...

 

 

 

and I'm off to the races.

 

 

This is very similar to what Jack is describing... tagging sections of a song with key lyrics.

[jvardon]

Practice the song.

I learn lyrics by ear mostly or if I have them written out I'll sing the song over and over. It gets in after a few tries.

[Mamma Cat]

I'm usually so insecure with lyrics, I usually rehearse with the lyrics printed until I get to a gig. I know I know It's not that I don't remember the lyrics, it's me panicking that I won't know them. And in the end it usually happens that I forget the lyrics to the song I knew best. For example, I managed to forget a whole verse of Paint It Black in front of a whole club It couldn't be some more obscure song, but something everyone knows.

Well, I put on a smile, mumbled the part, directed the mic to the audience and hoped no one would hold it against me I was in luck, they didn't. Happens to the best of us.

 

I don't think there's any special technique, apart from what Jersey Jack mentioned. After some time, the lyrics also become somewhat a part of muscle memory, just as you remember the melody and rhythm, just as you remember the fingering when you play the guitar.

Why I think so? Well, I sing stuff in Italian in my classical studies. And Italian I don't speak, I understand the gist. Most of those things don't even rhyme. Lyrics just somehow become inseparable from the rhythm and melody.

 

So I guess no matter how good you get, brainlocks will happen, to you, to me, to people who make serious money by singing. The key is getting away with it - repeating some verse, making up something close enough, whatever. I don't think anyone will take forgotten lyrics here and there against you if you've entertained them well.

[SevenString]

 

Practice the song. I learn lyrics by ear mostly or if I have them written out I'll sing the song over and over. It gets in after a few tries.

 

 

Okay, now try that brute-force approach for the 180 songs you have to keep fresh at any one time because you're in three different cover bands with completely different song lists (classic rock, country, and jazz standards).

 

Oh, don't forget the originals project, where you have to keep THOSE lyrics fresh in your memory as well.

 

Or for that call out of the blue that band-x's singer is sick and you need to fill in for them in two days time, with a bunch of new songs that you haven't learned yet.

 

 

Personally, I need little tricks and mnemonic devices to keep all that stuff straight, even on songs that I already "know".

[grace_slick]

I thought I was pretty familiar with lyrics to a great variety of songs, and I am, but it's funny how when you're not just singing to yourself whilst on the net or whatever how you realise that every now and then there's a "to" or an "and" or a "the" or a "her" that you get wrong or just forget...

[jvardon]

Isn't sarcasm the best?lol

I know it sounds a bit sad but I can remember the lyrics to hundreds of my favourite sounds and most I never looked at a lyric sheet.

[Mamma Cat]

I ran into this while browsing for something else in the forum:

http://acapella.harmony-central.com/showthread.php?t=2095266&highlight=lyrics

[Adrienne Osborn]

I read recently about two kinds of memorization: active and passive. Active is the kind of learning where you have to actively recall information, such as when you learned your multiplication tables and had to recall the answer to "what's 7x7". Passive is just going over things over and over until they sort of "sink in" - like you might have learned your vocabulary words in school by simply reviewing them a bunch of times, but not actually testing yourself on them.

 

jvardon seems to have had incredible success with the passive method, but for people who get nervous on stage at all, the passive method of memorization is the one that fails us at the most inopportune times, with no warning. In that case you want to have an active-memorization backup such as others like Jersey Jack mention: a mnemonic or an image to remind you what the verse is about.

 

I'm also not very good about memorizing things. I find that working on memorizing a song in several short periods over multiple days is way more effective than trying to do any sort of marathon session. The brain needs a sleep period to move your new "knowledge" into long-term storage. Also, really slowing down and getting into the meaning of the lyrics helps with memorization, probably because it creates more neural connections around the lyrics.

[SevenString]

 

Isn't sarcasm the best?lol I know it sounds a bit sad but I can remember the lyrics to hundreds of my favourite sounds and most I never looked at a lyric sheet.

 

 

Well, consider yourself lucky. Some of the rest of us need some memory tricks now and then to keep it all straight.

 

The point with the sarcasm was that, "Practice the song.", wasn't really very helpful, IMO.

[SevenString]

I read recently about two kinds of memorization: active and passive. Active is the kind of learning where you have to actively recall information, such as when you learned your multiplication tables and had to recall the answer to "what's 7x7". Passive is just going over things over and over until they sort of "sink in" - like you might have learned your vocabulary words in school by simply reviewing them a bunch of times, but not actually testing yourself on them. jvardon seems to have had incredible success with the passive method, but for people who get nervous on stage at all, the passive method of memorization is the one that fails us at the most inopportune times, with no warning. In that case you want to have an active-memorization backup such as others like Jersey Jack mention: a mnemonic or an image to remind you what the verse is about. I'm also not very good about memorizing things. I find that working on memorizing a song in several short periods over multiple days is way more effective than trying to do any sort of marathon session. The brain needs a sleep period to move your new "knowledge" into long-term storage. Also, really slowing down and getting into the meaning of the lyrics helps with memorization, probably because it creates more neural connections around the lyrics.

 

Fantastic post!

[tinker925]

 

We run the same amount of cover tunes as well and I have a HORRIBLE memory. I actually have a cheat sheet of lyrics I attach to the bottom of my monitor. I can always take a peek if I'm not sure what line is next. Of course I take ribbin' from the guys but they know damn well they can't remember all the words either. If we kept the same 45 songs ALL THE TIME, then it's easy but we switch up to accommodate the audience.

 

 

Me too! I keep a cheat sheet on the floor... with the first lines of the verses! Even then and occassionally I mix up my verses because I am so in the moment that I forget to look - but RARELY can anyone tell, even the band.

[JohnBenussi]

The only way that has worked for me, is repetition.

You don't sing along, just listen.

 

Since the brain sees things in patterns, this will create a lasting connection

with the tune, and words, and BAM! YMMV as to when you will have the song, but this is what the rewind and play buttons are for -when there is an unintelligible section of lyrics....I did this as a kid and it's worked quite well...

[grace_slick]

I find that whenever I really like a new song and thus want to listen to it a lot, I tend to just listen for the first few times, while I get familiar with the exact tune and then I can’t help but sing along, at least to some parts I’m more familiar with. The melody always comes first for me, and is easy for me to learn and remember. I find that during this learning, I also tend to absorb some of the lyrics too, but it’s only really when I begin singing along that I really commit the words to memory more and more each time. Also, certain song’s lyrics are a tad ambiguous or unclear in terms of the way the words are sung, and it helps to look the lyrics up on a website and sing along while reading them. For me anyway, I find sometimes seeing the words helps me remember them later on.

[Adrienne Osborn]

 

I find sometimes seeing the words helps me remember them later on.

 

 

Definitely! Me too! I can't even remember someone's name unless I know how to spell it. I'm a mostly visual learner.

 

You probably all know about the different ways to learn: kinesthetic, audial, visual. Although we all use all methods to some extent, most of us tend toward one way of learning more than the others. Knowing which way you learn best helps you pick the methods to use to teach yourself things.

[Adrienne Osborn]

Fantastic post!

 

Thanks, SevenString!

[jvardon]

Okay, I guess that was quite unhelpful as all musicians will have practiced their performance material quite a bit.

Sorry.^~^.

[SevenString]

Okay, I guess that was quite unhelpful as all musicians will have practiced their performance material quite a bit. Sorry.^~^.

 

Sorry, I didn't mean to come across as harsh.

 

 

you can probably tell when I haven't had my coffee...

[jvardon]

It's okay, I didn't think you were harsh. You were just stating the truth and there wasn't really any point in sugar coating it.

[Jersey Jack]

 

I find sometimes seeing the words helps me remember them later on.

 

 

That reminds me--another great way to remember lyrics is to write them out, preferably by hand. It's too easy these days to search for lyrics on Goggle, and then in two or three clicks the lyric sheet shoots out of the printer. In the old days we had to write (or type) lyric sheets, and the writing process reinforced the memorization process.

 

I do some Dylan songs, with his trademark endless stream of verses, and I still take a legal pad and write out the lyrics--more than once. As I get closer to the gig I write out the lyrics from memory; this helps me isolate the rough spots.

[JohnBenussi]

 

That reminds me--another great way to remember lyrics is to write them out , preferably by hand. It's too easy these days to search for lyrics on Goggle, and then in two or three clicks the lyric sheet shoots out of the printer. In the old days we had to write (or type) lyric sheets, and the writing process reinforced the memorization process. I do some Dylan songs, with his trademark endless stream of verses, and I still take a legal pad and write out the lyrics--more than once. As I get closer to the gig I write out the lyrics from memory; this helps me isolate the rough spots.

 

 

This is an excellent idea!

This is a sure way to retain lyrics:thu:

 

I forgot about that one (no pun intended)

[MikeyParent]

 

In the old days we had to write (or type) lyric sheets, and the writing process reinforced the memorization process.

 

Yup, I remember helping my dad get lyrics... pencil, a tablet of paper, and a cassette deck. Wearing out that rewind button... LOL

 

There is nothing like repetition to help reinforce lyrics and also that last word of each line trick that was mentioned is a good one.