A Step by Step Approach to Memorizing Music
1289 - July 2021
1. HOW DO MOST SINGERS MEMORIZE THEIR MUSIC?
Most singers, unless they have had some kind of training in memorization techniques, simply repeat the song over and over again until they remember it. It is similar to studying at the last minute for a test. You just repeat the lyrics and the song over and over again until you think you know it. Some people are good at that, but most people are not and this can be very stressful.
2. AND IS THIS THE BEST WAY TO MEMORIZE MUSIC?
No, actually, it is not the best way. I have found this to be a very unreliable method for various reasons. First of all, it takes too long. Also, you can never be absolutely sure that you will remember it all. Things can happen on stage that you do not anticipate. Lots of things can happen during a performance. Suddenly you can make a mistake and drop a word or forget where you are in the song. Someone else can make a mistake and throw you off a bit. I find it is just too risky. When you have the melody and the lyrics married together from the start, if you drop out either, it’s possible that you can drop out the whole thing and you can get lost. So scary!!
The only time that learning a song quickly is extremely useful is when you have to learn a song in a very short time. Perhaps you have an audition or a chance to join a performance at the last moment and you must learn a song quickly. It is very useful for a singer to develop the ability to learn songs quickly because if opportunity knocks, you want to be able to respond and sometimes, you simply do not have the choice to do it in stages.
Some circumstances are beyond your control and you simply just have to cram a song into your memory. However, it often only works for the moment and then afterwards, the song does not stick in your memory. The downside of this is that you will probably have to work at memorizing the song all over again.
It’s like a surprise test in school… I find this very stressful and very unnerving.
3. WHAT DO YOU RECOMMEND AS YOUR “STEP BY STEP" PROCESS TO MAKE IT EASIER TO MEMORIZE MUSIC?
In this vocal training system that I teach, there is an approach that allows you to prepare and memorize your songs by taking the songs apart and by first separating the lyrics, the melody, the tempo and the rhythm. You spend time on each one of these elements separately and once you have finished that, you put the song back together and it is then ready to perform. This approach allows you to thoroughly know a song from the inside out.
At first this system may seem like the long way around the barn, but it comes through for you when it really matters.
4. WHY DO YOU SEPARATE EVERYTHING IN ORDER TO LEARN THE SONG?
So first of all, it helps to understand a little bit about how the brain processes this particular type of information. The brain simultaneously uses the Left Hemisphere to process the words and all the structural elements inherent in music as is also processing the melody and the emotional, creative parts of singing a song in the Right Hemisphere of the brain. So two elements that make up the main part of the song, the lyrics and the melody, come from two different parts of the brain.
Another thing that is useful to know is that memory is not mental... It is physical. That explains why you can hear a song on the radio, for example, and think you know the melody and the words, but when you try to sing it, you just cannot recall the whole thing. There are people who can actually do that, but they are very few and far between. Most people can only recall fragments of a song upon just hearing it a few times.
That is why it is also very important to first allow yourself to physically embody the song by moving around, drumming, clapping, tapping, walking etc. as you begin to introduce your song to your body. It is most useful to engage the small muscles first, like clapping your hands, to get familiar with the rhythm and the tempo. As you practice the song more, you can then engage the bigger muscles by walking in tempo to the beat of the song. This helps to solidify this part of the song in your memory.
When you try to cram all that information from 2 different parts of the brain all at once, it goes against how the brain actually learns things. Once you separate things and do them in steps, the whole thing feels easier to accomplish. And, when you approach memorizing music this way, it stays forever in your memory. Years later, you can call up a song that you worked on this way and with a very short review, it will still be there.
5. AFTER I MOVE AROUND AND GET A PHYSICAL SENSE OF THE SONG, WHAT DO I DO NEXT?
The next step is to focus on either the lyrics by themselves or by focusing on the melody. You can choose either one. I recommend doing the one first that you find a bit more challenging.
6. IF I WANT TO DO THE LYRICS FIRST, HOW DO I BEGIN?
One approach is to write out the lyrics by hand. That makes it a physical experience right away. Then, you can start reading the lyrics out loud as a script in a story. Also, you can say the words in different tempos… very slowly and then very quickly. Once you have done that for a while and you are now ready to commit all these words to memory, You can then take the song line by line and begin to repeat the cadences of the individual sentences.
One technique is to say the first sentence out loud beginning at the end of the sentence
For example:
“Mary had a little Lamb” would start with:
Lamb, little lamb, a little lamb, had a little lamb, Mary had a little Lamb
All songs can be learned from the last line first… working word by word to the front of the song. Then, eventually, when you say the first word, your brain calls up the whole song as one memory. It is actually fascinating that the brain can do this.
Another technique is to eventually repeat the lyrics while gently biting on your pinky. When you do that you activate the Vagus Nerve System in the body. That is a huge part of the nervous system which connects many things in the body. It gets activated when you bite on something and the body automatically closes the vocal cords because it thinks you are about to eat something. Not only does that help you to sing better but it actually imprints the words and eventually the melody into your nervous system… again making the memorizing physical.
7. THEN HOW DO I LEARN THE MELODY IN A STEP BY STEP WAY?
You begin the melody work without the words because now you are switching to the Right side of the brain Hemisphere and you want this to be learned on its own. You can begin very simply by humming. Humming is very good for you for many reasons and it makes the brain remember the melody in a very easy and non stressful way. Singing along with a very neutral vowel sound is recommended along with a gentle relaxed volume.If you are very familiar with the song, you can also sing along with the melody using gibberish sounds as well.
You can also use biting on the pinky as a device here to get the melody firmly implanted in your memory. Again, this engages the Vagus Nerve and helps the whole body to know the song… not just the mind. You want to take apart the melody to find any areas that might be challenging to your voice and work them out separately as well.
Singing along with a recording of the song is also useful. You can sing vowel sounds while you listen to the singer on the recording sing the lyrics. That helps to get the memory of the melody in your hearing.You also want to be able to sing the melody all by itself without any music playing at all.
8. HOW DO I PUT IT ALL BACK TOGETHER AGAIN?
That is the fun part. After you have done all the work to take the song apart, you then can begin to test it all out to see if you are ready. Repetition is the key. Taking your time to repeat and review all the parts that are not quite done yet are essential to really getting a song thoroughly prepared. You can begin with the end of the song and sing the last verse or chorus first and then work your way forward asw you initially did with the individual sentences. This is a very thorough way to learn a song and it really pays off. Once you have done all these stages and you have successfully recombined all the elements, you are then ready to start to work on the other elements of the song such as the story and the emotional interpretation and the final presentation of the song in performance. That is another topic for a different day. There is so much more to this than meets the eye!!