Memorization Tips

 Adapted from Clementine Delauney, “How to Memorize Lyrics and Never Forget Them”

1.      Listen. Listen to the songs as often as you can. At home, in your car, in public transport, while cooking, while working out… Get used to the songs, listen to the words and the rhymes. If you can already sing along some sentences at this point, without looking at the written lyrics, go for it!

2.      Write. Get out a pen and paper and write down the lyrics to the song.  Something about writing in your own hand really helps.  PRO TIP:  For the first word of every line, use CAPITAL letters to make them stand out.  Maybe even use a different color.  This will help you visualize the first word of each line later on.

3.      Read. Now you can train your visual memory! Read the lyrics alone without the music. Read them out loud. Get used to the words, the orders of the sentences, the rhymes. 

4.      Read while listening. Read the lyrics while listening to the song. This way you get to train both auditory AND visual memory.

5.      Sing along. Sing the whole song reading the lyrics along 3 times in a row.  Repetition is key!

6.      Start training to memorize lyrics. Here’s where we want to go too fast sometimes. Divide the song into small parts. Start with 1 or 2 lines at once if the sentences are long, or with a full verse if they are short. Sing along to the song the part you chose, without looking at the lyrics. Do it until you remember the words exactly, without hesitation. Then move to the next part and do the same. Once you know 2 parts very well, sing from the start until the last sentence you’ve learnt. Do this for the entire song. By always starting from the beginning of the song, you will remember the order of the parts and they will flow easily from one to the other.

7.      Have a break. Your brain needs time to process what it learnt.  20 minutes a day is much more effective than one 2-hour session.  PRO TIP: Sleep on it!  Practice close to bedtime and your brain will keep working while you sleep!

8.      New, from Louise:  Try it really fast, and really slow.  Once you have the song pretty well memorized, try singing it really fast.  Then faster!  If you can sing the song really fast, the words will flow more easily at the regular tempo.  Try singing it really slowly, too.  The different temps help cement the words in your brain.