Memorizing Music Lyrics

[theBruiser500]

i like to sing songs to myself like Yesterday, Build me up BUttercup Baby, Hey Jude, etc. i can never remember the lyrics though, i can remember just a few lines even though i listen to these same songs just over and over again on my computer. any tips for how i can memorize these lyrics so i can sing it to myself?

[InchoateHand]

Sing along with the music until it just gets deep enough in your head. If you want to [censored] with the track, build your own karaoke tracks too.

In all seriousness, I suggest getting incarcerated. There was a point in my life when I had no music (I like music), and I was able to build a library of hundreds of songs by diligently writing down more words everytime I remembered them. Upon release, I found that I had altered them, but I liked the alterations and the originals sucked.

[istewart]

Just listen to the song on repeat. Or Google.

[PoBoy321]

Practice, practice, practice. If you just keep singing the songs to yourself, you'll remember them eventually.

[theBruiser500]

that's the thing i do listen to these songs nonstop, i just keep playing the same songs over and over again but i never retain the lyrics. there is only one song i know (yesterda)

[InchoateHand]

all my troubles seemed so far away...oh I believe in....

[InchoateHand]

Another alternative---hang out with Indonesians. They are all about breaking out the guitar and singing along to the entire Simon and Garfunkel/Beatles song book.

[Jack of Arcades]

sing the song while reading the lyrics and listening to it. that way you get the lyrics three ways.

[wacki]

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i can never remember the lyrics though, i can remember just a few lines even though i listen to these same songs just over and over again on my computer.

[/ QUOTE ]

I have the same problem. By the same token I know this woman that is as dumb as a doorknob that has every song on the radio memorized. I think this just show you the vast difference in information processing. Cognitive vs. absorb and spit back information type of brains.

[theBruiser500]

heh.. what is "cognitive vs. absorb" mean?

[sublime]

tattoo them on your arm

[InchoateHand]

Its his made up terminology for the distinction between retaining information and "processing" it in interesting and/or complex ways.

[ThaSaltCracka]

some people learn better via reading something, while others learn better by listening to someone else speak.

[wacki]

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heh.. what is "cognitive vs. absorb" mean?

[/ QUOTE ]

Cognitive = ability to use logic and understand complex concepts.

"absorb and spit back information" is exactly that. Basically you are a data recorder and not much more.

[TimM]

Choose better songs?

[theBruiser500]

my taste in music is impeccable

Scince the brain uses pictures as a way of remembering virtually everything I would memorize the lyrics in this way:

Visualize every line extremely vividly and with great detail, imagine moving pictures that can symbolize the words in the song. Crazy and unnatural pictures works best. Connect every line and make sort of a music video in the head. Go through the video in your head a few times saying the words out loud. And that's it.

It's easier with lyrics that actually describes a vivid story already, for example 'The hurricane' by Bob Dylan.

Good luck!

[TimM]

Actually I thought of a real tip. Alternate between singing the song alone, reading the lyrics, and singing along while the song is playing.

Sometimes I wonder how musicians remember the lyrics to their own songs. Then I pop on a live version and realize they sometimes do not.

[theBruiser500]

i think that's good idea you too tim. however la difference, i think it makes more sense to have unique but related images in my mind, that way it makes more sense is logical and is something i can make more connections with, not a lot of random memorizaiton

[Dead]

[ QUOTE ]
Sing along with the music until it just gets deep enough in your head. If you want to [censored] with the track, build your own karaoke tracks too.

In all seriousness, I suggest getting incarcerated. There was a point in my life when I had no music (I like music), and I was able to build a library of hundreds of songs by diligently writing down more words everytime I remembered them. Upon release, I found that I had altered them, but I liked the alterations and the originals sucked.

[/ QUOTE ]

And what were you in jail for?

Mopery?

That's right, it shouldn't be completely random, it Should make some sense to you.

But it's supposed to be moving pictures because that's easier for the mind to remeber. And crazy illogical pictures also 'sticks' easier in your memory.

The most important thing is to have very vivid clear pictures with very much detail though...

[Daliman]

[ QUOTE ]
sing the song while reading the lyrics and listening to it. that way you get the lyrics three ways.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is good advice. Actually reading the words, even if you can make out what they are, helps imprint the lyrics with the music.

Also, some songs just lend themselves to memorization easier. I'm pretty good with memorizing songs anyways, but I memorized "Add it up" by the Violent femmes, which SEEMS like a very complicated song to remember, in about 3 hours. The more I thought about it though, it just seems like the words string together well in that particular case.

[istewart]

It always sucks when you spend months singing a song a certain way and it turns out you knew none of the lyrics.

[Daliman]

[ QUOTE ]
It always sucks when you spend months singing a song a certain way and it turns out you knew none of the lyrics.

[/ QUOTE ]

But it's great when you hear someone else singing a song with the wrong words with TOTAL conviction, even though the words they transpose make no sense, and they don;t believe you when you tell them the real words, such as my friends ex-girlfriend and her sister signing along to "The Freshman" by the verve pipe, "..For the life of me, I cannot believe we ever died, forty cents , we were merely freshmen.. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[bogey]

dont waste any valuable neurons on this worthless exercise

[EliteNinja]

I don't know what it is about memorizing lyrics.
For me I can listen to a song hundreds of times and still not remember all the lyrics.

If I need to memorize the lyrics to something. I have to print/write out the lyrics and then memorize them line by line.

I play the guitar and it's sad that I suck at memorizing lyrics.

[turnipmonster]

keep in mind people memorize things in different ways. some people are visual learners and some are primarily auditory learners.

[VBM]

eh, dont' worry so much about getting them right. if you don't know the right words, just fill in what sounds good to you. it's not for anyone else or anything...sing for yourself, have fun with it, don't worry too much about stuff that doesn't matter...

[Eurotrash]

[ QUOTE ]

But it's great when you hear someone else singing a song with the wrong words with TOTAL conviction, even though the words they transpose make no sense, and they don;t believe you when you tell them the real words, such as my friends ex-girlfriend and her sister signing along to "The Freshman" by the verve pipe, "..For the life of me, I cannot believe we ever died, forty cents , we were merely freshmen.. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[/ QUOTE ]


heh, this is actually one of my favorite things in a "looking back and laughing at it" sense... hearing the lyrics one way and then realizing they're totally wrong. A friend of mine would get a good laugh out of seeing this post in particular though -- this song was one of our favorites, and we always thought the line was

"...we'd never doubt forty cents,"

/images/graemlins/cool.gif

[Dr. Strangelove]

For me there is a difference between memorizing a song to the extent that I can sing along with it when it comes on the radio, and memorizing it such that I can sing it by myself. The first comes naturally for me. To accomplish the second I get the lyrics and read over them a couple times, sing while reading them, sing without the lyrics. Repeat until I make no mistakes, then every once in a while repeat the whole thing in your head so it remains in the long term memory. This also works for poetry, speeches, and 3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375 10
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[FishNChips]

give up... ur just too dumb to remember lyrics...

jeez... i listen to a song twice and I know it, you're a moron!

[Sponger15SB]

[ QUOTE ]
jeez... i listen to a song twice and I know it, you're a moron!

[/ QUOTE ]

Wow, with your power of memorization, you must be, like, the smartest person alive.

[kipin]

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jeez... i listen to a song twice and I know it, you're a moron!

[/ QUOTE ]

Wow, with your power of memorization, you must be, like, the smartest person alive.

[/ QUOTE ]

One of my friends raps quite a bit, and seriously he can listen to a song twice, and have all the verses down. He is like a walking rap encyclopedia.

[theBruiser500]

[ QUOTE ]
eh, dont' worry so much about getting them right. if you don't know the right words, just fill in what sounds good to you. it's not for anyone else or anything...sing for yourself, have fun with it, don't worry too much about stuff that doesn't matter...

[/ QUOTE ]

the way for me to have the most fun would be for me to remember more than lines of the lyrics

[InchoateHand]

<font color="white"> I wasn't in prison </font>

[daryn]

why are these posts getting deleted?

[Jack of Arcades]

[ QUOTE ]
why are these posts getting deleted?

[/ QUOTE ]

I've been wondering that, too.

Edit: I think it's possible that they aren't.

[jakethebake]

[ QUOTE ]
I've been wondering that, too.

[/ QUOTE ]
He must be being a dick again.

[Jack of Arcades]

Oh. Highlight the text. That's what I get for having a white background.

[InchoateHand]

[ QUOTE ]
That's what I get for having a white backside.

[/ QUOTE ]

Work on your all-over tan.

[daryn]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In risposta di:</font><hr />
Oh. Highlight the text. That's what I get for having a white background.

[/ QUOTE ]

yeah i did that for another post i saw and there was nothing.

[daryn]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In risposta di:</font><hr />
</font><blockquote><font class="small">In risposta di:</font><hr />
Oh. Highlight the text. That's what I get for having a white background.

[/ QUOTE ]

yeah i did that for another post i saw and there was nothing. guess i messed up or he edited.

[/ QUOTE ]

[VBM]

[ QUOTE ]
the way for me to have the most fun would be for me to remember more than lines of the lyrics

[/ QUOTE ]

I actually don't think this is the most fun.

I used to think the lyric in Toto's "Africa" was:
"I catch some rays down in Africa"
when it's actually
"I bless the rains down in Africa"

I also thought Sarah McLachlan's "Building A Mystery" lyric was:
"You stretch your ass to wear your suicide bone"
when it's actually:
"You strut your rasta wear &amp; And your suicide poem"

Needless to say, I've provided endless laughs for people who hear me mumble along to these songs...:)

[offTopic]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
the way for me to have the most fun would be for me to remember more than lines of the lyrics

[/ QUOTE ]

I actually don't think this is the most fun.

I used to think the lyric in Toto's "Africa" was:
"I catch some rays down in Africa"
when it's actually
"I bless the rains down in Africa"

I also thought Sarah McLachlan's "Building A Mystery" lyric was:
"You stretch your ass to wear your suicide bone"
when it's actually:
"You strut your rasta wear &amp; And your suicide poem"

Needless to say, I've provided endless laughs for people who hear me mumble along to these songs...:)

[/ QUOTE ]

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