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Memorizing lyrics -- Age related
- Thread starter hbarcat
- Start date
When I walked around with a bunch of motion (M) and function (G) codes in my head, I had plenty room. I played bass but it was basically on auto pilot, once through was usually all it took to get a song down well enough to cover it, but back then I had the capacity to get away with it. These days i avoid as much nonessential input as possible and I’m still losing ground.
I sometimes wish there was a file management tool for my brain so I could dump a lot of stuff I’ll never use again, but I don’t know if I’d be capable of using that space if it was freed up. I guess I should be careful what I wish for.
I joined a bluegrass session last year - a new genre for me, and I'd not played bass for 15 years (in my 50s). 6 months on I still don't know all of the 50+ regular numbers they play, but I am finding the time it takes me to learn a new song is reducing all the time. It's like learning songs is a skill in itself that I've got rusty with, and I have to learn it again.
Not that this is an answer to the OP’s issue, but I find I have more trouble remembering lyrics if they are lousy lyrics. I can’t remember the words to an Eric Clapton song to save my life. “Oh Pattie, leave George and run away with me, waaaaaa …..”
Or, it's hard to remember stuff you don't give a *rap about that matters more to people who are 30+ years younger than you are. Not to worry, they don't give a *rap about what's important to you either.
Age happens. And with so much going on, distractions, more on your plate as an ‘adult’. And the memory process of myelination of the brain pathways kind a peaked in adolescence, which extends into young adulthood. Kind of like insulation on a wire, the myelin coating along the neurons makes the electrical movement of information more efficient in the brain circuit. That’s where you get the sense of a lasting memory, info moves easily readily along these pathways.
So yeah, now I have to be specific and use a strategy. These work for me, and I switch it up to mix it up and combine strategies. No particular order.
So yeah, now I have to be specific and use a strategy. These work for me, and I switch it up to mix it up and combine strategies. No particular order.
- Write by hand the lyrics, in sets of lines like a stanza or paragraph, and when I do this I’m careful about starting a new line for a new phrase as it’s sung (not always the same as the grammar of the sentence.). Then re-write. Repeat. Repetition increases myelination. Writing by hand hits the brain different more deeply than typing, because you actually have to form the letter, not just hit a button.
- I record myself singing it (with the lyric in front of me), with a track or with the band, whatever. But an accurate recording of the sung lyric. That’s what I sing along to in the car. Hearing my own voice just hits my brain a bit different.
- I put the written lyric in one room, read a passage, then go to another room and recall the lyric aloud. Each time you recall the lyric out of memory and say or sing it out loud reinforces the myelination. And doing this in a different room works in two ways. 1) you can’t cheat and peek 2) and you have to focus enough to hold a thought while you leave a location and go somewhere different, especially across the threshold of a doorway. Basically you’re focusing enough to overcome the the association of the one location to the event, memorizing the lyric. Memories are associated to location. You know when you go back someplace like a childhood home the memories come flooding back? That. You know how you leave a room to get something and then forget what that was? That. Memorization is not about how many times your hear or read something, it’s about how many times you recall it.
- Link recall with something hard, like playing your instrument simultaneously. Then up the challenge by playing the song in a different key. And try switching to a different instrument like guitar or piano or drum. Loading up the conscious brain with the new challenge forces the brain to rely on more subconscious recall of the lyric. Which is the goal to making recall automatic.
- Also link the lyric memory to other memory anchors of a personal nature, a like a specific event in your life with a loved one, or even some negative experience. Basically you are expanding the amount of brain associated with the new memory of the lyric. And specific emotional personal memories are long lasting.
- Do lyric practice just before sleeping. While sleeping (at night especially when dreaming), the brain washes out less relevant memory and rehearses more important information.
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I'm not a singer. For decades, the bands I was in had the words and the instrument parts committed to memory. There was no discussion about any alternatives. Somewhere around the early 2000s I started working with singers that used binders full of lyrics. I fought against that and started a different band. The female vocalist learned the entire catalog of songs with no books or tablets. That was the end of an era (2008) for me. The people I play with today know those lyrics. If we were at a campfire, I know they could sing 'em all from memory, but you can't separate them from the iPads on stage. It took a while but I concede that it's how it's going to be from now on. As for me, I do the same. For songs I've played all these years I don't need supplementary help. For newer stuff I had to learn, I use the iPad sparingly. Audiences don't care about this stuff, so I don't see a problem. As people have mentioned here, pro performers use the teleprompter (many are not very discreet at it) and I think that only musicians notice it.
And regarding teleprompters, cheat devices, etc, it's not just established "old head" artists using them, but I'm sure many younger artists use them too.
I remember reading an article about how a young 29-30 year old Axl Rose used teleprompters with Guns 'n Roses in the early '90s because he had memory issues. Everyone pointed and laughed back then, but we know better now. Mental/neurological health is no joke.
There is that stigma of "memory is the first thing to go" and that starting to lose your memory means you're getting old. But I think that stigma is slowly shifting as we're seeing more and more young people having memory issues.
And using cheat sheets for lyrics is no different from any of us having a cheat sheet of chord progressions for our bass parts taped to our amp or pedalboard or something.
So, yeah, if your playing repertoire consists of an extensive catalog, a little quick-reference cheat sheet is great. A quick glance, and the show goes on. That's preferable to just standing there like, "duhhhhhhhhh" while waiting for your brain to load up.
I remember reading an article about how a young 29-30 year old Axl Rose used teleprompters with Guns 'n Roses in the early '90s because he had memory issues. Everyone pointed and laughed back then, but we know better now. Mental/neurological health is no joke.
There is that stigma of "memory is the first thing to go" and that starting to lose your memory means you're getting old. But I think that stigma is slowly shifting as we're seeing more and more young people having memory issues.
And using cheat sheets for lyrics is no different from any of us having a cheat sheet of chord progressions for our bass parts taped to our amp or pedalboard or something.
So, yeah, if your playing repertoire consists of an extensive catalog, a little quick-reference cheat sheet is great. A quick glance, and the show goes on. That's preferable to just standing there like, "duhhhhhhhhh" while waiting for your brain to load up.
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My serious response to this is: Learn how to remember the first words of a verse, and the rest of it will flow. So before I sing the lead on something, I run through the beginnings of each verse (and chorus) in my head, and if I know the first words I know my brain will find the rest of the verse when it needs to.
I have noticed this as well. My brain is like a hard drive that is full. If I want to add anything, I have to delete something else and it doesn't process as quickly as it used to.
idk Practice until you cant get it wrong.....or Time to go to the 'Is Ipad on stage ok' thread. imho , noone can put on as good show with the ipad in your face mentally and visually, but certainly thats my opinion and I dont sing and I make sure I dont need a chart unless a song called from left field. Of course many opinions will differ.
The Stones were using teleprompters back in the early 90s.
Set up an iPad with a foot trigger, and don't worry about it.
Anytime we pick a song that i have to sing and play to, i get it on a format that i can take to work and put it on my machines stereo and hit repeat.. i have to burn it into my grey matter..
This worked really well when we decided to cover Meadow by stone temple pilots because i had to learn the lyrics and study the bass line at the same time. Oh the joys of suffering from "sometimerz"
This worked really well when we decided to cover Meadow by stone temple pilots because i had to learn the lyrics and study the bass line at the same time. Oh the joys of suffering from "sometimerz"
I'm a high school teacher, and have always been an amateur musician with a few gigs here and there.
I'm 63 now
and have some experiences worth mentioning here. I got the chance to teach the guitar program at school about 7 years ago. I decided to teach classical style (bc both sets of fingers moving, reading music, etc) so I had to brush up my technique and up my game a bit.
At first I found memorizing pieces was really tough. I thought, "oh well, I'm just older" and kept on. I realized that sloooowly it got easier.
At the same time I got into an acoustic band playing various instruments, and lyrics and changes were the same problem. I kept at it and things improved. We played mostly for fun, so not many shows.
During the pandemic the group changed, we lost the bassist and finally became a duo, so I've been ramping up what were very basic bass skills - now OK skills. We have started gigging regularly so have had to add a bunch more songs. We are both singers and do a lot of harmony so I'm always learning words.
And you know what? Memory is like a muscle. It may be out of shape, but if you keep developing it you get strong. I'm amazed at how fast I can pick up a song now - lyrics, changes, vocals and all.
Keep at it!
Also this: "Anything you pay attention to, grows.". Can't remember where I heard this, but it's true and works both ways. Pay attention to the positive stuff, things get better, and the corollary is also true.
Good luck!
I'm 63 now
and have some experiences worth mentioning here. I got the chance to teach the guitar program at school about 7 years ago. I decided to teach classical style (bc both sets of fingers moving, reading music, etc) so I had to brush up my technique and up my game a bit.At first I found memorizing pieces was really tough. I thought, "oh well, I'm just older" and kept on. I realized that sloooowly it got easier.
At the same time I got into an acoustic band playing various instruments, and lyrics and changes were the same problem. I kept at it and things improved. We played mostly for fun, so not many shows.
During the pandemic the group changed, we lost the bassist and finally became a duo, so I've been ramping up what were very basic bass skills - now OK skills. We have started gigging regularly so have had to add a bunch more songs. We are both singers and do a lot of harmony so I'm always learning words.
And you know what? Memory is like a muscle. It may be out of shape, but if you keep developing it you get strong. I'm amazed at how fast I can pick up a song now - lyrics, changes, vocals and all.
Keep at it!
Also this: "Anything you pay attention to, grows.". Can't remember where I heard this, but it's true and works both ways. Pay attention to the positive stuff, things get better, and the corollary is also true.
Good luck!
Getting old is no fun. What was the question?
But seriously, folks. It’s a matter of repetition and effort, and there are some useful memorization techniques out there.
Everyone in the last band I was in used an iPad. There was no entertainment or crowd interaction, just 4 people playing songs. Might as well been a DJ up there. That would have probably been more entertaining.
But seriously, folks. It’s a matter of repetition and effort, and there are some useful memorization techniques out there.
Everyone in the last band I was in used an iPad. There was no entertainment or crowd interaction, just 4 people playing songs. Might as well been a DJ up there. That would have probably been more entertaining.
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IME, it helps to internalise the song's story.
if you know the song's story, the words that tell the story make more natural sense.
and if you -really- know the story, almost any words that tell the same story will work.
so you don't have to stress over knowing each syllable phonetically, just know how to tell a story that makes sense.
if you know the song's story, the words that tell the story make more natural sense.
and if you -really- know the story, almost any words that tell the same story will work.
so you don't have to stress over knowing each syllable phonetically, just know how to tell a story that makes sense.
Aside from the aging brain - from which I suffer too - the methods we use to imprint knowledge (like lyrics) have changed ... for the worse.
In the olden days we had vinyl records or tapes. We played those recordings repeatedly and by hand, while writing out the lyrics by hand. This process in itself is an effective mnemonic method.
Now, when we want lyrics, we go to the web and print them out or put them on our tablets. It's a wonderful thing, but useless to memorization.
In the olden days we had vinyl records or tapes. We played those recordings repeatedly and by hand, while writing out the lyrics by hand. This process in itself is an effective mnemonic method.
Now, when we want lyrics, we go to the web and print them out or put them on our tablets. It's a wonderful thing, but useless to memorization.
As for remembering things like lyrics when you're older, all I can say is .................................... er what were we talking about?
It happens. I can't remember anything these days. Last time I saw Tom Petty live, he had a teleprompter on the floor.
