How to learn a song lyric by heart
How to learn a song lyric by heart
Have you ever stared at your favourite artist and thought: “how is it possible that he/she knows song after song by heart, and not once seems to forget any word?” They must have some special powers right? Well, in this article I’m going to show you a couple of simple steps anyone can follow to learn their favourite song by heart in the most effective way.
Remembering the lyrics to your favourite song can be a frustrating experience, but it doesn’t have to be that way. If you just keep calm, analyse the lyrics, write them down by hand, create a mental picture, learn slowly line by line, and repeat the process, you’ll find yourself singing along to your favourite song by heart in no time! Just follow these steps…
Step 1: Google the song lyrics
This might be obvious to some, but most people don’t bother looking up the lyrics. Immediately trying to remember the lyrics by just listening to the song can be frustrating and inefficient.
The same goes for lyric videos on YouTube. They can be useful in some instances, but some lyric videos go way too fast, or they are poorly timed to the music.
Make sure that you have the right lyrics in front of you. You can check this by listening to the song and reading the lyrics. Copy-paste the lyrics into a Pages or Word file and make any adjustments if necessary.
Play the song a couple of times and read along with the lyrics. If you can, you can already sing along if you want. Pay attention to how the song is structured.
How many verses are there before the chorus kicks in? Is there some sort of a pre-chorus, and is this pre-chorus every time, or does it occur only once in the song? Observations like these can give you a nice overview of the structure of the song, which is very useful in learning a song lyric by heart.
Step 2: Write the lyrics down by hand
Okay, so now you’ve got the lyrics digitally, but now we want to grab a piece of paper and write it down by hand. This might sound useless, but it is a great way to memorise the words. Writing has to happen slowly, and with as much attention as possible.
This way, the text can sip into your subconscious mind on a deeper level. Although you’re just copying the same words on a piece of paper, you’re essentially re-creating the lyrics by hand, and it forces you to have a stronger connection to the words. Writing it down once should be sufficient, but you can repeat this exercise as much as you want of course.
Step 3: Underline rhyme words
Now that you have a written version of the text, you can underline different rhyme pairs by individual colors. You don’t have to underline every rhyme word in the lyric, but the last word of each phrase is most useful to underline. The trick is to link the two words with each other in your mind.
Once you hear the first word, you immediately think of the word that rhymes with it. This way you’ll have an easier time memorising the text.
Example:
This is a verse of my own song “Cherry Blossom”. Bloom and perfume rhyme with each other, and the 2 “off’s” rhyme with enough.
Step 4: Create a mental picture
Most (well-written) lyrics take place somewhere. Ask yourself a question for each verse of the song: “where am I?”, “what do I hear, see, smell, taste, touch?”. Close your eyes for a second and really imprint that picture inside your mind.
Also, try to ask yourself what feelings you have for each part of the text. How does it make you feel, and what else are you associating with the lyrics. Write these keywords down next to the lyrics on your piece of paper.
mnemonics
You can also be creative by creating little mnemonics for yourself. For example: maybe you find a word in an English-written song that’s funny to you because it looks like a different word in your native language (if English is not your native language). This makes the word stand out to you.
Step 5: Learn line by line
So far we’ve done all the preparation for this next exercise, which is very powerful. Close your eyes, and try to recall the first phrase. If you got it right, you can do it again, and right after that one try the next line.
If you get a line wrong, you have to start over again until you’ve got it right. This way you’re only moving forward with lines that are now part of your short-term memory. Try to suppress the urge to read on and try to remember the whole lyric in one sitting, for learning line by line is the most effective method of training your short-term memory.
Also, read the lines out loud at first in a speaking tone, and then try to sing them. The challenge remains to really be disciplined about this and stop reading and start at the beginning again once you make a mistake. This is the only way to learn it the correct way.
Step 6: Repetition, repetition, repetition…
Once you’ve completed the lyrics once without forgetting a single line, you can start to sing along with the music and repeat it as often as you can. Repeat the song 5 times a day, and then repeat that session daily. Each time you sleep, your brains will subconsciously continue to keep processing everything. If you’re doing it right, you’ll find yourself doing a better job at remembering each day.
Final thoughts…
Remembering the lyrics to your favourite song can be a frustrating experience, but it doesn’t have to be that way. If you just keep calm, analyse the lyrics, create a mental picture, learn slowly line by line, and repeat the process, you’ll find yourself singing along to your favourite song by heart in no time!
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Hey, my name is Erik Reino
Nice to meet you and welcome to my website!
I’m an independent artist, YouTuber, blogger and I’m a teacher/coach for people that want to become better at making music.
Thanks for checking out my website! I hope it’s of any use to you. Please feel free to contact me and I will do my best to get back to you as soon as possible.
Photo: 3voor12 Leiden, Wishful Doing