The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #151514 Message #3536884
Posted By: Deckman
12-Jul-13 - 10:50 PM
Thread Name: remembering lyrics
Subject: RE: remembering lyrics
Hi Emmie,
I think your thread is perfectly stated. I'll try to add some meaningful thoughts ...
There is no doubt that as we age, we have more difficulty in memorizing new songs. I know this personally as I am now either 76, or 176, I forget which!
I started absorbing folksongs through massive book collections when I was 13. By the time 10 years had passed, for whatever reason, I carried around a couple of thousand songs in my head. That sounds like a lot, but if you look around you, and remember the ballad singers you've known over the years, a repitore of two thousand songs is NOT uncommon.
What surprise me, and "Bride Judy" today, is now several times a week, I keep coming up with songs she's never heard of before. And "Bride Judy" has a strong background in traditional folk music. I'll confess that at these old/knew songs that keep popping out of my brain, it even surprises me. I often sing an old ballad, tell the story of how and why I learned it, and then I say ... "why in the heck do I rememeber THAT song?"
BUT, if I am preparing do perform a new concert, which I still do, I like to mix up the old stuff with new stuff. The "old stuff" returns really quickly. But the new stuff is demanding as heck. While it would be much simpler for me to just sing a concert of the "old stuff", I like to keep my audiences aware of what "new stuff" is now out there.
I've found that when I'm trying to drive the lyrics to new songs into my head, I have to return to the most basic things I did when I was a youngster:
1. shut ALL distractions from my brain
2. concentrate ONLY on the new song(s)
3. keep the words in front of me ... in the car ... on the mirror as I shave ... do NOT listen to any other music .. stop all other distractions ... etc. In other words ... FOCUS, FOCUS FOCUS.
There are many other tricks I learned that worked for me: sing the verses backwards, write an essay as to the ballads meaning ... etc.
So ... I hope this gives you some encouragement and perhaps some useful tips.
... just trying to help ... bob(deckman)nelson