Hi Hesk,

Haha yeah, I hear you! The number certainly is not important — just me being a little dramatic and showboat-y...fun with numbers. Realistically, the songs I have posted since and including my 13 June post are most of the ones I've learned since Memorial Day / end of May (which I counted up and happened to be around 80 or so). You can see that most of them do not have so many lyrics to memorize, and, as is the case with chanties, many call for ad libbing rather than memorization. The 3 or so sea ballads and the 4-5 foreign language songs were certainly the ones that took the most work to memorize!

In any case, yes, i remember the words; I don't look at any papers while I sing. (Also, a quirky personal "rule" of mine: I always stand, never sit, when singing chanties!) I could certainly "learn" the songs better: "living" with the songs longer, singing them more, would result in both deeper understanding and better performances. In this project though, I am going for quantity (breadth); I can (and do) always come back to the songs later and learn selected ones, better.

My method is to learn ( = memorize, etc) the songs while doing something else. I had a pretty regular routine this summer of exercising at the gym several days per week, and I would take papers with me and study the songs while exercising. Many of the songs are short enough that I could walk to the gym, exercise, walk home, and then by that time know the song reasonably well to record it. The learning certainly doesn't stop there, but it's the first step. Likewise, I don't have a car, so while walking or riding public transport I study the songs. Most often, during physical activity...

Gibb