Lots of good suggestions here.

Don't know if I can offer anything worthwhile but here's what I do, anyway.

My pattern with words is to get them written down or typed first of all: either from Digitrad etc, or I sit and play the song over and over, jotting down one or two words in each line, every time I repeat it. I sort of enjoy this process.

I try to keep a digital copy of songs I'm learning, because I always lose the words and I can print them out again quickly.

I keep a folder of songs I'd like to know all the way through. I carry a song or two when I go out: read and practice verses in the car, go over a verse or two when I'm in the bank or grocery line, work on it while I wash dishes, whatever. I don't necessarily keep at the same song until it's learned, I switch back and forth unless I'm obsessed about a song and HAVE to learn it all RIGHT NOW. (Happens a lot, actually.)

I'm definitely going to try the "learn toward the end" approach, as well as "get the middle firmly fixed in mind" approach.

About tunes. I have a hard time with a lot of tunes and have worked out a lot of shorthand tricks. One is to print the words (first verse and chorus at least) double spaced, then put little squiggles and marking to show where the dratted thing goes up, down or sideways. I have some standard marks that I almost understand.... Then from time to time I look at my marked-up copy while I listen to the song, and make some corrections.

Also sometimes I write Do-Re-Mi notation above the notes. To show that it's a high note, I might use, say, Do-2 instead of just Do. Maybe this will be useful for somebody. You can usually find "Do" by assuming that the very last note in the song is "Do."

BTW, if I'm trying to learn a tune, I probably have it on tape, vinyl or CD and can work from that.

If I am trying to learn a song that I don't have as a recording, usually I know the tune but only know bits of the words. That's when I get obsessed with learning All Of It Right Now, because otherwise my mind keeps repeating the fragments that I know, and it feels like there is a broken record in my head.

Joel Bailes said that if you like to learn songs, you will never be bored. You always have something interesting to do -- work on a new song.

'S True.

Rita