I often find that it is the same one or two particular spots where I go wrong so prepare 'recovery strategies' for those bits. Don't try to get the whole paragraph or verse ready in your head tho, just a line or two.

When I am singing, my mind is usually a line or two ahead of my mouth! A bit like when playing from sheet music you are looking at what is coming up rather than what you are actually playing. I find this makes it easier to remember since there is less of a right / wrong divide and it feels a little more like your lyrics rather than a memory test. I'm sure there are those that will disagree, but I think it's perfectly fine to switch a word or two here and there to make the song more your own and to fit in with your own natural flow. By the time you've spent a few hours fighting your way through the song line by line, most of the words are already well bedded in. Taking this to the next level, the old school method of figuring out lyrics by listening to the song and writing them down yourself rather than googling and going with the least wrong version works wonders. If you've got each A section's lyrics mnemonically tied to each riff, you should sing all the sections in the correct order. If it's AABA then you have an A->A riff, an A->B riff, and a B->A riff. If the song is short, though, you wouldn't run into this. you screw up and play the verse 2->verse 3 transition between verses 1 and 2 and then sing verse 3 instead of verse 2. Of course, this method could just shift your problem to not being able to remember the order of the riffs you memorize.i.e. But if I hear the song and sing along, I know the exact order of things because I recognize the unique riff that leads into each verse. If you ask me off hand how it goes I wouldn't be able to get the verses in the right order and I'd probably leave some out, even if I know all the lyrics. An example of what I'm talking about- Don McLean's 'American Pie' is a long song with tons of verses. Tie memorization of the verses to memorization of that riff. Find a bunch of looseleaf, error check yourself each time until you've got it perfect, and then rewrite it a few more times for solidarity.Įven if you're improvising, maybe develop a standard riff that you use as you move to the next verse section. One additional straight memorization tactic you can try is simply writing the poem down, word for word, exactly down to the letter from memory. See if you can uncover the logic of why and when he repeats lyric material, why the choruses happen when they do, how lyric material relates to music material. In this format, you can also chunk the poem down into component parts similar to how one would analyze a song in, say, AABA format. Live with it like that for a while see if you can read it differently from the rhythm you know in the song. I would suggest extracting the lyrics from the song and treating it like poetry. I read the poem before hearing the music, and I'll bet part of what's tripping you up is that the lyrics as sung have a very constant rhythm and not much melodic contour. Johnson) and if you can find it, it'll only make your whole experience with the piece more enjoyable. :-) In other words, I think there is definitely meaning in this poem (there almost certainly is to Mr. cummings to perhaps broaden your palate for poetic metaphors. There are some line breaks I might add to the source you provided that might make it clearer, but I would say it has a very metered feel that flows well and is also highly rich in metaphor. The lyrics aren't particularly obvious, but I wouldn't say they're not poetic. I'm sure you chose this one for some reason, maybe it's just about the instrumental aspect, but you will find memorization easier if you can find personal meaning in it. I would first suggest, if you have a say in the matter, try to cover songs that you can connect with on a personal level (that you don't find to be nonsensical).

Remember when lyrics