Learning songs

  • Thread starter Thread starter nord
  • Start date Start date
N

nord

New member
how do you learn songs?
i can listen to a song 100 times and still not know any of the words

does it help to know song structure

nord
 
Read the words while listening. Sing along. Just listening doesn't cut it for me.
 
i write them down as i listen to them. play the song, write as many as i can, rewind, play, write. then read them out loud as i listen to the song and then sing them as i listen.
 
I agree you need to write out the words - this normally requires listening to the song several times (starting & stopping, etc). Often breaking it down to smaller segments can help - meaning learn one verse at a time.

Knowing song struction is not a significant benefit - it's simply a matter of repetition. Listen, document, memorize - repeat as needed!
 
There are some sites that offer lyrics to thousands of songs. I would start there. If someone writes something and can't bother to pronounce the words in a recognizable fashion, then I think you are well within your rights to sing what you hear phonetically. I remember back when I was singing a Dylan song in a band called C. J White, we tried to decipher the words to My Back Pages, man what a chore. I know they're written down somewhere, but we were singing things like "fusion boats" and phrases like that because that's what we heard.:)

BTW it was the Byrds version that we were listening to.
 
I find if I pay attention to w hat they are saying while im listening I can usually remember what is being said much more.
 
I share the same fate!

I think it may be a mental block on my part, though. I can reproduce any part of a song... except the words. I have tried all sorts of memory techniques: writing as I hear it, re-writing it. singing it over and over, but let a day go by and the words are like a ghost. I know they are there but I can't see them. I can remember all the notes used for each individal part of the song -inflections in the voice and all -but when it comes to remembering the words, my mind goes blank.
 
I think you can divide it up like i think you said

1.pitch track
2.emotional track
3.words

1 i remember pitch like someone`s just said something to me that was important i don`t forget it
2. i remember the emotional track second, it`s dependent of the pitches near to it in the tune but also it depends on knowledge of the whole tune
3.words i dont remember or really care about them i`m sure someone could sing the entire tune just using the word 'la' and i`d be happy as long as 1,2 were ok

i think the first two are largely subconscious, which leads to the fact i can sing it perfectly without any concept of whether its going higher or lower
i also think the subconscious feeds the conscious the words in a sense state (its got an audio signal full of noise and reflections and worked out what word it is from your vocab)

so its doing a lot maybe there`s a bottleneck somewhere?

either way i think separating the words from the tune is an improvement notepad is set to become a regular on the start bar

nord
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top