Compiled and Edited by
Carrie Cooper, 2nd Soprano, Desert Voices, Tucson, AZ
Revised 10-16-2001

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The following tips are from the ChorusWomen e-mail discussion list.

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Before trying to memorize a piece think about how you pick up and process information. Are you an auditory learner (you can hear a song on the radio and soon sing along without much thought to the words or tune)? Or are you more of a visual learner (you learn faster by looking at the words, creating an outline or visualizing the page in your mind)? Most of us use a combination of both techniques but may have a preference toward one of the other.

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• Choose a time to concentrate on memorization. Don't just assume it will happen automatically because you are singing or listening to these songs every week.

• Especially if you are an auditory learner bring a tape recorder to rehearsals and use it!

  • Taping Pitfalls:  Especially if the tape is made early in the season it may contain rough cut-offs, irregular breathing, harsh vowel sounds. Listen to the tape WITH your marked music so that you can compensate for these areas. You will be a great help to your section in rehearsals if you are aware of the problem areas and are able sing and lead your section through them. Gradually move away from looking at the music but concentrate on remembering those problem spots.

• Don't be afraid to ask for help. It will do little good for you to bring a tape recorder to rehearsal if the recording picks up all your own wrong notes! If you are feeling shaky on a song ask someone in your section (that seems to have the notes down) to sing near your recorder. Also record problem lines in sectional rehearsals where others can help.

• Create a lyric outline of the song (vs1, chorus, vs. 2 , bridge, etc.). Write down a 1-2 word cue for each section. As long as you are able to begin the sentence or section you will likely be able to end it. You may even want to bring your cues or outlines to rehearsal and sing from them rather than the music.

• Write down all the words by memory. Then concentrate on the verses or sections where you got stuck.

• Or, write all the words on an erasable chalk or white board. Practice singing or speaking through the piece multiple times while gradually erasing the ends of sentences until you are left with only a cue word for each section.

• Pay attention to rhyme! Not all songs use rhyme, but many do. This is a great help to keep you on track with the lyrics.

• You can create a song outline for the notes too. For example, try diagramming the up and down of musical lines, musical lines that repeat, problem intervals with arrows, etc. Just the process of creating the outline will help you understand and remember the piece as a whole.

• Ask your section leader for help in finding a “memorizing buddy” within your section. Find a time to meet together weekly to concentrate on memorization.

• Plan a memorizing sectional. After you’ve conquered the notes plan a sectional to concentrate on memorization as a group.
   

Don't try all these ideas at once! Experiment and choose the ones that work for you.
 

–Jane Ramseyer Miller, Artistic Director One Voice Mixed Chorus, Minneapolis
info@ovmc.org 651-290-0766
(please include this contact information if copying or using the information above).

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Know that you can. Stay relaxed when performing. Start early. Start singing off book right away, even if it's just for a measure.
 

Repetition is the mother of retention. Handle the material in as many different ways as possible: look at the sheet music, write out the words, analyze the patterns, count the beats, recite the words, and sing it. Make rehearsal tapes -- and play them later. Write out the lyrics and post them where you can see them. I like to hang the typed lyrics on my cubicle wall and periodically look at them at work. Try to hum the tune while you read the words.
 

Sing along with rehearsal tapes in the car.
 

–Carrie Cooper
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1. Read the words all the way through, thinking about what they mean. (This is a good thing to do early, and with the whole chorus, because it can help with phrasing.)

2. Look for patterns. If it's 'cat' in the first verse, 'dog' in the second, 'elephant' in the third, it's alphabetical. Or maybe it's reverse alphabetical. Or maybe its 'rocks', 'grass', 'trees', so it goes from low to high.

3. Count. How many times do we go back to that chorus? How many times does that particular la-la pattern repeat before we go back to words? How many beats is the one held note in a tricky place?
    

–Midge Stocker, one of Artemis Singers multisectional singers and directors
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Everybody learns differently. Many people aren't good aural learners. I prefer NOT to use a tape, because I don't feel that I internalize the music that way. Not to mention if there is a mistake on the tape you learn that too. I'm classically trained, and was an instrumentalist before I got serious about singing. So I always start from the score. I also do some basic analysis. How does my part fit in with the others? Do the accidentals have a specific function; are they leading to important landmarks in the piece? I do work at the keyboard for hard sections and intervals. For me the other problem with a parts tape is that I really need to hear my part in context.
 

Since I get the music down first, I then do the lyrics by themselves, typed out. Until I get it all down, I do the things Midge suggested about looking for patterns in the text. For me the relationship to the music helps me memorize the text.

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– Carol E. Wheeler, Fortissima: DC's Feminist Singers

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I try to play my rehearsal tape in the car (and I drive as part of my job at least 20 minutes each way). It helps a lot with memorization.

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Somewhere along the line, fairly early, I put the words to the song on a 3x5 card. (I used to write them out by hand; these days I type them on the computer, cut them out, and glue them to the card.) I almost always know the music first anyway, and when I see the words on a tiny piece of paper like that, I know I can memorize them easily -- after all, there's not much there. There's something psychological about getting out of that big score of music that you have to turn pages on to a small card you can hold in the palm of your hand and stick in your pocket when you're not using it.

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The other thing (partly alluded to already) that writing out the words like this will do is show you patterns. Give you the structure of the song, as well as let you know that you really sing the same refrain 3 times, or whatever. Sometimes I label sections (A) or (B) so that when we sing the same thing again, I can just put (A) instead of writing out the whole section.

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I usually memorize easily, which is fortunate for me. But occasionally I really have to buckle down and spend time outside of rehearsal memorizing. That's when I actually sit down to write out the words. I read a line, and then say it without looking. Then two lines, say them without looking. Etc., until I have the song by heart. Then I sing it (again in my car) without benefit of the words in front of me.

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–Sylvan Rainwater, Portland, Oregon

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Work from the end of the song. Like, rehearse the last verse and chorus, then go to the 2d to last verse and work through the end of the song. Too often we always start at the beginning of the song, and skimp on the end.

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–Jennifer "Diva J" Raison, DIVA: Saucy Women Singing With a Queer Sensibility