Learning Lyrics tips for gtr/vox

midiman1962

Any guitar/vocalists got on tips/tricks on learning lyrics?

It seems to take me an age to learn "wordy" songs so if anyone has any suggestions i would be eternally gratefully.

Do others have the same experience ?

I could use an ipad like i see a lot do but i feel this detracts from the performance.

EricTheWeary

With fast songs using an iPad/ lyric sheets for more than reminders doesn't really work anyway. 

For the lyrics I've ever done it was just practice, running through them under my breath whilst walking the dog or driving. Some lyrics flow and one line prompts the next so it's not that hard, for more abstract lyrics it's a nightmare and I used to unintentionally transpose lines around. However, very unlikely anyone would notice so there's an element of needing to relax about it.
I wanted to do a cover of a cover of Ghost Town which only really has two verses and someone had to point out to me that on the version I loved they just sang the first verse twice. 

midiman1962

Thanks Eric, that's pretty much what i do - keep going over and over them.
Currently trying to learn "Down in a tubestation" by the Jam.
Weller likes to tell a story which is fair enough but means lots of lyrics.
The up side is the guitarring isn't too onerous with the jam unless i've over simplified it .

ESBlonde

I typically have a lyric sheet to hand for commercial work, In practice just the prompt of the first line of the third verse is all I might need. Always practice the song on guitar and singing at the same time, it seems to help cement the thing. Also although copy and paste is quick and convenient, the act of typing or hand writing a lyric seems to plant it in memory better for me. You can revert to a printed version for your set pad, but as a learning tool writing is good.

EricTheWeary

midiman1962 said:

Thanks Eric, that's pretty much what i do - keep going over and over them.
Currently trying to learn "Down in a tubestation" by the Jam.
Weller likes to tell a story which is fair enough but means lots of lyrics.
The up side is the guitarring isn't too onerous with the jam unless i've over simplified it .

Oddly enough I was thinking of Tubestation, a previous Discussion about learning lyrics brought that up as an example of a song that's almost impossible to use prompts for as by the time you've looked you've lost half a line. 

The only other thought is that working lyrics out from the recording rather than just looking them up ( plus there are some deeply wrong lyrics online*) can help. I've never sung a whole set but for the singer in my last band this was the most essential part of his process. 

* I remember 'all the girls wear slacks and the beer tastes just like peas' as one genuine online attempt at 'all the girls are slags and the beer tastes just like piss' from Nite Klub by The Specials. 

Snags

I tend to use the following, often in combination:

- write (in my case type as my writing is awful) it down
- listen to the song and check what you've written is correct
- know the guitar part well enough that you don't need to think about it when learning the words
- repetition, and lots of it, with a print-out in front of me. This can be the whole song, or sometimes one verse at a time, or a verse and chorus etc. Mix it up so that if e.g. v2 is troublesome I do a lot of v2 but then do the whole thing a couple of times, then v2 again etc.
- if a cover, record it* and have it on loop in the car (less annoying if you're learning  a lot of songs at once)
- sing it in my head/mouthing the words when walking the dog or out and about
- when it's starting to come together, have the print-out available, but play/sing facing away from it, and only turn back if necessary

Annoyingly I have to do the above for songs I've written myself, as well as for covers.

*Edit: by which I mean burn to CD, or play from phone or whatever you do

midiman1962

great replies to the thread - you've all pretty much confirmed that i'm doing the right things and that there is no "magic fix" other than applying yourself !

maltingsaudio

I definitely find the modern way of cut and pasting from the internet into what ever programme doesn’t work, the old way of writing the out by hand two or three times does. Doesn’t matter what your handwriting is like it’s just the physical thing of doing it. For performance Mrs M uses her iPad with OnSong on it, I can’t read it when I’m performing eyesight to far gone!

JAYJO

midiman1962 said:

Thanks Eric, that's pretty much what i do - keep going over and over them.
Currently trying to learn "Down in a tubestation" by the Jam.
Weller likes to tell a story which is fair enough but means lots of lyrics.
The up side is the guitarring isn't too onerous with the jam unless i've over simplified it .

I remember bluffing my way through down in the tubestation by the jam 35 years ago. I knew most of the lyrics but not all. I still don't.  I just made sure i knew the stand out ones like  Atheist Nutter   Have an away day a cheap holiday do it TODAY!!  
The story is quite memorable just make sure you get the versus in the right order. You dont wanna feel a punch and a kick and then stick in the money and pull out a plum... lol.. Fantastic tune love the bass line.

Bezzer

Get one or the other 100% internalised first.

For lyrics I find this method works:

Write out the lyrics by hand in full, work through a couple of times.

Write out the lyrics cutting out some non-key words, work through a couple of times.  If failure, go back to last sheet.

Write out lyrics with ONLY key words (first and last of line, key emphasis word), work through a couple of times.  If failure go back to last sheet.
Write out lyrics with only trigger word for line/pair of lines, work through a couple of times If failure ...

For example I recently had to learn Nutshell so started with:

We chase misprinted lies
We face the path of time
And yet I fight
And yet I fight
This battle all alone
No one to cry to
No place to call home

Stepped to:

Chase Lies

Path Time

Fight Fight

Alone

Cry

Call Home

And last sheet was:
  Lies

Fight

Cry

Home

Works for me as missing words are drilled in each run through.

Roland

maltingsaudio said:

I definitely find the modern way of cut and pasting from the internet into what ever programme doesn’t work, the old way of writing the out by hand two or three times does. Doesn’t matter what your handwriting is like it’s just the physical thing of doing it. For performance Mrs M uses her iPad with OnSong on it, I can’t read it when I’m performing eyesight to far gone!

I hear: I forget.
I see: I remember.
I do : I understand.
Writing things out implants them differently in your memory.

As for cutting and pasting from the Internet: 95% of the Internet transcriptions I’ve looked at have mistakes in them.

midiman1962

I've pretty much nailed verse 1 of Down in  a Tubestation - i go to bed reciting it and wake up reciting it which is slightly concerning

midiman1962

Bezzer said:

Get one or the other 100% internalised first.

For lyrics I find this method works:

Write out the lyrics by hand in full, work through a couple of times.

Write out the lyrics cutting out some non-key words, work through a couple of times.  If failure, go back to last sheet.

Write out lyrics with ONLY key words (first and last of line, key emphasis word), work through a couple of times.  If failure go back to last sheet.
Write out lyrics with only trigger word for line/pair of lines, work through a couple of times If failure ...

For example I recently had to learn Nutshell so started with:

We chase misprinted lies
We face the path of time
And yet I fight
And yet I fight
This battle all alone
No one to cry to
No place to call home

Stepped to:

Chase Lies

Path Time

Fight Fight

Alone

Cry

Call Home

And last sheet was:
  Lies

Fight

Cry

Home

Works for me as missing words are drilled in each run through.

good tip - thanks

Trude

With songs that tell a story, I find it helps to consciously think about that narrative - imagine stuff happening visually so that you eventually can't imagine any other sequence - then the words come a lot easier.  It's a bit like that memory technique where you imagine walking through a house with different objects in each room...

I do use OnSong on an iPad a fair bit too (especially for dep gigs where I need to sing a load of songs I'm not used to).  I use a bluetooth page-turner pedal so I can have a big font and still keep up.  I want to wean myself off this though, as there are some songs that I've had in OnSong for ages and they don't seem to be sinking in at all.  It can become a bit of a crutch.

One of the guys I play with has a massive ring-binder on a music stand that he can't live without.  Even for songs that he doesn't sing lead on, if he always wants to have the chords in front of him.  It sucks because if ever we want to throw a song in that's not on the set-list, we have to wait whilst he rifles through his folder.  Don't be that guy!!

midiman1962

The more i get into it , the better i get at learning - verse 2 now in the memory

steven70

+ 1 for writing it out by hand...writing is learning. 

One thing to try for tricky sections is create a mental image linking the two lines/phrases or whatever. Make it ridiculous and 'larger than life' in your mind- like some weird cartoon type thing. Picked that up from an old 'Develop a super power memory' book, but it works.