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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.
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 .
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.
- 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
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.
Write out lyrics with only trigger word for line/pair of lines, work through a couple of times If failure ...
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
Lies
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.
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!!
Trading feedback here
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.