I’m notoriously bad at memorizing lyrics so it’s mind boggling to me.
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Practice.
With enough of it, once you’ve started (and with the right cues) the rest just flows out.
Once, one of my favourite bands encouraged me on stage to take the chorus of a crowd favourite. I was stoked. Then I realised what I was about to do, and then my mind went blank: “What’s the chorus? How does it even start? This is gonna be embarrassing!”… then they played the cue riff, and the lyrics were all there in my mouth.
I’ve never written music or a song but I know the words to far more songs than most artists catalogues, even down to the small details of a cadence/flow, different tone that may be used, or duration of pauses and adlibs etc…which is weird as in general I have a really bad memory!
Think of it as muscle memory, when the song starts I remember the first line and each line just automatically flows into the next through that muscle memory.
I’m not a singer and I’m sure I could sing hundreds of songs. You probably can too. And these aren’t even songs that are ours.
I saw the Mountain Goats in concert (great show, super personable, fantastic rapport with the audience) and they were taking requests from the audience but y’know the Mountain Goats have been around for thirty years and they have 21 studio albums. Half the time the audience would request something and they would just be like “oh yeah we don’t remember that one.” One song they started playing and Darnielle realized he only remembered the first verse and made the rest of it up.
It’s their job. If I spent 8 hours a day 5 days a week memorizing song lyrics I’d be able to do it too.
I cant memorize a song if my life depended on it, but I can explain in detail how the moon was formed or atomic elements 30 years later, a childhood friend couldn’t remember 3 sentences in school, but could hear any song and sing it word for word months later… the brain is a funny thing.
i mean, it’s not really that hard. Have you ever actually tried to sit down and memorize a lot of stuff? Not that hard at all. Plus, if you’re one of these artists, you wrote it and have sang it / rapped it literally thousands of times
I’m a professional opera singer.
Memorizing large works like operas work like this for me:
1. Memorize 5 words. Anyone can do that step. Practice saying those 5 words over and over until they’re linked together.
2. Now that those 5 words are linked together, they can be remembered as if they were one thing. Now instead of remembering 5 things, you’re only remembering one.
3. Continue adding words this way, dividing the song into chunks, and practice moving between the chunks. (Rock songs can be divided into sections like verses, chorus, and intro/outro)
4. You can expand on this method as much as your brain will allow. It does take practice, good technique, and a certain amount of talent to do it well, but anyone can do it. When I’m prepping an opera, I try to memorize a few pages at a time, reinforcing what I’ve memorized over several days. Eventually, certain lines will trigger the memories of the next ones, and they just start flowing from chunk to chunk.
5. If that’s not working, you can write the lyrics down on a piece of paper, and just memorize the tune, using the words as reference. Practice with and without the lyric sheet to test your memory!
Hope this helps.
Everyone is human, people forget all the time. Some people find creative ways to save it.
Also, memory is repetition. If you write and record and perform and practice a song 100 times, it’s easier to remember than hearing it a few times on the radio. I’ve memorized my favourite songs because I’ve listened to them for a decade. Most songs I really like will still take 20-50 listens before I can sing along confidently
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