quickest way to learn songs

[rurokenji]

Hey guys,

I was just wondering if anyone knew any tips to learn the lyrics of new songs faster (as well as timing). I currently sing along to youtube recordings but i was wondering if there were any quicker and faster method?

Thanks!!

[MDEW]

Look up the lyrics on internet. I try to view the song as a story. They usually follow a logical progression.

Find the message in the song. Learn one verse at time.

Visualise what is taking place in the song.

I am not a teacher. Just another singer. :cool:

[MDEW]

I decided to do an example. I will use a hard one. Bye,Bye,Miss American Pie" Don Mclean. You have to look up the full lyrics yourself But Here is an overview.

"Long,Long, Time ago. I can still remember how the music used to make me smile" Thinking back on the music and what his hopes of what He could do with the music. Then the tragedy struck.

"Bye ,Bye Miss American Pie." The dream he had , We all had before the music died.

Did You write the book of love? and do you believe in God Above?...... Do you Believe in ROCK n ROLL? Can Music save your mortal soul, Can you teach me how to dance real slow.... Introduction into the world of music

Possibly thinking this new music can save the world. But then tragedy struck.

"For Ten Years We've been on our own" Time passed since the tragedy..

"That's not how it used to be" "Jester sang for the King and Queen" Thinking back on the music. Everything is taking place in and using terms associated with a courtroom. Tragedy taking place.

"Lennon read from a book of Marx" Quartet Practiced in the Park" Leading to next verse wich takes place on a sports field (the Park refered to here). to CHORUS.

"Helter Skelter in Summer..... Landing fowl on the grass.... Players..." all taking place on a sporting field.

"Jester is on the side line" getting ready to make his move. Lead in to next verse

" half time" "all got up to Dance But never got the chance" The tragedy happened.

Chorus

"Here we are. all in one place" we are all in the same boat together. "Generation Lost in space" " No time left...."

" Jack be nimble...." " Fire is the Devils.." The jester revealed as the devil. Satan.

"Satan Laughing with delight" because he killed the music that we thought would save us.

Chorus

" I met a girl who sang the blues....." The Music died. Game over.

There you have it a story from beginning to end... Each verse has something that will introduce the next verse.

Elements stay consistent within the verse.

Look at the song as a story. Understand what the song is about. Visualise.

Hope it helps.

[Felipe Carvalho]

I am preparing a material on it. Think will be ready soon. Would you agree on testing it and letting me know if it works or sux?

[rurokenji]

Look up the lyrics on internet. I try to view the song as a story. They usually follow a logical progression.

Find the message in the song. Learn one verse at time.

Visualise what is taking place in the song.

I am not a teacher. Just another singer. :cool:

Yeah, thats what i usually do. Read the lryics off the internet while the song is playing

[rurokenji]

I decided to do an example. I will use a hard one. Bye,Bye,Miss American Pie" Don Mclean. You have to look up the full lyrics yourself But Here is an overview.

"Long,Long, Time ago. I can still remember how the music used to make me smile" Thinking back on the music and what his hopes of what He could do with the music. Then the tragedy struck.

"Bye ,Bye Miss American Pie." The dream he had , We all had before the music died.

Did You write the book of love? and do you believe in God Above?...... Do you Believe in ROCK n ROLL? Can Music save your mortal soul, Can you teach me how to dance real slow.... Introduction into the world of music

Possibly thinking this new music can save the world. But then tragedy struck.

"For Ten Years We've been on our own" Time passed since the tragedy..

"That's not how it used to be" "Jester sang for the King and Queen" Thinking back on the music. Everything is taking place in and using terms associated with a courtroom. Tragedy taking place.

"Lennon read from a book of Marx" Quartet Practiced in the Park" Leading to next verse wich takes place on a sports field (the Park refered to here). to CHORUS.

"Helter Skelter in Summer..... Landing fowl on the grass.... Players..." all taking place on a sporting field.

"Jester is on the side line" getting ready to make his move. Lead in to next verse

" half time" "all got up to Dance But never got the chance" The tragedy happened.

Chorus

"Here we are. all in one place" we are all in the same boat together. "Generation Lost in space" " No time left...."

" Jack be nimble...." " Fire is the Devils.." The jester revealed as the devil. Satan.

"Satan Laughing with delight" because he killed the music that we thought would save us.

Chorus

" I met a girl who sang the blues....." The Music died. Game over.

There you have it a story from beginning to end... Each verse has something that will introduce the next verse.

Elements stay consistent within the verse.

Look at the song as a story. Understand what the song is about. Visualise.

Hope it helps.

Hey, thats a really interesting approach!! However, i can't seem to hack that approach for some reason....i just end up spouting the wrong lines etc. Maybe, it's because i just started this approach, yesterday..ha

[rurokenji]

I am preparing a material on it. Think will be ready soon. Would you agree on testing it and letting me know if it works or sux?

Yeah, sure dude! Anything goes, really!!

[MDEW]

Yeah, thats what i usually do. Read the lryics off the internet while the song is playing

Dont read the lyrics while the song is playing. Learn the words without the music.

Felipe, I would be interested in your approach also.

[Owen Korzec]

I could use some help on this as well and would be interested in Felipe's perspective. I'm not great at it but I have learned some things.

For the time being I have been getting the best results with singing along to the original recording, singing along to and watching lyric videos (if they are good enough...if they don't show the lyrics early enough they're useless), drilling individual lines that trip me up, and just listening to the song many many many times.

I could share some insight on lyric memorization specifically, something I've learned a bit about. I can tell you one thing that never works. Trying to memorize lyrics the day of a performance. Every time I've done that, with no exceptions, I've blanked out on at least one line at the performance. At least a night of sleep in between practice and performance is crucial in order to fully memorize the material. I can also tell you that muscle memory is key. Generally speaking you need to have sang them in context a lot. I guess I disagree with MDEW on this. To me, knowing the story behind the lyrics or whatever, anything involving the lyrics in isolation, does not personally help me with memorization whatsoever. The act of running through the lyrics correctly many times is what does the trick for me.

Alternatively, being able to recite the lyrics extremely fast with no pauses is a good practice for and test of memorization, but only on the condition that you remember to think ahead to what line is coming next is while you are performing. That's one extra thing to think about, that you wouldn't have to if you just practiced and built the muscle memory for the lyrics. But when you have to learn songs fast sometimes there is no other option. So I guess this would be the next level in terms of getting the results quicker. But ultimately I think it is the inferior way in terms of the resulting overall quality of performance. Nothing beats practicing a song so many times it just flows off your tongue with consistency and reliability and a clear mind thinking about the finer subtleties instead of how the song goes.

I still need to work on learning timing. I've found that pretty tough...on songs where the timing is tough. On many, it's intuitive, in others, it gets extremely complicated if you want to imitate the singer's timing exactly,

I am pretty naturally good with learning melody so I won't attempt to explain how I do it. I just have a well trained ear I suppose. Others will be able to recommend tricks for others to learn it who struggle with it. I don't have any tricks for it so I can't help with that.

Sorry I had to write so much. It's hard for me to explain that lyrical stuff simply. I wanted to share the exact way I view it, so you can get where I'm coming from. Of course maybe it's just an individual thing. Find out what works for you.

[joshual]

When I have a lot of lyrics to learn here is how I proceed

-listen to the whole song not more than 3 times (especially if I have never heard the song before). It helps to keep fresh ears.

- then listen to the intro or first verse and repeat 3-4 times the lyrics.

- learn the first chorus.

- stop and do something else.

- go back to the song and check if you remember something ^^

Repeat the process for the whole song.

For me it works like a charm.

[Felipe Carvalho]

Ok, Im still organizing the real deal, but on the practical side:

You will need:

- A song, its best that you dont sing it yet, and its best that you begin with a simple one. Try to get a file with good quality, 92kbps mp3 will make you suffer;

- A portable player;

- A place where you can be left in peace for at least 30 minutes, you will need to concentrate;

I also recommend:

- Using a paper notebook and pen instead of a computer (this will avoid distractions on skype, youtube, and so on);

- A good earphone to make the listenning process less fatiguing. I used the Koss Porta Pro a lot when learning songs, its still my favorite, and its price is very fair.

I am assuming you know the language of the song already, if not, include this:

Step 0 - Translate the song into your language, understanding the meaning. Note that when I say translate, it means that YOU do the translation, so you will pick the original lyrics, LEARN what the words means, and write it down in your own language. Then repeat the process until you can do the translation without resorting to external references and thinking of the meanning of the words, rephrase the lines keeping the same meanning. Dont worry about metrics, you are not supposed to sing the translation.

Step 1 - First of all, you wont use the original lyrics for this, meanning you will not have lyricsfreak open, no paper with it printed, nothing.

Listen to the song once or twice, playing around and mumbling/singing it as you go, notice how you start to anticipate a few things on the melody, and how you get totally lost on a few points. Of course you wont know the song yet, its fine.

Now, going from the start, listen to the song and while you are doing so, write down the lyrics as you hear it. You will have to stop and go back, some words may be hard to understand, maybe at some points you will even be on doubt if its one or another thing that you heard. I dont care. Do it anyway. If at a point its just impossible for you to understand it clearly, write down the phonemes that you think that you hear, even if is nahnahnahnee. Again, do it, as you listen, and go through the whole song like this, until the lyrics are down.

Turn the page, or open another blank document if you are working on a computer, and repeat the process.

Step 2 - Now that you have your own lyrics down, play the song again and, using your lyrics, sing/mumble it together with the singer. Your goal is to not be surprised and be somewhat accurate with his timing. Repeat it once your twice to make it more clear. One you find the spots where you are still unsure, either comming too early or waiting for the lead, go back to step 1, repeat it on those spots, and then repeat step 2.

Step 3 - Now, without the song playing, follow your lyrics and imagine the song playing in your head. Tap your feet to keep the tempo, if you get lost on any point, go back to step 2, listen well to that spot. Repeat this at least once.

Step 4 - Finally, turn the page to a blank one, and without the song playing, imagine it on your head as in step 3, and write down the lyrics that you are hearing on your "mental ear", its perfectly fine to mumble the songs but I recommend that you dont go all out singing and trying to do a nice interpretation just yet. Play around with it, like a happy person singing on the shower or something. Again, if you find any difficulties that you cant solve, go back to the previous step.

Repeat this one until the song goes smoothly. Meaning that you can imagine, mumble/lazy sing it completely, tapping your feet and without giving it a second thought.

What to expect: If you have problems with memorization of lyrics and melody lines, this will be a tiresome process, its very possible that you get too tired before concluding the exercise. Dont force it, rest, maybe even finish it tomorrow, its fine.

Through the whole thing, keep your attention on what you hear on your mind. Just knowing the words is not enough, you have to be able to hear the phrase as it is sang, set your goal to be imagining the song playing in your head. Fast runs on the melody for example, try to imagine it appart from the song and slowing it down, this way you will force to register each note, solving the problem with the phrasing.

This can be somewhat effective working alone, but with the help of a someone with more experience to bring things you are overlooking to your attention, it becomes much more interesting and will give best results.

I will write down a more detailed version on the interpretation thread later, with some plot twists to it . Lets just say that you can take this further quite a few steps (but then I dont think that working alone is possible anymore).

And, of course, after this process you can reach for the original lyrics on the net and correct spelling mistakes or things that you did not hear clearly.

Finally, Id like to say that this is by no means something that I created or devised, I am just writing down both my approach and what others told me.

[ronws]

I like to take the lyrics and find the story in them, sometimes, just speaking them, dead-pan, like a news reporter reading copy at the desk. Then, sometimes, I will sing the song in a lower octave than the original, if it was a high-ranged song. The reason is because at lower ranges, I sometimes have an easier time getting the intervals in the melody locked in. Then, I put it back in the original key.

Not always, though. When I was working on "Don't Stop Believin' " by Journey, I solved a problem by raising the key 1 step, which broke me of the habit of trying to mimick Perry. Once I found my voice in the song, I could sing it in the original key.

Be prepared to do this for every song you want in your repertoire. Work the song in to your voice.

[Owen Korzec]

Ron brought up a good point about singing it in a lower octave while first learning a song.

A similar thing I've found helpful is turning the volume of the music down a bit and singing it in falsetto first. The lighter registration makes the voice more agile so it can respond more quickly to commands of pitch and timing, speeding up the learning process a bit. It also enables you to tilt your head down to read lyrics like you'd read anything normally, whereas if you are belting you may feel yourself wanting to align your posture and look away from the lyrics if they are not positioned at eye level.

[rurokenji]

woah, loads of replies. Sorry, i haven't got round to my replying and checking our everyone's replies. Thanks everyone for the feedback. One thing i forgot to ask is how do i decontstruct st a song and sing it the opposite of what it was originally sung as. For example, the song "sweet dreams , beautiful nightmare" is quite a fast paced song. However, i am trying to sing but i want to sing it using a slow pace. Like make the song a slow song. The thing is, i spent so much time trying to learn the lyrics by singing along with the original that i can sing the whole song front to back, with the original fast paced instrumental. However, now that i am trying to sing it with a slow paced instrumental, i am finding it hard to adjust the whole flow/lyrics/ singing of the song to a much slower paced as my head is used to the fast paced lyrics as in the original. Any tips, guys?

[MDEW]

I would write out the words and read it like a story. At first putting the punctuation in just as if you were saying the words to some one. Figure out what kind of emotion or message that you intend with it. If you play piano or guitar see if the original chords will translate to the new genre that you are going for. Either tweak the melody or chord progression or punctuation to fit the new style.

I am a Male and there is a song that is originally sung by a female. Her rendition of the song is light, reflective and almost apologetic. I intend to remake it in more of a male, matter of fact non apologetic rock n roll style. The chord progression does not have to change, the tempo does not have to change. Only the attitude.

[Felipe Carvalho]

To totally modify the song its pretty much like writing a new one. There isn't a simple way to do it. Knowing the original is a good start. Define the melody, the interpretation line and so on...

[ronws]

Sometimes, you can really learn a song by envisioning it in a different style.

For my suthun brutha, MDEW. I absolutely dare you to do this version.

[MDEW]

:cool: Sounds like a challenge. I don't have that strong of a hillbilly heritage. How about John Prine/ James Tayler/ CCR? This may give some ideas of how to modify a song to fit your needs.

[ronws]

:cool: Sounds like a challenge. I don't have that strong of a hillbilly heritage. How about John Prine/ James Tayler/ CCR? This may give some ideas of how to modify a song to fit your needs.

Same difference. Put some of that country swang in there. I am almost tempted to do it, myself. Maybe a country beat, but in the original key. Certain to be a hit with demons.

[MDEW]

When learning new songs and finding my own voice to express them I look to what other have done. I will search youtube for covers.

I found this. This is for you Ronws.

[ronws]

Actually, I have seen that one before. I liked it, for some reason.

[VideoHere]

nice voice.....wrong marketing strategy.....it will hard for her to be taken seriously, and that's sad.

[ronws]

Yeah, but I still like the video. Kind of like one of the ladies from a Robert Palmer video could actually play guitar and sing.

[MDEW]

I closed my eyes and listened so I would not get distracted. She is a very good singer. :D