Get It In Your Head: Tips for Memorizing Vocal Music

              If we are performing solo vocal music, we should have it memorized, not only because it looks odd to have music in front of us as a soloist, but it also allows for better connection with the audience. Luckily we have an advantage over instrumental musicians in this area; the text. The distinct stories and poetry of the text our music is set to often aides in the memorization.

              Writing out the text is a classic trick for helping memorization. It is very important that it is handwritten because that helps to connect the words in the brain better. You hear this tip a lot from actors and acting teachers when discussing memorizing lines. The same applies here. If a piece has been learned in a method similar to the one I describe on this post , that will be done in the initial stages as well, when writing out the pronunciation and any necessary translation. If the full method of that post is followed the piece will often be at least on the verge of memorized already. That process involves breaking the piece into chunks and drilling them with the following steps:

1.     Speak the text

2.     Speak the text in rhythm

3.     Sing the text on a single pitch

4.     Listen to source pitches

5.     Sing as written

What I typically do at the end of that process is go one more round with these steps, making the chunks I drill longer than the first time. I will often start at the end and work backwards for this, not only to make sure the ending is technically solid, but also to ensure a more solid memorization of the piece. This allows me to do what a piano professor used to insist on and start from anywhere in the piece. Then I evaluate to see what is still shaky memory wise.

              At that point I will prepare a notecard, writing anything I need to be able to sing the piece with just that in front of me, a technique I took from “The Private Voice Studio Handbook.” Sometimes it is as simple as the form. Other times it might be the number of measures the accompaniment plays before my cue, or something that reminds me what to listen for before I come in. It might be the words of the single phrase that continually escaped me. Anything I need to be able to do the piece without the original music goes on the notecard.

              Memorization should not be just your vocal part – you should also have a sense of the accompaniment for multiple reasons. The simplest of which is it allows you to avoid counting as much. I learned playing in orchestras that if you have a long series of rests it’s usually better to find a distinct motive somewhere else in the music and use that as a reminder of where to come in in case you lose count. In an orchestra it’s something another instrument or section does. For vocalists it’s the accompaniment. But there are other reasons to study and memorize aspects of the accompaniment. Knowing the harmony helps you with support. Could be the note you struggled to find learning the piece is played in the accompaniment before your entrance. Having a general sense of what’s happening in the accompaniment also allows you to start from anywhere and save time during rehearsals trying to figure out a good spot. When you know what is happening in the accompaniment you have a deeper understanding of everything about the piece.

              Memorizing vocal music is rarely difficult in itself, but methods such as the ones described here can help to speed up the process. The more one practices these skills, in the same way one practices sightreading, scales, or other aspects of vocal technique, the more literature one can learn and the more versatile a vocalist one can be.