I’m performing my first cabaret in New York City in less than two weeks. Come see it!
We settled on a playlist very late in the game, so I’m now memorizing five songs as fast as I possibly can. A few of the songs I’ve known forever, but more than half are new to me.
Am I stressed about this? Of course I am! I know I sing better if my lyrics and music are memorized, but it takes me longer to memorizeI’m north of 29. But, it’s still do-able. Part of it is strategy, and part of it is what I tell myself.
Here’s how I memorize music:
I get my sheet music into some kind of organized state. I print out single copies from MusicNotes or my personal books. I hole-punch them and put them into a binder. What I tell myself: Look how organized you are, Eden!
I type out the lyrics so they fit on a single sheet of paper. I use Arial Narrow font and blow it up as big as it will go on a single sheet. This will be my “cheat sheet” so I don’t have to turn ten pages of music per song in a performance. I put this single sheet into my binder in front of the sheet music and flip back and forth between them as needed. What I tell myself: Eden, it’s okay if you just use the single page as a crutch, everyone will still love you.
I create a playlist on Spotify (here’s the list for my gig at Don’t Tell Mama) and start to play my songs several times a day (okay, more like 10-20 times each day.). I sing along. What I tell myself: You’re an auditory learner too, Eden!
I write out the lyrics on any scrap paper I can find. The action of writing out the words helps me start to recall what comes next. I will write and rewrite any “sticky” phrases that are difficult to recall. What I tell myself: This feels like Third Grade all over again, but it worked then, too.
I put songs from the Spotify playlist into The Amazing Slow Downer, an app that lets me slow down the speed of the song without changing the pitch. I use it to recall the lyrics at the speed of my brain, and little by little I speed up the track until I’m at performance speed. What I tell myself: Gold Star, Eden!
As I rehearse with my piano player, I get more repetitions in. But most of the work is mine to do before I meet with my pianist.
Years ago, I read an article by an opera singer who detailed how he memorized entire opera roles. He said he allowed at least 75 repetitions of an aria before he considered whether or not he’d “memorized” the part sufficiently. That sounds about right to me. I don’t let myself get nervous or scared until I think I’m past 75 repetitions.
By the time I’ve made more than fifty passes at a song, I usually notice that large parts of the song have moved from short-term memory into something more long-term. I notice that I can accurately sing parts of the song a cappella. I feel great when I can recite the lyrics in rhythm. When it’s really memorized I can recite the lyrics at any speed and then I feel fantastic and confident. I also start to wake up and the songs play in my “brain radio” with no prompting. What I tell myself: Oh, thank goodness, I can still memorize stuff.
But, if you are under a major time crunch, you can get music into your brain faster. When I was a college voice teacher I once had to fill in for a student singer who was injured at dress rehearsal of the rock musical Return To The Forbidden Planet. She was playing the lead. We didn’t have an understudy for her, and the director was prepared to cancel the production. Because I had coached the songs with my student, I gulped and volunteered to replace my student in the performances. In twenty hours I transformed from a vocal coach/keyboard player in the pit into the leading lady of a rock musical.
At 11pm that night after the final dress rehearsal, the director and cast stayed with me and walked me through the blocking.
At home, overnight, I slept fitfully. I woke up a few times during the night and walked the blocking in my basement, and recited the lines of the script.
At 9am I got fitted for my costume.
At noon the pit orchestra had an emergency rehearsal and I led the new keyboard player through all of the music while rehearsing all the new songs I’d be singing that night.
At 4pm I had a choreography rehearsal and they modified it as much as possible for me (I was playing an older mom, thank goodness).
At 8pm as the curtain went up, the director announced the casting change, as the audience gasped. He said I’d be carrying my script onstage and the keyboard player would be doing something similar to sightreading.
Yeah, that’s me smiling in total relief that we pulled it off! I performed that night with the script. But for the rest of the five-show run, I was completely memorized. It’s been 15 years since that weekend and I can still recite and sing every word; it’s burned into me.
Come to think of it, I probably did get about 75 repetitions in, in less than 24 hours.
What I tell myself: You’ve done this before, girl. Slow and steady, you’ll be ready.