Tips for choosing, learning, and memorizing new songs - Song Organizers

30 Jan 2020

(I'm starting a new thread with Lynn's question so we can keep new topics
easily searchable and accessible in the archive.)

*How are people deciding what songs to add to their repertoire? How are you
learning new songs? What memorization tricks can you share with us?*

Great questions. I have a number of musical interests and don't spend a ton
of time building repertoire now that I have a bunch of useful songs, but it
is something I do try to add to on an ongoing basis. And learning songs is
challenging and fun. Good for the brain as well as all else.

I have noticed a trend locally and elsewhere of more people favoring
beautiful, intricate, complicated songs with beautiful, intricate,
complicated choruses. I am guessing this is what happens when people get
comfortable and experienced with songleading and want to challenge
themselves and others, and that is a good thing. But at a sing that is open
and encouraging to all levels, especially when less experienced singers are
present, I sometimes feel the urge to actively shift the balance back
toward familiar songs or those with simple choruses. Ideally I prefer for
both ends of the spectrum to be represented in a sing. So I've had my ears
open lately for good songs with simple (or otherwise easy-to-pick-up)
choruses.

I am also thinking a lot these days about the social norms that are upheld
through the songs we share. I would like to add more feel-good "we're all
in this together" songs. I am interested in songs that flip a harmful
social narrative (sexism, racism, homophobia, etc). Years ago when I was
just starting out as a songleader, I wanted to learn the songs that people
wanted to sing (the ones nobody could lead yet). So I did that, but now I'm
finding some of those songs, while they served the community, don't
necessarily fit me very well, and the community has grown so it doesn't
need me to do that anymore. So I'm happy replacing them when something new
comes along.

I learn through repetition, repetition, repetition. Literally. I put a song
on repeat in the car when I'm driving somewhere or when I'm doing the
dishes and I listen to it a million times until it sinks into my being.
Although one trick I use, in order to not end up sounding like I'm
imitating the person I got the song from, is that as soon as I feel able, I
make a practice recording in my own voice and and key, and use that going
forward instead of the original. It's usually kind of messy/choppy, and I
have at times created such practice recordings by listening to a line,
recording myself singing that line, pausing the recording, listening to the
next line, recording that line, pausing, etc. But then I make a smoother
one when I'm able, and so forth. I *love* the Voice Memos app on my phone,
and I also use Audacity for cleaning up too-long pauses, though I am told
that Garage Band is easier than Audacity if you have an Apple computer.

As for memorization, I look for the story in the song, internalize the key
points and flow of the story, then hang the lyrics on that. I also map out
the geometry of the song in my mind -- how many verses, what is the rhyme
structure like, what is the basic theme of each stanza. I come up with one
or two words to represent each stanza and memorize that list. And then:
repeat, repeat, repeat. It can take me months or years to learn a song to
where I'm really comfortable leading it. That's something I think a lot of
people don't realize; it's normal for many people to take a long time
learning a new song.

I would love to hear how others approach these things. Thanks for raising
the questions, Lynn.

Amanda Witman
Brattleboro, Vermont

On Wed, Jan 29, 2020 at 11:25 PM Lynn Feingold via Song Organizers <
songorganizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net&gt; wrote:

...
  Emily,

 Thanks for that handy-dandy form! I was able to easily submit a few of my
 favorite online resources for traditional songs (especially ballads). I'll
 send you more info as I run across it - I encourage everyone else who is
 reading this message to click on the links below to see what has already
 been put into the online resource at CDSS, then use the link to the
 easy-to-fill-out form to help grow the resource!

 Emily, I think you're right in thinking that there isn't a lot at stake if
 not a lot of people show up for a sing (as opposed to a dance) - fewer
 people means that there are more opportunities for those present to lead a
 song. That can be a double-edge sword - if a few of you have repertoires as
 long as your arm, you'll be all set, but if you come to a sing and there
 are three singers who each know three songs - well, that's going to end
 pretty quickly. I try to bring new songs to a sing, and if I frequent the
 same sing, that necessitates learning new songs - that's always a good
 thing!

 How are people deciding what songs to add to their repertoire? How are you
 learning new songs? What memorization tricks can you share with us?

 Thanks again,

 Lynn Feingold
 FSSGB

 -----Original Message-----
 From: emilyetbrent--- via Song Organizers <
 songorganizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net&gt;
 To: songorganizers &lt;songorganizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net&gt;
 Cc: emilyetbrent &lt;emilyetbrent(a)gmail.com&gt;
 Sent: Wed, Jan 29, 2020 4:30 pm
 Subject: [SongOrganizers] Hello from Ottawa + CDSS resource-land

 Hi fellow song organizer list members :)

 Following up from Amanda's invite to introduce ourselves, I'm Emily
 Addison from Ottawa, Ontario.

 I must admit to having a bit of imposter syndrome as I'm not currently a
 trad song organizer.  However, I'm definitely interested in the subject and
 hope to participate in the list on occasion. I'm currently doing some
 consulting work for CDSS in addition to lots of local community organizing
 here in Ottawa.  Part of my CDSS work has been to help establish this list
 so it's so exciting that Amanda, Lynn, Lynn and Suzanne have this
 conversation space possible.

 At this point, I wanted to chime in to encourage you to check out the CDSS
 Resource Portal which has a brand new section for Singers and Song Leaders.
 https://www.cdss.org/resources/resource-portal/song
 The greatly expanded Portal only launched a few weeks ago... almost all
 sections are new with the exception of dance organizers (launched fall
 2018).

 Hopefully you'll find some interesting song leader and organizer resources
 in the Portal. However, it's interesting to note that while I was able to
 dig up large amounts of material for dance organizers, I found relatively
 little for song organizers.  (I feel like I'm opening a can of worms just
 saying this!!!!???)

 There's so many reasons that this might be the case. For instance, there
 have been a few conferences for dance organizers which have produced a lot
 of resources. (As a side note, these conferences have happened largely due
 to volunteer interest and effort.) In addition, dance organizers tend to
 submit lots of articles to the CDSS News.  As a long-time dance organizer,
 I also wonder if dance organizers might be more desperate to learn because
 of their somewhat higher stakes??? What I mean by this is that many dance
 organizers need to make close to (or more than!) $1000/night to cover
 expenses such as the hall, sound, caller, and musicians.  If they don't
 make enough money to cover their expenses, their series will die. I know
 this type of stress has made my local dance community mobilize and work
 much harder on our Saturday night series than our $100/night once a month
 events.

 (On a related note, I would I'd like to acknowledge that I've also heard
 from a few one song organizer that CDSS has historically focused more on
 dance than song.  )

 In any case, I'd like to put a call out to you all that if you know of
 some great song organizer and/or leader resources, to please let me know
 through this easy form: https://www.cdss.org/share-your-resource
 Almost all of the resources in the CDSS Resource Portal have been created
 by community members for community members.
 Related - a year ago this month, we asked a small set of song organizers
 what they wanted to learn about.  I've included that list below. It would
 be so wonderful to start building a robust collection of resources that
 meet some of these interests.

 With much thanks and listening with open ears :)
 Emily in Ottawa
 ===============
 Vision (e.g., mission and goals; why we do what we do; motivations)
 Community culture and vibe (e.g., how to make sessions inclusive and
 welcoming; what do inclusivity, accessibility, and community actually mean;
 how to lead by example in creating the culture you want to see)
 Singer ability, confidence and participation (e.g., how to support singers
 who lack confidence or experience; how to be supportive of people who may
 have issues around tuning and tone; managing singers who take more than
 their share of airtime; ability, fear, personalities, politics; how to
 satisfy different levels of trad song knowledge)
 Running/managing sessions (e.g., styles of facilitation; what makes a good
 facilitator; flow)
 Venues (e.g., what makes an ideal venue; how to communicate with venue
 managers.)
 Fundraising
 Launching a new event/community
 Growing/evolving your event/community
 Marketing (e.g., how to promote in ways that attract new participants)
 Advocacy/benefits of singing
 How to support intergenerational community building at song events (e.g.,
 encouraging youth participants)
 Repertoire (e.g., setting norms for technology and lyric use; songs to
 pull people in and get them singing right away or otherwise carry a
 session; places to find songs; how to cultivate appropriate repertoire to
 make all singers feel welcome; how best to handle problematic or offensive
 songs)
 The tradition past and future (e.g., the history of social singing; how to
 keep the tradition alive and evolving)
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