How to Learn Your Choir Songs and Make Them Stick 🎶

A little bit of science, and a lot of reassurance, from All For One Choir

One of the questions we hear from choir members, both new and long standing, is:

“Why can’t I remember the songs as quickly as I used to?”

Or perhaps:

“I know it perfectly when I’m singing along with the learning track, but as soon as the track disappears, so do the words!”

If that sounds familiar, please don’t worry. Learning and remembering songs takes practice, and interestingly, some of the things that feel difficult when we are learning are actually the very things that help our brains remember.

There is a lot of research into how we learn and retain information, and many of the same principles apply beautifully to learning songs.

First of all, singing is brilliant for your brain

There are so many reasons why we sing together. It lifts our mood, gives us a sense of belonging, introduces us to wonderful people and gives us the joy of making music together.

But learning songs also gives the brain a fantastic workout.

When you learn a choir song, your brain is remembering words, melody, rhythm, timing, breathing, dynamics and your own harmony part. Then we ask you to remember all of that while several hundred other people are singing something completely different around you!

That is quite a task.

So if learning a song sometimes feels challenging, remember that you are asking your brain to do something wonderfully complex.

And just like exercising a muscle, the challenge is part of the benefit.

So what is the best way to learn a song?

1. Don't try to eat the whole elephant!

One of the most effective ways to learn is to break a song into small, manageable chunks.

Rather than deciding, “Tonight I'm going to learn the whole of this song”, concentrate on perhaps four to six lines.

Learn the words.

Learn your part.

Sing those few lines without looking at the lyrics if you can.

Then move on.

Over several short sessions, those little sections gradually join together until suddenly you have a whole song.

And remember that songs often get easier as you progress because melodies, phrases, rhythms and lyrics frequently repeat.

2. Little and often beats one enormous practice session

Twenty or thirty minutes of frustrated repetition isn't necessarily better than five or ten focused minutes.

In fact, short practice sessions spread over several days are generally much better for long term learning than cramming everything into one session.

Try learning a small section in the morning.

Come back to it later.

Try it again the following day.

You might be slightly horrified to discover that you've forgotten some of it!

That's okay.

Because something very useful happens when you have to try to remember.

That process of retrieving the information strengthens the memory.

So that moment when you're thinking:

“Oh goodness, how did this bit go again?”

isn't necessarily a sign that you're failing.

Your brain is working.

3. Don't always sing along with the learning track

This is a really important one.

Playing your learning track repeatedly can make a song feel wonderfully familiar.

But familiarity isn't quite the same thing as knowing it.

Every so often, stop the track and see whether you can sing the next line yourself.

Can you remember the words?

Can you find your starting note?

Can you sing your harmony without the recording helping you?

This is sometimes harder and less comfortable, but it is much better preparation for standing on a stage and performing the song.

Use the learning tracks to learn, but gradually test yourself without them to remember.

4. Don't keep starting again from the beginning

We've probably all done this.

You start the song.

Everything is going brilliantly.

You get to verse two, forget a line and immediately go back to the beginning.

The problem is that you become absolutely magnificent at the beginning of the song while the troublesome section remains troublesome!

Instead, isolate the bit that's causing the problem.

Perhaps it's only two lines.

Repeat those two lines several times.

Then add the line before them.

Then the line afterwards.

Finally put that little section back into the whole song.

Spend most of your practice time on the bits you can't do rather than repeatedly proving to yourself that you can already sing the bits you know.

5. Make silly connections

Brains are rather fond of unusual things.

If a particular lyric refuses to stick, make an association.

Create a ridiculous mental picture.

Connect it with someone's name.

Invent a silly phrase.

The stranger, funnier or more memorable the association, the better.

Nobody else ever needs to know what you've imagined!

If it helps you remember what comes next, it has done its job.

6. Once you've learned the notes, learn the SONG

There comes a lovely moment when you no longer have to concentrate quite so hard on simply getting the right words and notes.

That's when the real music making begins.

Now listen carefully to your choir leader.

Where should we become quieter?

Where should the sound grow?

Where do we breathe?

Which consonants need to finish together?

Should the sound be strong, gentle, breathy, joyful, emotional or powerful?

Learning the notes and words is only the first stage.

Learning how we want to sing them together is what turns hundreds of individual voices into AFO Choir.

7. Practise against the other parts

This is another big step.

You might sing your alto part perfectly when the alto learning track is playing and then completely lose it when the sopranos appear!

Again, that's normal.

Your brain is having to learn to hold one piece of musical information while deliberately ignoring another.

Start by making your own part very secure.

Then practise with the full choir track.

If another part keeps pulling you away from yours, go back to your individual learning track for a while and strengthen the section that's causing the problem.

Then try again.

Every time you successfully hold your harmony against another part, you're strengthening that musical memory.

8. Keep old songs alive

There's a famous idea in memory research called the Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve.

Put very simply, if we learn something and then don't revisit it, we gradually forget it.

That's why you can sometimes think:

“I knew this song perfectly six months ago. Where has it gone?”

It hasn't necessarily disappeared completely.

The memory has simply become harder to retrieve.

Singing old repertoire periodically refreshes those pathways. Even running through an older song once in a while can make a big difference.

And there's more good news.

If you learned a song really thoroughly in the first place, relearning it later is usually considerably quicker than learning it for the first time.

Try this simple AFO learning routine

When you're learning your next song, try this:

DAY 1 Learn the first small section.

DAY 2 Try to remember yesterday's section before playing the track. Then learn the next section.

DAY 3 Put the two sections together and work specifically on anything that keeps tripping you up.

DAY 4 Add another section and practise some of the song without relying completely on the learning track.

DAY 5 Try your part against the full choir recording.

DAY 6 Concentrate on the difficult bits rather than repeatedly singing the bits you already know.

DAY 7 Sing the whole song and start thinking about performance, dynamics, expression and musical detail.

It doesn't matter if your timetable takes longer than seven days. Everyone learns differently.

The important ingredients are small chunks, repetition, breaks between practice, actively trying to remember, and revisiting the song over time.

And finally, please don't compare yourself with the person standing next to you ❤️

Some people hear a harmony once and remember it.

Some people need to sing it twenty times.

Some people remember melodies instantly but struggle with words.

Others know every lyric but can't remember which harmony comes next.

None of those things determines whether somebody belongs in a choir.

One of the lovely things about AFO is that we learn by ear and we learn together.

So when a new song feels difficult, don't decide:

“I'll never learn this.”

Instead think:

“I haven't learned this yet.”

Give your brain small pieces.

Give it repetition.

Give it time to forget a little and retrieve it again.

Then keep coming back to it.

You may be surprised by just how much your brain is capable of.

And while you're learning the songs, you're not simply preparing for our next performance.

You're exercising your memory, listening, concentration and coordination, while singing alongside friends and doing something that makes you feel good.

That's not a bad way to spend ten minutes a day, is it? 🎶❤️

Happy learning, Reddies!

Helen & the AFO Team ❤️