Have You Ever Forgotten Your Own Lyrics?

[tcmusicman1]

It's happened to me in practice before.

And this reminded me of something. Last march i went to a rush concert (Great show by the way!) and geddy lee forgot the lyrics to one of the songs, i dont remember witch one though. Might have been closer to the heart, and it was hilarious! and this may sound strange, but its nice to see that even high acclaimed rockstars like rush make mistakes every once in awhile. Makes me feel alot better...HAHA.

[LayneGreene]

I still forget stuff all the time. I usually just try not to make a big deal out of it and get through the song, heck, I've accidentally sang the first verse 3 times before and no one seemed to notice

[Loonatic]

This happened to me more than once. Usually with new songs. I try to just make something up, which actually worked well once. One time I just played the verse instrumental. People noticed that I messed up because I started singing but then didn't. They just cheered me up and it turned out ok. I was able to finish the song. I guess the important thing is to not stop playing.

There's lots of stuff that goes wrong, not just lyrics. It seems every time I play there's some kind of problem. One time as I was playing a song, the microphone was slowly falling down. In the middle of the song I had to stop to pick it up.

[carlgrace]

This happened to me a few times at gigs.  Very embarrassing!  What I do wasn't a poll option.  What I do is just sing another verse over again.  For example if I forgot the third verse I'll just continue on singing the first verse again! No one has ever noticed when I have done this (at least no one has said anything).  The worst thing you can do is stop the music or swear!  (I was at a show once and the guy started swearing when he forgot!  If he had just shut up about it no one would notice!)

[wtf audio]

All the time i find that if you do just following the melody and making sure you nail the chorus works. The worse thing is most of my band don't notice :-)

[gingeritus11]

I really try to not do that, but if it happens it really screws me up. I always have to take a breather and think for a while. It ruins the flow of it all.

Thankfully, I work my ass of to make sure that never happens

[Kel]

I don't only forget the lyrics... I forget how to play the whole damn song!

 

Probably because I haven't been recording them. I've recorded the last song I wrote (sorry!) and other than changing the chord progressions three times and having 4 lyric rewrites in a week, I'm playing it lots (lots and lots of takes lol)

 

Kel  

[Simon Jones]

An awesome country artist called Slaid Cleaves joked about this, saying there's a big difference between writing your own songs and remembering your own songs. Oh so true.

[LuiCAcoustic]

I think it happens for me like 8 times out of 10

[john]

Lol Lui, you could do with a TelePrompTer then? I would love one. Interestingly you can make one using an ipad. Well you can buy the bits to make one.

[Alistair]

I went to see Neil Young recently and he had a teleprompter. Sacrilege! But he is getting older and perhaps his memory is not what it was. I also saw Lucinda Williams and she has a file of printed out lyrics on a stand next to her mic. I tend to feel she should make an effort to remember her own songs. Perhaps she just has a poor memory. She does suffer stage fright too though so it may be that more than her memory.

 

Sometime when you do know a lyric it's less a question of remembering it but that your voice becomes an instrument that has sung the song so many times that it has learned the right sequence of sounds to make. When you break this unconscious competence you suddenly realise that you are not actively thinking about the words, they just flow out of you. When the flow is broken you have no way of recovering.

 

Another way round this problem is to have such poor diction that no-one can tell what you are singing even when you do remember the words. So they don't notice when you don't remember!

[Simon Jones]

Sometime when you do know a lyric it's less a question of remembering it but that your voice becomes an instrument that has sung the song so many times that it has learned the right sequence of sounds to make. When you break this unconscious competence you suddenly realise that you are not actively thinking about the words, they just flow out of you. When the flow is broken you have no way of recovering.

 

Excellent way of putting it. I remember having a bit of a panic attack trying to remember the words just before playing a song and I was convinced my mind was going to draw a blank. But as soon as you start playing and just don't over think it, it just comes out.

[TapperMike]

I used to play with this guy.... Bobby Cole.  He was a trad jazz lounge lizard who played keys and sang. The guy rarely played anything later then 1950.  The rest of us all had to know our stuff cold.  But Bobby would bring song books with him to gigs and play from them.  He could look at the sheet but we couldn't.  Which is funny because you'd figure that after 40 years of playing he might actually learn a song so he didn't need the sheet.  I chastised him to no end about that and.. well... It was "The Bobby Cole Show" Everyone came to see him as he was a central figure in local jazz so I got canned.  Thirty years later I too have developed a crutch.

 

I can still remember many songs but if I learned them in the last 10 years it was usually with the help of Band in a Box. If I'm not in front of the software I can't play and sing the songs.  Adding to that though I'm no longer playing out.  There is something about having an end to your goal. That end being live performance which forces you to make yourself remember.

[john]

Another way round this problem is to have such poor diction that no-one can tell what you are singing even when you do remember the words. So they don't notice when you don't remember!

Ah ha! John Martyn's plan unveiled lol

[Kel]

I was at a concert a couple of months ago and veteran top act here in Oz had to restart a song because he fluffed the first line. He laughed at himself and we laughed with him and continued to enjoy his performance.

 

Kel

[Just1L]

Hell, I f*ck up doing karaoke... while looking straight at the words.

Edited August 9, 2013 by Just1L

[macmanmatty]

Yes, But noone ever knows I just make up some stuff on the spot that sounds just as good (or sometimes better) than the original lyrics.

[Xenicus]

Although I would be the first to admit I forget this trick. If you don't panic and don't even think about it the words, just blurt them out. But the second you panic ...poof there gone. It happened to me doing War Pigs by Black Sabbath, and Hold On Loosely, by 38 Special. The Song would start (I knew I hand forget the first line but did not panic) Started singing and out they came. Then the next night I panicked they were gone. The Bass player prompted me while the guitar did the intro lead. It's a tough trick but it really does work.  

Brian

[MazingMaryRocks]

Haha, it does feel quite stupid when you actually wrote the text yourself! But when it happens I just go "llalalalahmhm" in the rigth melody and hope the beer made people a little dizzy so they don´t notice it

 

//MMR

[Diana June]

Oh god, this happen to me everytime! I have the poorest memory ever, for real, and it's horrible.

Glad to see I'm not the only one! Hahaha.

 

Well, I have the luck that I sing mostly in English but I live in Spain, where, you know, most of people don't know a shit about English, so if I mess up the lyrics nobody will notice. BUT if someday I have the chance to sing away from home, what am I going to do? D: What do you usually do?

I try to improvise. I invent all the words, I mean, I start to say random syllabels that may sound like a mix of weird Japanese and Norwegian (wtf?), hahaha. My friends even invented a name for it which is "Kayhle" (because that's how it sound or whatever). If I have a new song and I get too lazy to make the lyrics, I think I'll sing in Kayle and that's it hahaha.

Ok, just joking. I'd really like to know if you guys have any kind of trick when this shit happens. Like, I don't know, any exercise to not forget the lyrics? Writting them in the hand?