Jay Z lyrics slip his memory – but so what?

It can happen to anyone. During the opening show of his Magna Carta World Tour in Manchester, England, Jay Z forgot his lyrics for a second on “No Church in the Wild”, from the album “Watch the Throne track”.

Twitter has been alive with the news. But is this really such an issue? Come on! Given the amount of words each rap track has, keeping all of them by heart is already an achievement. Many singers now insist on having a prompter with lyrics. As Mick Jagger once commented after someone noticed the chords of their songs were available on stage, “You don’t usually need them – but if you do, they are there”.

It’s also worth remembering that Jay Z’s tour apparently features some 30 songs in his setlist – which is a lot.

See the video for Jeezy explaining how Jay Z had tears in his eyes when writing to Magna Carta. “Every bar in that song is for real.” Source: The Vibe

How do you remember song lyrics?

Song lyrics are amazing things. Old people can often remember the lyrics to songs they heard many years ago, but have trouble remembering the names of recent acquaintances. If you have trouble remembering lyrics, it’s worth knowing that there are different ways to learn them, depending on you how you learn in general. 

• Visual learners prefer to see things in order to learn them. If this is you, you’ll probably learn best by reading and re-reading copies of the lyrics. Watching videos of the song can also help, as you can associate visual imagery with specific lyrics. Some people find it helpful to highlight different verses of the lyrics with different colors. When you later sing a specific verse, remembering its colour can help you visualize the words on that part of the page.
• Auditory learners obviously will spend a lot of time listening to the track . This is the advice you hear most often, even if it is a bit obvious. You could also try reading out the lyrics as if they were a poem, to help understand the flow of the song’s logic (if applicable) and gradually add the melody. .
• Tactile learners often learn by doing. So singing along is a good way to learn, as is writing out the lyrics and studying them on paper. 

For more about singing, take a minute to read Singing like a pro.