Five Steps to Achieving the Impossible

I recently decided to learn a song. It’s one that’s typical of a certain Irish style of singing which is very wordy, often humorous, with lots of alliteration and internal rhymes, and is sung quite fast.

I’ve always been crappy at memorizing pretty much anything. For all that people call me talented and artistic, poetry reading and acting were never options for me. My aikido students know that I can’t even remember the four basic principles: I get to three and then get stuck.  Memorizing a nine-verse song with long words that have to be exactly right or the rhymes don’t work, and no room for breathe or think? Out of the question.

But I wanted to.

And I was armed with some new tools for mastery that I've been using really successfully in my aikido and music practice.  So here’s what I did:
  1. Start with absolute confidence that it was possible
  2. Practice S-L-O-W-L-Y.  I have a cool program called Amazing Slow Downer. I set it up in my car to loop the verses one at a time, at 80% speed, and sang on my way to work
  3. Focus on thinking ahead. Often - very often - most of the time - when I make a mistake it’s because I lost my focus on “what’s next?” My ability to think ahead definitely improves with attention and practice. 
  4. Practice relaxing. Relaxing is a technique you have to practice. When I get tongue tied (Say this three times fast: “She flashed her feathers in frosty fright”) I relax, let go of the little voice that says “can’t, just...can’t” and try again. 
  5. Use visual, kinesthetic, and auditory memory techniques. When I get to a sticky bit, I try speaking it out loud. I make a vivid mental picture of what the words are describing. I even imagine how it smells. I visualize the actual words. I say it really really slowly, feeling how it rolls over my tongue. I write the words really big on a piece of paper and stare at them while repeating them out loud.

It worked. I’m going to sing this song at an Irish music seisiún on Sunday. Wish me luck!

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