Rhythm, rhyme, alliteration all aid in memorization. Music, or melody, is another memory aid. Put them together and you have songs and ballads.
I have set certain pieces of prose to music so that I could recite them more easily. Like a chanted Jewish prayer, the melody will carry if the words are forgotten.
I’d add that singing or reciting aloud, using your voice, and hearing your voice reflected back from the walls (or reverberate in the physical space) reinforces memory as well. Better than just saying it in your head.
Motor sequences that are memorized are stored in a different part of the brain than conceptual memories. Rituals, for example, or tasks that are complex but routine, like cooking pancakes. If you do it enough times you don’t need the recipe, you just do it without thinking.
Some types of memorized sequences are retained even with Alzheimer’s. Charles Duhigg’s book The Power of Habit describes one guy who could make his entire breakfast, but would then forget he’d eaten, and make a second one.
Yep. This is my experience.
Exactly. There’s a reason Shakespeare wrote a ton of stuff in iambic pentameter.
Lucky you. I’ve had zillions.
No. But part of this is our idea of what constitutes a “song.” I think, generally (of course there will be exceptions), we’re talking about simple pop songs, not really that distinguishable (in terms of melody, not harmony, or arrangement) from the simple songs small children like to sing.
I mean, listen to this -
and then see if you remember the melody a week later.
This, on the other hand –
Even if you’d never heard it before (and of course you have), you’d remember it. Or at least the statement of the melody, maybe not all the variations.
So I think it’s all about rhythm. And simple melodies, maybe just pentatonic, help too.
I’m not sure if that piece even really has a melody. It’s got so many complicated and often dissonant chords that I don’t think you could identify which notes are “melody” and which are “harmony”.
Well, yes. I suppose that was kind of an extreme example.
We have Taiwanese kindergarten kids memorize short speeches in English as well as learn various songs. It’s easier for them to memorize songs than poems and poems than prose. However, they memorize a fair amount in Chinese in prose.
For six year olds, remembering songs is much easier than poems. For many songs, some of them can memorize the songs after singing them just a few times.
For the speeches, we will play the speeches during lunch or in the mornings before class starts as well and during the breaks. We also create gestures to help them remember.
