Vocalist.org archive


From:  Karen Mercedes <dalila@R...>
Karen Mercedes <dalila@R...>
Date:  Thu Jun 7, 2001  1:46 pm
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] Memorization?


To the point about some languages being harder to memorize than others, I
definitely agree. The languages I find hardest to memorize are those that
I don't speak at all - e.g., Russian, German - while the easiest to
memorize are those I do speak, even if only to a limited extent - e.g.,
English, Spanish, French, Italian, Latin. I think this is because in the
languages I don't speak, part of my memory is always in "remember the
meaning of the word" mode - because memorization involves not just
memorizing the foreign words themselves, but also their meanings in
English. By contrast, with the other languages, I already know the
meanings of most of the words (if not all) so I don't have to "use up"
part of my memory trying to remember what the words mean, and can devote
all of it to simply remembering the words themselves.

I have found that with the "non-fluent" languages, it helps to internalize
the meaning of the text as early as possible, while repeating the foreign
words either with the notes, or just spoken on the rhythms. But I also
accept that it's a simple fact of life that it will take me 2-3 times
longer to memorize a piece in German or Russian than it would were the
piece in French, Spanish, or English (Italian and Latin are somewhere in
between, because I don't really speak them, but I "get" them by extension
because of being fluent in French, Spanish, and the Latin Mass).

KM
............................
NEIL SHICOFF, TENORE SUPREMO
http://www.radix.net/~dalila/shicoff/shicoff.html

My Own Website
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+ I sing hymns with my spirit, +
+ but I also sing hymns with my mind. +
+ - 1 Corinthians 14:15 +
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