I would wholeheartedly agree with that statement. The more the music can come from within, the more you’re conveying your own spirit through the music. In our classes I’ve noticed that once a person knows the words down cold, I find all these little improvements in their singing…nothing they would probably be able to pick out, but taken together they represent a nice overall improvement in the song. All because they don’t have to think as much (and reading sort of requires thinking, even though we don’t look at it that way so much). Free up your mind and you can tap into your soul. Hey, I like the sound of that…

Oh, and if you find memorizing songs hard, start with the easy ones! Repeating verses are a big help. Songs like Worried Man Blues, Down in the Valley, My Home’s Across the Blue Ridge Mountains, etc. Also, I sometimes find the more story-oriented songs (like Banks of the Ohio) easier to remember because there’s a logical sequence of events I can remember. But that’s just me…

Oh, this is profoundly so!!! Luke may not know how profoundly so this is because he always knows the songs he sings. (I’ve never seen him sight read). I, on the other hand, spent years (much too many) sight reading. I found that memorize songs too frustrating and slow (which explains why I always resorted to sight reading… well duh).

Now this will sound weird but as I gave up both trying to memorize songs and sight reading, and began to just ‘feel the songs lyrics’ more, song lyrics seemed to stick in memory much better. I suppose the moral here is not try too hard, but just take one step at a time, have faith, feel, be patient, and before you know it you’ll know dozens and dozens of songs by heart and soul.