Forgetting Lyrics
You walk on stage with a tight grip on the microphone, the hot lights beaming down at you makes it impossible to see, you swallow your nerves and the band begins to play. Raising the microphone to your mouth you take a deep breath in, ready to start singing. You open your mouth and suddenly realise you have no idea what the lyrics are! Beads of sweat form on your forehead and after what seems like an eternity in your head you’ve missed your cue… Help!!!
Forgetting your lines, as daunting as it may be, isn’t as uncommon as you may think – it’s happened to the best of us. Remember everyone will be in this position at one point of their career – just take Justin Bieber for example when he forgot a whole verse of “Christmas Eve” during a concert in Toronto!
Obviously you don’t want to be forgetting your lines often but if it does happen, it’s important that you learn from your mistakes and know how to handle it in the future. Learning your lyrics back to front is critical and the longer you have been working on the song the more confident you will be with the words. However, it is really important if you have been singing a song for a while that you don’t go in to an “automatic mode”; which is when you have been singing the song for so long that you don’t need to think about it anymore. This “automatic mode” is dangerous when you’re performing live. The moment that you want to connect with the lyrics and you forget where you are, can leave you flustered as you struggle to try and pick up where you are in the song.
Now it’s all well and good to tell you not to forget your lyrics but like I said before it’s bound to happen, so with that in mind I have a few ideas for you to use when you are up there on stage and have absolutely no idea what those lyrics are
The first thing that I would recommend doing would be just to sing some oo’s or ah’s in tune with the music while trying to think about what the next line is. This is a great way to recompose yourself and find your place.
So you have been ooing and ahing for a couple of bars and you’re still drawing a blank on the first verse, what do you do next? If you can remember the lyrics to the second verse, then go for it!! Now you might think ok well that’s alright in theory but what happens when you get to the second verse? My answer to that is sing the second verse again. Before you think it’s a crazy idea I had a friend who did exactly that. She forgot the lyrics to the first verse so she sung the verse that she knew then sung it again. And guess what, not one single person in the audience realised that she was singing the same thing!!
Just remember that forgetting lyrics is natural and happens to everyone at least once. The most important thing is not to panic – not only will your audience pick up that there is something wrong by the sheer horror that is spreading rapidly across your face but it is easier to remember your lyrics with a clear head; it will help you finish strong. I guarantee that if you nail the coda or the last chorus the audience won’t even remember the one line you forgot at the beginning!