Memorizing Words of Songs for Times of Trials

[Ahuvah]

With our amazing Kingdom Songs and Original Songs we have a wealth of songs that fortify us now, but also will also fortify us in the times to come. If you think about the last convention 2018 - Be Courageous - the brother who was in custody for ten days, strengthened himself and also others by remembering and singing I think the old song 35? 

 

But I struggle so much memorizing the words to our songs ... so let's do this together ... let's share tips for memorizing and make it our goal to remember words of songs that not only inspire us but fortifies our hearts when we sing I have a few in mind for myself but let's focus on one for now. Let's put lots of effort into this - even if you can't sing - which reminds me if anyone has tips for improving our voices please put up links to videos - jw.broadcasting or other secular tips. 

 

At the moment I know parts of songs, I'm ashamed to say I don't know a complete song by heart.

 

So let's start with the faith strengthening "Give me Courage" from our last convention. Let the words below give you strength and courage. Pop back into the thread and let us know too when you have accomplished remembering each song and let us know which song you know by memory. This is going to be fun!!

 

GIVE ME COURAGE

.Doubt and fear surround me— The way ahead not clear. Line 1

Through uncertainty you guide me; I know you’re always near. Line 2

Life may not be easy, But this I know is true: Line 3

You’re the God who’s ever loyal; Line 4

My life is safe with you. Line 5

 

(CHORUS) Jehovah, give me eyes of faith And help me always see Line 6

There are more with us than against us. Line 7

Courageous let me be. Line 8

Courage, give me courage; Line 9

With courage, I’ll endure. Line 10

Jehovah, give me courage; Line 11

Your victory is sure. Line 12

 

2.Feeling fear is human. Line 13

In my own strength, I’m frail. Line 14

You have been my rock and refuge; Line 15

Your power never fails. Line 16

Help me be courageous, Line 17

And let my heart be brave. Line 18

Lasting harm can never hold me Line 19

— No prison, gate, or grave.Line 20

 

(CHORUS)

Jehovah, give me eyes of faith Line 21

And help me always see Line 22

There are more with us than against us. Line 23

Courageous let me be. Line 24

Courage, give me courage; Line 25

With courage, I’ll endure. Line 26

Jehovah, give me courage; Line 27

Your victory is sure. Line 28

 

(CHORUS)

Jehovah, give me eyes of faith Line 29

And help me always see Line 30

There are more with us than against us.Line 31

Courageous let me be. Line 32

 

Courage, give me courage; Line 33

With courage, I’ll endure. Line 34

Jehovah, give me courage; Line 35

Your victory is sure. Line 36

Jehovah, give me courage; Line 37

Your victory is sure. Line 38

 

 

 

 

[Tortuga]

14 minutes ago, Stormswift said:

But I struggle so much memorizing the words to our songs

This is my version..

 

GIVE ME MEMORY

Doubt and fear surround me— The thoughts in my head are not clear. Line 1

Through uncertainty you guide me; I know you’re always near. Line 2

Remembering may not be easy, But this I know is true: Line 3

You’re the God who’s ever loyal; Line 4

My mind is safe with you. Line 5

[Hope]

I listen to them over and over again in my car. Half hour each way every day for work, when I'm the driver in ministry, etc.  I sing along.  That makes memorizing easy for me.

[Ahuvah]

Yes being able to sing is a good first step .. but when you can't sing you often just hum along .. so give us some pointers Hope ... I'm thinking of writing the words on the back of the loo door. 

[hatcheckgirl]

Our Strength, Our Hope, Our Confidence - Song 3

 

1. O Jehovah, you have given us

   a hope that we hold dear.

   It’s a hope we find so thrilling

   we want the world to hear.

   But at times this life’s anxieties

   are the cause of fears within,

   And the hope that burned so brightly

   has suddenly grown dim.

   (CHORUS)

   You’re our strength, you’re our hope,

   you’re our confidence.

   Whatever we lack, you supply.

   When we preach, when we teach,

   we have confidence

   because it’s on you we rely.

2.  So Jehovah, please instill in us

   a heart that won’t forget,

   For you’ve always been our comfort

   when troubled times we’ve met.

   And these thoughts that lift and strengthen us

   can revive that dying flame,

   For they fill our hearts with courage

   to speak about your name.

   (CHORUS)

   You’re our strength, you’re our hope,

   you’re our confidence.

   Whatever we lack, you supply.

   When we preach, when we teach,

   we have confidence

   because it’s on you we rely.

    

   https://www.jw.org/en/publications/music-songs/sing-out-joyfully/3-our-strength-our-hope-our-confidence/?media=sjjm

[Alexa]

There are times we just know the music of our songs not the lyrics. Its still good to practice memorizing the music, humming to the song is easier and may be find useful

[Hope]

7 hours ago, Stormswift said:

Yes being able to sing is a good first step .. but when you can't sing you often just hum along .. so give us some pointers Hope ... I'm thinking of writing the words on the back of the loo door. 

Everyone can sing- especially if you can hum- just add words in!  Being able to sing "well" is not only subjective, it's unnecessary.   Just do it! It may be more comfortable if you're alone, but that's the way to get the tune and lyrics into your heart and head.

 

I honestly don't know how to memorize anything without simple repetition... out loud. That's how to learn.. 🤷‍♀️

[Ahuvah]

So it's lack of confidence then ... we need courage to sing out loud. 

[Friends just call me Ross]

Through the F&DS, Jehovah has been encouraging us, for MANY years now,  

to commit the lyrics to our songs of praise to memory.

 

So I did.  

 

Being as how I'm old and decrepit, my brain cells' synapses aren't exactly firing on all cylinders.

So this was not an easy task for me.  Still, I did as directed and I did it gladly!  I love the lyrics

to our songs.  The majority of them are just a slight rephrasing of familiar Scriptures. 

 

I had 35 of them already memorized when, without warning, the lyrics I had mastered were 'tweaked',

and, in some cases, completely eliminated or replaced with totally new lyrics.

 

I was majorly depressed for quite some time and even went around singing one of Melonie's tunes:

Quote

"Look What They've Done To My Song, Ma"
(The New Seekers)

 

Look what they've done to my song, Ma
Look what they've done to my song

 

Well it's the only thing that I could do half right
And they've changed it all around, Ma

 

Look what they've done to my song

Yup!  The changes meant that I was going to have to start all over again,

and I was pretty certain my brain's memory banks wouldn't be able to handle the 

whole song lyric 'reboot' thing.

 

Discouraged, and stuck in 'pity party' mode,

I decided to just chuck the whole lyric memorizing project. 

 

But then, the REASONS for all the changes were announced.

The majority of the changes would allow our Worldwide Brotherhood

to become even more UNITED than it already is.

 

Promoting Christian unity and strengthening our bonds of worship

were mighty FINE reasons for what they'd done to my already memorized songs.

 

My joy, as well as my desire to keep right on memorizing our songs' lyrics,

returned.

 

There are several methods I have used to help me memorize our lyrics.

1.  Like Sister Hope, I listen to the vocal versions every chance I get, driving my car, mowing my lawn,

while sitting in waiting rooms, while lying in bed.

This method does have one major drawback.  If the singers aren't enunciating the words enough to be 

clearly understood above the background music, you will be exposed to some major mondegreens!

Quote

Mondegreen

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A mondegreen is a mishearing or misinterpretation of a phrase as a result of near-homophony in a way that gives it a new meaning. Mondegreens are most often created by a person listening to a poem or a song; the listener, being unable to clearly hear a lyric, substitutes words that sound similar and make some kind of sense.

That is where method two kicks in:

2.  I type the song's first verse over and over and over, ( I think I read somewhere that when words

pass through your hands before they get to your brain, it sounds them down deeper than

if they just pass through your eyes or ears.  I  think you needed to repeat it 7? times.  I ain't

exactly sure.

Anyway, I keep typing the first verse until I can do so without looking at the website.

 

Once I can type the first verse error free, I move onto the second.   I continue doing this

until I can successfully type out the lyrics to the entire song.

 

The third method is particularly helpful...when I remember to use it. 

3.  I type up, downsize and then print out several copies of a song's lyrics.  Then I place 

a copy on my computer desk, a copy in my car,  a copy in my purse, and sometimes even

in my pocket.  I just used this method, along with repeated listenings, to memorize Song 48.

 

The fourth method helps me to understand what I am trying to memorize, and why:

4.  At both the top and the bottom of our songs, there are Scriptures cited.  I call them

verses-verses.  

I look these Biblical verses up because it helps me get the gist of what Jehovah

is trying to tell us through the lyrics.   Understanding a song's main message/theme

helps me remember both the content and the order of the verses.  Also, just because

I happen to love doing it.  

 

Which leads to number five:

5.  I started out by picking my very favorite songs to memorize.  The 35 I was able

to memorize, before the lyric changes, were all faves of mine to sing.

When you really love the song's melody, it makes it a whole lot easier, and provides

a lot more incentive, to memorize the song's lyrics.

 

Nowadays, I find myself memorizing more of our JW Broadcast Original songs than

the songs in our "Sing Out Joyfully to Jehovah" songbook.  They seem to be geared

for the times we are living in and the trials we are/will soon be facing.  Also, some of

them are so incredibly encouraging.  And we can use all the encouragement we can 

get.

 

I have been singing "Daily Walking With Jehovah" non-stop since the day it was released

as a vocal version.

 

Hope some may find this helpful. ❤️

(I still find myself singing some of the old lyrics, even when I am staring right up the monitor.) 

 

[Friends just call me Ross]

[Hope]

Confession- I do skip over the Original Songs and Kingdom Songs that have to do with marriage or dating. I'm not interested in hearing those or memorizing them.  😐

 

The rest are aces, however!  👍👍

[Ahuvah]

12 hours ago, Stormswift said:

So it's lack of confidence then ... we need courage to sing out loud. 

I sang out loud.

My cat nipped me on the ankle.

The end. 😥

[Hope]

13 hours ago, Stormswift said:

I sang out loud.

My cat nipped me on the ankle.

The end. 😥

 

Don't give up!  Seriously - there is really nothing that will get the words and music into your head apart from singing them out loud yourself.  What's the point of memorizing songs if we won't sing them?  

 

[Jeanie]

Speaking of songs, I can not find the song that goes "there are more with us than against us".  I really enjoyed that song and looked for a long time today to download it to a CD for my car and couldn't find it.  

[Alexa]

1 minute ago, Jeanie said:

Speaking of songs, I can not find the song that goes "there are more with us than against us".  I really enjoyed that song and looked for a long time today to download it to a CD for my car and couldn't find it.  

Never alone original song

[Friends just call me Ross]

9 minutes ago, Jeanie said:

Speaking of songs, I can not find the song that goes "there are more with us than against us".  I really enjoyed that song and looked for a long time today to download it to a CD for my car and couldn't find it.  

"Give Me Courage"  (see Sister Mandi's opening post in this thread.)

[Jeanie]

2 minutes ago, Friends just call me Ross said:

"Give Me Courage"  (see Sister Mandi's opening post in this thread.)

Rosanne, does that question I posted tell you how bad my memory is?  LOL.  By the time I got to the bottom of all the messages I forgot what the original poster mentioned.    

[Jeanie]

13 minutes ago, Jeanie said:

Rosanne, does that question I posted tell you how bad my memory is?  LOL.  By the time I got to the bottom of all the messages I forgot what the original poster mentioned.    

Also, can someone link me to it?  I really can't find it and have tried using words of the song, song title and haven't found it.  

[Alexa]

Oops sorry wrong answer 

[humble bumble bee]

17 hours ago, Jeanie said:

Also, can someone link me to it?  

Is this what your looking for? 

 Give Me Courage

[Ahuvah]

18 hours ago, Jeanie said:

Speaking of songs, I can not find the song that goes "there are more with us than against us".  I really enjoyed that song and looked for a long time today to download it to a CD for my car and couldn't find it.  

In convention releases - also on jw.org if you don't want to use my edited version. Yeah or what the bumble bee says 👆

Edited February 5, 2019 by Stormswift

[Omoyeme]

I must agree with Uani. Repetition is the easiest way, at least for me, to commit to memory our beautiful kingdom songs and original JWB songs. Download to CD and play in my vehicle or download as mp3 on my tablet or phone and listen throughout the day while doing chores or riding in my car.

 

However, I'm somewhat bored to learn them all in my mother tongue so I isten to my favorite ones in other languages (i.e., French, Swahili, Italian, Kongo, etc.)  "Mai solo" I was able to memorize and the power of that brother's voice means so much more to me as well as "Ano’ng Nadarama Mo?" in Tagalog.

 

Even better too, is learning them in another language as wonderful brain exercises.  

 

 

 

[Loopy]

On 3/4/2019 at 4:30 PM, Omoyeme said:

Even better too, is learning them in another language as wonderful brain exercises.  

 

 

 

I have troubles speakin’ de “ingles” plus my one brain cell that’s left is very defective. 

 

I know, I’m in real troubles.  

 

Kapeash!