Recently, I had been in touch with our SingSnapper "Carpy" about his dog Caine - you'll see Caine's image in Carpy's SingSnapper photo - and how absolutely adorable Caine is. So when I came across this DogDayHumour, I knew I had to share it with him, and with you. Here goes:

 A butcher in a small town was working in his shop one afternoon. A dog came into his shop. The butcher quickly yelled at him to get out and the dog sulked away. The dog returned a short time later. The butcher was about to send him out again when he noticed a piece of paper in the dog’s mouth. The butcher took the note and read it. “Can I have five sausages and two pounds of hamburger?” Along with the note was a twenty dollar bill. The butcher wrapped up the meat and put it into a bag. He placed the bag into the dog’s mouth. He was so impressed with the dog that he decided to follow the animal. The dog proceeded to walk down the street. Whenever he came to a pedestrian crossing, he would set down the bag and press the crossing button. He then waited for the light to change and crossed the street. The dog came to bus stop, checked the time on the timetable, and sat on the bench to await the bus. A bus came and the dog went to the front of the bus to check the number. He sat back down and waited for another bus to come. When his bus came, he climbed aboard, followed by the astounded butcher. Eventually, the dog pulled the stop cord and got off at the next stop. Still carrying the bag full of meat, he walked up the block to a house. He dropped the bag on the step, and turned to go back down to the sidewalk. He ran back towards the door and threw himself against the door. Whap! There was no answer, so the dog continued until a man finally opened the door. The man immediately began yelling at the dog, complaining about him waking him up with his noise. The butcher ran up and began to tell the man all the extraordinary things he had witnessed this dog doing.

“Why are you yelling at him? He is the most trained dog I’ve even seen!”

The man looked at him and said, “Right, he’s a smart dog. But this is the second time this week he’s forgotten his key!”

*Chuckle* Okay, hope you enjoyed that as much as I did.

For today's singing subject matter, how about 'Memory Work'? My dearest pal "Jet" and I were chatting about how Karaoke has really NOT improved memory work in lyrics. I had never had problems with it because long before Karaoke, I had been signing so much with my Dad's band and I memorise songs almost immediately That's what the gig entailed, new songs, almost every other day. I told Jet I'd impart to her (and now to you) my tricks with Memory Work.

First of all, get the lyrics typed or handwritten in a piece of paper that you can carry with you and read anywhere. Lyrics on computer screens just don't help, dont' know why, perhaps because of so many distractions we are subjected to once online or on our pc. Arrange your lyrics first into paragraphs then chorus or bridge the more segregation of the lyrics, the better and easier to remember. Read the lyrics....really read it. 

When you organise the lyrics, you will find that most songs just repeat the same chorus or bridge over and over. You can erase all the written repetitions on your lyric sheet. In other words, remove the superfluous lyrics. You will usually end up with just 3 paragraphs to any song. Just mark the Repeats for your own info. When you see the lyrics at its real length, you will not be intimidated about memorising it anymore because like I said when the superfluous lyrics are removed, the songs are at usually manageable lengths. If you come across a naturally long song, then of course, work is in demand There. Just memorise a paragraph at a time.

Get the GIST of what the song is about. For example if we use the song "For The Good Times" as our sample song...the lyrics go: Don't look so sad, I know it's over.... But life goes on and this whole worlds will keep on turning Let's just be glad we had some time to spend together There's no need to watch the bridges that we're burning... Okay, now....read the lyrics and analyse. Adapt the lyrics to your life. How many time in your life had you had a love that "might have been?" Picture the person you are singing to, don't start guilt trips, your fantasies are important here. PIcture that person and "speak" to him/her using this song. Visualise her/his face and tell him/her... don't look so sad....etc etc. Just like you were conversing with him/her. It's so easy to talk to someone and tell them...life goes on the world keeps on going even if we're not together....we don't have to look at the bridges we're burning....we were in love once. See what I mean? Do the same thing with the following paragraphs.

Finally, your key to memoirsation is REPETITION. Sing the song often in your head, aloud, anywhere at anytime you can do it. The more you repeat the more you are training your mind to remember the lyrics without a monitor or a piece of paper to look at. Any questions, just email me poppywoodward@yahoo.com