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Scripture Songs
How to Use this Book
Overview
This book is designed to help people to memorize scripture songs. The goal is to grow the book into a sort of "master list" of songs gathered from several places around the internet. It will organize and present them in a way that will hopefully help you to remember them.
If you are new to scriptures songs, I encourage you to start with Esther Mui's songs (Chapter 1). They are worship songs that are beautifully written, arranged, and performed – all of which makes them fun to listen to and fairly easy to memorize. I am sure that Esther Mui has many listeners who just enjoy her music without even trying to memorize the songs.
Other songs on this site are more focused on scripture memorization. That doesn't mean they aren't fun to listen to, but it is tough to put an entire book to music if your goal is to fit into the typical limitations of popular songs. Because of this, memorizing these songs can be challenging, but this book is designed to make the process as easy as possible.
The basic presentation of a song looks something like this:
There are several features:
If you click on the scripture in the left column, it will bring up a window with the words to that scripture (in the translation that matches the song). The words can help you to learn and review the song.
If you click on the Youtube icon in the middle column, it will play a Youtube video of the song (if you don't have Wifi or unlimited data, be aware that this could use a fair amount of data).
If you click on the MP3 link, it will play an MP3 version of the song (less data, but still be careful if you don't have a Wifi connection or unlimited data). I prefer the MP3 version, because it generally has better sound quality than the Youtube video. It is also more likely to keep playing if you switch screens to see the words at the same time you want to listen to the song. (The Youtube video may stop playing if you switch browser windows.)
If you click on "verses>>>", it will expand to give you links that allow you to jump to each verse in the song. Just click on the number of the verse you want to play. This is extremely handy for memorizing one or a few verses at a time. You can use the refresh feature of your browser (the circular arrow) to restart the verse over and over as you learn it – or if you are in "Playing verse only" mode (described below), you can use the play button to restart the verse.
The verses are also helpful while reviewing. You don't have to struggle to find the one verse you may have forgotten. You can jump directly to it. (Note: the links into MP3 files will be more accurate than the links into the Youtube videos, because with the MP3 player we are able to jump to offsets of tenths of a second while the Youtube player only allows us to jump to offsets of seconds.)
Expand the verses above by clicking on "verses>>>". You will be able to see that with the MP3 version, there are two ways to play a verse. If the top of the list says "Playing verse only (click to change)", each verse will play by itself and stop at the end of the verse. If it says "Playing verse to end (click to change)", it will play from the verse to the end of the song. You can switch between these two flavors by clicking on "Playing verse only (click to change)" or "Playing verse to end (click to change)". When you do, the other flavor will become active. (Note: some MP3 songs only support the "Playing verse only" flavor. They will not have the "click to change" option.)
The "Playing verse only" flavor uses much less cell phone data and works around several problems that can show up on some devices. On these devices, if "Playing verse till end" is used, the song may be slow to start, may not start at all, or may cut out after it starts playing. Because of this, the "Playing verse only" option is recommended when you want to save cell phone data or when other problems show up.
Here is one tip that I have found helpful when playing a verse: My iPhone has difficulty playing MP3 files, even when only one verse is being played. It tends to cut out after the start of the song. When I am in "Playing verse only" mode, I can work around this by placing my finger on the progress indicator of the MP3 player and pulling it back to the beginning. It will then restart the verse and play it correctly the second time. (In "Playing verse to end" mode I can't do this, because it is just about impossible to find the beginning of the verse.)
The previous tip is also useful if you want to replay a part of the verse. You can notice at what time index the part starts, pull the progress indicator back to that point, and push the play button to play from there.
Some songs have only a Youtube version or an MP3 version.
One final feature can be found in Appendix A: Scripture Index near the end of this book. The index presents all the songs in one large cross reference. From the appendix, you can jump to the location of any song in this book, bring up the words in the proper translation, or play the YouTube or MP3 version of the song.
Memorizing: Example 1
Starting in this section, I will give examples of how I (Bill Cadden) use this site to memorize scriptures.
The first example describes how I memorize Esther Mui's songs. I have been listening to them for years, both on YouTube and with a playlist of downloaded mp3 files. As a result, I am fairly familiar with the music for most of the songs.
What I haven't done, however, is to memorize all of the songs. So whenever I decide I want to memorize one, I take the time to sit with the words in order to practice reciting them until I can remember them. I usually have to do this several times spread out over a number of days in order to cement them in my mind.
The first feature of this site that helps with this process is the ability to click on the scripture for the song and quickly bring up the words. Since I already know most of the music, I can do most of my memorization with the words only. I sing them in my head, and repeat them until I can pull them back from memory.
The "verses" feature is also helpful. Though I know much of the music, there are parts I haven't learned. The verses feature allows me to quickly jump to a verse I don't know so I can learn it.
Memorizing Principles for Longer Songs
Before describing how I memorize longer songs (where I often don't know the music ahead of time), I will give some memory principles I use:
Divide and conquer: When I memorize, I start by focusing on one verse at a time. Sometimes I even focus on one phrase of a verse at a time. This allows me to learn the parts and then combine them.
Small groups: It is difficult to memorize more than a small group of verses at a time. I generally memorize about eight verses in a week. You might want to memorize more or less depending on your time and ability.
Repetition and practice: I listen to the verses over and over and try to recite them. I also try to rememorize them a couple of times a day. It is unrealistic for me to expect to remember the verses if I don't repeatedly rememorize them many times over a period of several days.
Build the memory well, then refresh: I spend a week on each group of verses. The first few days of the week are almost always disappointing. I memorize and rememorize, yet I forget the verses over and over again. I sometimes wonder if I have somehow reached my limit and my efforts will from now-on be fruitless. Then, at around the 4th day, something shifts, and I find the verses taking form in my mind.
What has happened? My mind and heart resist memorization, but I have countered this by making memorization an issue they will need to deal with. Repeated practice convinces my mind and heart to go through the difficulty of building inner structures to retain the verses. By the 7th day, the structures are complete enough that the verses almost seem to have become a part of me. After that, I only need to set aside fairly quick review sessions over the coming weeks, months, and years to reinforce and complete the structures.
Reflection: I think about how the messages of the verses fit together. With a shorter song, I might be able to memorize without much thinking, but with a longer song, I need the meaning of the words to tie together the verses in my mind. The flow of the music and the flow of the thoughts both work together to remind me of what comes next. As an amazing side benefit, reflection is a way to experience the truth taught in Psalm 1:2-3, "But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper."
Down time: I purposely let myself forget the verses for periods of time. For example, I may memorize a small group of verses in one session, and then I will forget them over the next several hours. Then I rememorize them during my second session of the day, and I keep doing this twice a day until they are semi-permanent in my mind. In the same way, after I memorize a chapter, I move on to another chapter and forget the previous one. But I eventually come back to the previous one and rememorize it. Over time, the chapter tends to become more and more embedded in my brain.
Decide how accurate you want to be: I like to memorize scriptures by the book, and the main place I know of to find scripture songs for entire Bible books is the Sing the King James site (which is referenced in chapter 4 of this book). To be honest, however, I find King James English difficult to remember exactly. For example, I have no idea what the King James English rules are for when to use any of the four words which translate to 'you' in modern English: 'you,' 'ye,' 'thee,' and 'thou.' As a result, when I come back to a chapter after I have been away from it for a while, I often mix up my 'you's,' 'ye's,' 'thee's,' and 'thou's.' I could spend extra days trying to get every word exactly right, or I could decide that being able to remember any of those four words will do. I choose this easier path. I would rather move on to memorizing more verses than to obsess over getting all my 'you's,' 'ye's,' 'thee's,' and 'thou's' exactly correct.
Memorizing: Example 2
With those principles in mind, I will now describe how I used chapter 4 of this book to memorize the Sing the King James version of the book of Hebrews:
I made it my goal to memorize about eight verses per week (except in those weeks in which I went back and rememorized past chapters). I tried to have two sessions per day in which I worked on the memorization. I sometimes missed sessions, but I did my best to try to stay with this strategy.
The first session of each week was generally the most difficult. I didn't know the music or the words when I started, so I used the "playing one verse" feature to play each verse, one at a time, over and over, until I could recite the verse from memory. Then I moved on to the next verse. Often, even a single verse was too much to memorize all at once, so I worked on each phrase of the verse separately and then combined them. Sometimes this took so much time that I decided not to memorize all eight verses in the first session. I settled for doing four verses in the first session and the other four in the second.
In the next several sessions after the first, when I tried to remember what I had memorized, I couldn't. I did find, however, that I was able to rememorize the verses more quickly after that first time.
By the third day, I generally began to wonder if I had somehow lost the ability to memorize. I looked at the words to the songs, and I couldn't remember the music. I did find, however, that when I rememorized the verses on the third or fourth day, I was often able to start to combine them into two groups of about four verses each. This let me begin to tie the verses together in my mind, which helped me to remember them better.
By the fourth or fifth day, I found that the music was becoming associated with the words in my head. I started to be able to remember some of it just by looking at the words, which was encouraging. Then over the next few days, as I continued to rememorize and recite larger groups of verses, I found myself gaining the ability to remember them without looking at the words at all. I still, however, spent time studying the words and listening to the music to try to cement everything in my head.
By days six and seven, I was able to recite the verses fairly easily. One of the nice things about this was that I was then able to review them while doing other activities. I could recite them in my head when I was falling asleep at night, when I was walking to the gym, or whenever I felt like it. I still, however, tried to do two sessions a day where I looked at the words and listened to the music, just to get as much repetition as possible.
After I finished with a group of about eight verses, I moved on to the next. I continued this week after week until I finished the current chapter. Then I generally took a break from that chapter to rememorize a previous chapter. After this, I returned to the current chapter and practiced all of the verses together until I could recite the entire chapter from memory. This generally took me several days of working on the verses twice a day.
I kept doing one chapter after another like this, sometimes taking breaks from new verses to review previous chapters, hoping to keep them fresh enough that I could fairly quickly rememorize them. Once I had finished the entire book, I started rememorizing all of the chapters one after another. I went through all of the chapters three times, giving myself a sort of weeks-long emersion-review of the entire book. By the time I finished, all of the chapters were fairly solid in my mind.
Then I moved on to other books, but I continue to return to the chapters in Hebrews every once in a while. As I continue to rememorize them periodically, my hope is that they will more and more become permanent parts of my memory.
This final step was added over a year after I wrote down the first 9 steps. I eventually realized that returning to previously memorized chapters only occasionally wasn't working as well as I hoped, so I decided to print out all of the chapters and put them into a 3-ring binder. Then I try to spend time every day reviewing at least one chapter in the binder. I often review while doing activities that don't require my mind to be focused (like when I am brushing my teeth or working in the yard). This works well not only from a memorization point of view, but also as a devotional activity. I find great joy and insight as the chapters come alive in my spirit while I recall them. I also find that I rarely need to go back and listen to the music. Once I have rememorized each chapter enough times, the music tends to stay with me.
Bill Cadden
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