Memorizing Songs

I'm like  Jim I  cant  even remember  my  own songs  Gave up  trying  yeas  ago   so  I  just    rely on  song  sheets .     

Like Phill, A lot of the songs I play, I've been playing for decades.

I find that most songs tell a story. When I set out to learn a new one, I'll just read through it a number of times to get the story line in my head. Once the story is seared into my leaky brain, I'll work on putting the music and lyrics together.     

That is so true. Songs back in the day told a story. Every Verse was different from the next from beginning to end. Now adays it should be ez to remember a song because now songs don't even have verses. All they have is the chorus /hook over and over again. One of my old time favs that i'd love to know and just play anytime is He stopped loving her today by George Jones, or I've always been crazy by Merle Haggard. I can sing along with every word but learning the song chords beginning to end eludes my HIPPOCAMPUS. (I googled that). I would really rather not walk into a nice place that has talent night and pull out my sheet music so i can just drop it all over the floor then have to pick it up in front of an amused audience. One thing I have done just at friends houses or little i mean little like 5,6 people get togethers is put my phone on a guitar phone holder that i hope to find again one day and open chordie, choose a song and set it to scroll. I played Letter to Elise by the cure to a very appreciative audience who wanted more. Hope someone has the memorization trick out of all our chordies out there!!!

I must admit that I find the music stand a bit embarrassing at times but having performed sets of over four hours when we were a resident band in Greece it became a necessity as some times I would be asked to perform certain songs that I didn't really know only hours before the big so reading and playing something became regular.Most of the other acts on the circuit did the same ,however back here in the UK I feel it is something that does detract from a performance but as I am now  nearly 68 and just playing for fun I just get over it and do it.Some of my associates use iPad but I just don't trust it.LoL

It's been quite a while since I've posted anything but this thread caught my eye.  I've always had a knack for remembering lyrics and at age 72 I'm surprised that the ability hasn't left.  When I play out I only carry  a notebook with names of songs that I play.  I just looked through it and have a list of 65 of the songs that I've written and 68 covers that I like playing.  Some of them I haven't played for a long time but I estimate I could play 58 of my songs and 64 of the covers and remember all the lyrics. My issue for some songs is remembering what key to play it in and the chord progressions. 

When I learn a song I first concentrate on remembering the chorus/hook. Nearly all the songs I play have verses that are similar to chapters in a book or story that relate to the hook, so  I then try to remember some key words in each verse that are easy to recall and trigger my memory of how the story "flows".  Works for me. Your mileage may vary.     

I have started learning guitar two months ago and my teacher told me not to fret about memorizing the chords and all that. He told me to practice a different song on my own as much as I can and soon enough I would be able to play any song without memorizing the chords. I hope you get it. How long have you been playing?     

A good way is to learn 5 at a time. It's not too big a number, so you can easily learn without getting bored.