Books by Heart Podcast Makes Memorizing Easy
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Welcome to the Books by Heart podcast! My name is Bill Powell, and In this podcast, I want to give you specially crafted audio files to help you learn the Bible and other books by heart.
Most episodes in this podcast are very simple: I read verses from the Bible or another book, and I read them in short, rhythmic phrases, and I leave a lot of silence between each verse, so that you have time to repeat it out loud.
But there’s a bit more you need to know before you can use these files correctly. In this first episode, I’d like to explain how you can use these files as part of an easy, short, daily habit of learning texts by heart.
Your Memory Is Amazing
First off, let’s get something straight. You might think you have a bad memory, but I want to tell you, your memory is obviously amazing. You probably don’t believe me. Okay. Well…
ARMA virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab oris
Italiam, fato profugus, Laviniaque venit.
See? You didn’t realize it, but you, my friend, speak English. As I spew this stream of sound, you instantly translate what would otherwise be gibberish into meaningful language. You draw on your vocabulary of tens of thousands of words, and your vast knowledge of grammar and syntax, snapping these syllables into words, sentences, and paragraphs.
You’re probably so good at English that you don’t even notice you’re doing this. Not until I start mispronouncing Latin.
Train Your Memory
So. Your memory is amazing. Still, as you’ve probably noticed, this doesn’t mean that you automatically remember everything that happens to you, or everything you read. Our memories are designed to forget almost everything that happens to us, and if you think about it, this makes sense.
We are constantly awash in oceans of information, but only a few drops of it have any lifetime significance. For instanc: the color of your socks. Do you really wish you had a flawless, day-by-day mental record of every pair of socks you’ve ever worn? Even Sherlock Holmes might have faltered here.
Most of the time, we don’t even notice what we’re forgetting, which is exactly how the system is supposed to work. And we don’t even notice the vast quantity of material we’re remembering flawlessly, like English.
The problem is that for certain tasks, we need to use our memories in very particular ways. One of those tasks is learning a text by heart.
Ordinary People Can Learn By Heart
You don’t need to be some kind of autistic super-genius to learn a text by heart. Millions of ordinary people in other cultures have memorized whole books.
When Jesus was a boy, he probably learned at least the first five books of the Bible by heart, just like all the other little Jewish boys. During the Middle Ages, many monasteries and convents required you to learn the entire Psalter by heart, in Latin.
Today, millions of Muslims have memorized the entire Quran, which is about eighty thousand words. Millions.
Yes, you can learn texts by heart.
Rhythm and Repetition
There are many techniques you can use to learn a text, but two of the keys are rhythm and repetition.
Let’s start with rhythm. Rhythm is huge. Songs and jingles stick in our head. Wikipedia articles? Not so much. Our minds were not designed to remember huge blocks of indigestible prose.
And how do Bibles print the Word of God? Huge blocks of indigestible prose.
And how do most lectors and preachers speak the Word of God? A reverential monotone.
This is boring! And as you’ve probably noticed, your brain does not do boring. When the world gets too boring, your brain will actually knock you into unconsciousness so it can dream.
We need rhythm. If we were memorizing Shakespeare, our task would be much easier. Shakespeare has rhythm.
When Muslims memorize the Qu’ran, they memorize the original Arabic, and that Arabic has rhythm. In fact, if you search YouTube, you can hear them chant and even sing these verses.
And according to some Biblical scholars, the original preaching of the Gospels were also rhythmic. Ideally, we could chant and sing Hebrew and Aramaic.
Sadly, you’re not going to hear me chant or sing. At least, not yet. I haven’t figured out how to chant an English translation of the Bible.
What I have done is broken our English translation into small, rhythmic phrases. Even in translation, the Gospels retain an amazing amount of rhythm. You just need to look for it.
I’m writing a series of books, called “Books by Heart”, where I take a selection from the Bible and break it into these visual rhythms. Bible verses become actual rhythmic verses, like poetry. You can learn more about these books, and find links to sample chapters where you can see this Bible poetry, at my website, booksbyheart.com.
When you see the Bible as rhythmic poetry, everything changes. You can start snapping it, bit by bit, into your long-term memory.
But this podcast goes a step further. With this podcast, you can hear the poetry. And that brings us to the other major memory technique, repetition.
Repeat a Little Every Day
You’ve probably had bad experiences with repetition. Teachers made you cram for a test, maybe you’ve even had to repeat Bible verses until your brain hurt.
Your brain doesn’t do huge chunks. That’s why cramming feels so bad, and, at best, the effects don’t last more than a couple hours past the test.
This podcast will be different. Here, your repetition will be “short” and “often”. Every day, with each episode, you’ll learn one new verse. Just one. You’ll also repeat some of the verses you’ve already learned.
Here’s the daily schedule I suggest.
Listen to the podcast twice a day, once in the morning, and once in the evening. The podcast will leave spaces for you to recite the verses, so you want to be somewhere that you can talk out loud without scaring anyone. Or, you can pretend you’re on the phone.
The podcast will start with a verse from several days ago, and move forward, verse by verse, up through today’s new verse. So, with this podcast, you’re reciting each verse every day for several days.
Again, if you can, listen to each episode twice, once in the morning, and once in the evening. If you have to put kids to bed, verses make a great extra bedtime story. Trust me.
In addition, you should also say your new verse, just the new verse, two or three more times a day. Maybe once at each meal. Each tiny recitation will take you less than a minute, but it will make a huge difference in your memory.
Psychologists who study memory have found that when you first learn something, you need to repeat it several times, over several hours, before your brain realizes that this one’s a keeper. These quick, initial reviews are crucial. They renew the memory, and strengthen it.
So, if you can, say that new verse at every meal.
When you say the new verse, you might also include the most recent verses, from the last day or two. You’ll know whether they need a little extra help when you listen to the podcast in the morning. If you stumble over a verse, repeat that verse too when you’re repeating the new verse.
It’s probably simplest to start at the first verse you stumble over and repeat through to the new verse. Again, this will only take you a couple minutes at each meal, but these tiny renewals make all the difference.
Stories, Not Verses
You’ll notice that you always repeat the verses in order. That’s because we’re going to learn entire stories, like the Christmas stories or the Resurrection. We’re not going to do isolated verses. Stories are more natural. Our minds love stories. Most of the time, each verse leads to the next.
Also, I don’t include the verse numbers. The numbers are a useful tool for scholarship and discussion, but let’s face it, they completely break the flow of the text. Imagine Jesus peppering the Sermon on the Mount with handy reference numbers.
Instead, we do chapters. So, the first project, which begins with the next episode, gives you the Resurrection stories from the Gospel of John. It’s the last two chapters: John chapter 20, and John chapter 21.
The first prompt will be “John 20”, and that lets you know to say the first verse of that chapter. But that’s the only number I’ll use. After the chapter reference, each verse becomes the prompt for the next verse.
How the Pauses Work
That brings us to the actual format for episode. It’s very simple, but there’s a lot of dead air. Here’s how it works.
Each episode starts with a prompt, like “John 20”, or a verse. You don’t repeat this, it’s just a prompt. Then comes silence. Dead air. During that silence, you say the verse that comes after the prompt. This is the first verse for that day.
Then I say that first verse.
Then you repeat this first verse, even though you already said it before I did.
Then you move on and say the following verse, the second verse for the day. Then you hear me say that second verse. Then you repeat that second verse, and say the third verse.
You get the idea, right? There’s a lot of silence, because after I say each verse, I leave time for you both to repeat what you’ve heard and say the next verse.
This also means that you’re saying each verse twice. Once before you hear me say it, and once after you hear me say it. This lets you test yourself first, and then, after you hear the verse, you can renew the memory, making any small corrections.
I’m excited about this technique. It’s simple, and it does mean a lot of silence, but I love that you can both test yourself and then correct any mistakes right away with another recital.
The last verse of an episode is always the new verse for that day.
Use the Books
You can use the podcast on its own, but I strongly suggest that you see each verse, not just listen. Each project we’ll do here will have an accompanying book, by me, which you can find over at booksbyheart.com. You could follow along with an ordinary Bible, but in my books, you’ll see these verses as rhythmic poetry.
The ebooks don’t cost much, and you can put them on your phone, so you don’t need to lug an extra paper book around. Also, when you’re doing the new verse at each meal, you probably don’t want to mess with the podcast, but you might want to glance at your phone and make sure you got the words right.
Each ebook also includes a series of memory lessons, where I get into lots more detail about how to enter into these verses with your imagination, and make them a daily habit, and remember them over the long term.
Start With Easter
So, our first project is the Resurrection, and the book for this project is Easter by Heart. You can buy Easter by Heart on Amazon, or read sample chapters at Easterbyheart.com.
I’m recording this first episode on Holy Saturday. You can learn these verses anytime, but if you’re joining me now, we’ll by learning the Resurrection verses during the Easter season. It’s pretty neat, if you start John 20 on Easter Sunday, you finish John 21 within a day or two of Pentecost. It’s a great way to make Easter last, for the actual season, instead of having it completely evaporate before you even finish eating the chocolate bunnies.
At the same time, if you miss a day, or several, don’t quit. Just pick up where you left off. The episodes aren’t going anywhere.
Get a Podcast App
Also, you might already know this, but if you’re not already using a podcast app, make sure you get one! There are excellent apps for every kind of computer and phone, and you just plug in the URL and the app grabs the new episode every day. It’s much, much easier than trying to download everything manually off a website.
The URL you need is called an “RSS Feed”, and you if you don’t already have it, you can get it at booksbyheart.com, or at my memory blog, howtoremember.biz.
All right! You’ve got what you need, and you’ll know how to use these mysterious podcast episodes with so much dead air.
One last thing – with all this talk about rhythm and the reverential monotone, you might expect a dramatic performance out of me. But I figure that you’re going to be hearing these verses quite a few times, so I’ve kept my recitations fairly low-key. I want you to feel free to find your own expression and emotion as you say these verses. Make them your own. Tell them to your friends and your kids and your family.
And if you like what you hear, spread the word. Everyone should know how easy it is to learn books by heart. And let me know what you think, I’d love to hear your thoughts and suggestions. You can use the contact page on my memory blog, howtoremember.biz.
Let’s get started. In the next episode, you’ll get your first verse.
This is Bill Powell. Thanks for listening to Books by Heart.