The curse of the second verse

When teaching new songs, especially those with foreign lyrics, I often end up teaching using only the words of the first verse. But when it comes to the other verses, things get a bit wobbly! Why is that, and what can we do to stop it? It’s very tempting, especially when teaching songs by ear, to use only the words of the first verse while singers are learning their parts. It can be overwhelming if they’re having to learn new melodies and lots of new words at the same time. The downside is that the first verse quickly becomes familiar and confident, while the other verses never get the same attention. Then, when it comes to performance, there’s often noticeable hesitation as singers move into verse two or three. How can we avoid this? choose songs with only one verse – a bit of a cop-out, perhaps, but it certainly makes life easier. There are plenty of wonderful songs from different cultures with few words and only one verse. get different sections to sing different verses – divide…