![when we were kids song when we were kids song](https://songsear.ch/static/albums/2017/05/16/06/349173_300x300.jpg)
![when we were kids song when we were kids song](https://kryptonitemusic.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/img_9594.png)
The thing is though, music is mainly useful as a memory aid when the song’s melody and rhythm are already familiar to you. This hopefully makes it easier for the alphabet to stick in a kid’s brain. For instance, “L, M, N, O, P” might feel more like one large chunk of information, instead of five. But in the song, the letters are grouped together into melodic and rhythmic phrases. Without the song, young children might learn the 26 letters of the alphabet as 26 separate units of information, which is a lot to remember all in one go. The alphabet song is a great example of chunking in music. In this way, the musical structures enhance our ability to learn and retrieve the text of the song. The melody and rhythm act as a great framework that we can attach the text to, making it easier to recall later. Music allows us to chunk lyrics together by linking words and phrases in a tune. So if we cram more material into each unit by putting them into big chunks, then we can store more content overall. Our short term memory can only hold about 7 units of information at a time. Chunking is when we take individual pieces of information and group them together into larger units (i.e. Music helps us remember things better because of a process called “chunking”. It had me wondering if there was perhaps a scientific basis to this link between music and memory. We’ve all heard a catchy song on the radio and been able to sing along to the lyrics after listening to it a handful of times. I always wondered why that was the case, that songs and rhymes can be so much easier to remember than the spoken word. Sometimes though, my grandma rambles on about her life back in Russia and it tends to go in one ear and out the other. I’m great at memorising all the Russian lyrics to these tunes, even though I’m still very much a beginner at the language. I have a whole library of Russian kids’ songs and nursery rhymes stored in my brain that my grandma has shared with me over many years. My friend Emily can’t speak Russian to save her life yet the other day she perfectly recited a Russian lullaby I spent 5 minutes teaching her about 10 months ago. Want To Remember Something Better? Put It In A Song