Last month I memorised my first sutta, using this beautiful recording by Bhikkhu Jiv —anyone knows who he is?
audtip.org sn35-028-aditta : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive (the “chant” file)
Anyone knows of a good collection of melodies to chant suttas? How do you do it @vimalanyani? Do you have few melodies and you alternate?
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Oddly, for me the most spine-tingling immersive chants are the chants without melody. Melodies carry emotional beckoning of identity in their tonal patterns. Just as I can’t listen to a song for long, I can’t listen to a chant with melody for long.
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Well, there’s really tonal patterns everywhere, whether or not one feels one is “singing.” I don’t like chants that are too melodious either, but I feel that a bit of melody aids memorisation, which is no big discovery…
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Yes. I can see how that would work. My own trick is to bind the sutta memory to sights and touches during walking meditation. So at a particular corner, DN33 transitions from the three’s to the four’s. The spatial reinforcement provides an additional benefit of being able to get a “birds’ eye view” of the sutta and drop in on any section. It is also bound to touch because I walk barefoot, so particular segments will actually be associated with “walking on twigs turning left” or “splashing in puddles turning right”. For example, the DN33 section on restraining thought happens as I walk into the wind on a long straight stretch. And that is how restraint feels to me. 
I also will always associate the DN33 fives with policecars. Because they really did stop me. 
In a way, I guess you could say that I gave up on memorization and simply decided to live the sutta. Because all my memories of the sutta have become memories of my life.
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That’s pretty cool…
Can you recite DN 33 from memory?
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I asked myself that question just a few moments ago and was wondering why I was crying. It was then that I realized that I was living DN33. It has become part of my life. Memorization is acquisition and possession. If memory happens it happens. I am content to just live DN33. It is a very strange answer, I know, but I remember DN33 just like I remember brushing my teeth. Not exactly, but as part of my life.
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I can relate so very well with what you say!
The only aspect that gives a special point to actual memorization, or the capacity of being able to recite from memory, is that this is the way the suttas have been transmitted to us over the centuries—and this too brings tears to my eyes sometimes. 
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Yes, I am amazed at those who can memorize. I am a horrible failure at memory. I once memorized Beethovens First Piano Sonata. Now I can’t play piano. So I would not count on me to quote any sutta. Don’t trust me!
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I wouldn’t believe that. Someone who can memorize Beethoven’s first piano sonata can certainly memorize anything they want to, using appropriate techniques for memorization.
And just like everything else, memory is very much related to mindfulness.
I have been memorizing the Mettasutta in Pali recently (finally! I’ve tried already for a long time and always failed, until finally I found out how to do it), and am at the moment reciting it every day in order to settle the memory. And when thoughts occur like “was this correct?”, “what comes next?”, etc. I don’t manage to finish my recitation. But when I just focus on the words I am reciting right now, the next bit flows from my mouth just by itself, and the recitation works perfectly fine.
A bit like “dancing in the dark”… 
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Touche. 
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After I memorized Beethoven’s First Sonata, I found that I had killed it. It was quite horrible to find that I had choked it to death. So I opened my hands and let it go free, not mine, not me not myself.
And now that it is no longer mine, it has come back to life for me and I will always enjoy hearing my old friend.
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If it is in Pali, I listen to a recording first if one is available. Makes it easier to get the long and short syllables right.
In English, I just read it out loud and usually some kind of tune develops from there. I don’t purposely pick or alternate melodies. Some kind of melody just “emerges” from the sutta, and it feels natural to chant it like this.
I’ve noticed that other people chant English suttas in totally different ways. Whatever feels right… 
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You killed nandi. It’s sound. 
you’re quite right. I did kill the delight. And in killing the delight there really was no point in practicing the sonata daily. So I stopped. And then the memorization died. It’s really odd that even though I memorized it, now I do not recognize the sonata. When I hear that sonata being played, it sounds familiar, but I’ve lost all the features and the details. It just comes across as “piano sounds classical music, probably Beethoven”. I can’t even remember how it starts or how it ends. This experience makes me wonder how I will ever be able to remember anything from a past life!
With DN33, it’s a little different. There are spots that are familiar and others that are strange. According to the Buddha, I’m supposed to be able to recall mindfully. However I am quite a failure at recall. So I muddle along and just listen to the sutta, reciting as I can. What did become apparent to me yesterday was that there is a certain freedom in simply attending.
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Wonderful! Can you say more about this? What ‘method’ did you find that worked for you?
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Repeatedly chanting it, many times, adding a verse every day. 
Edit: And, most importantly, find the right version first, the one that is mostly used. Don’t use the Mahasangiti version that is on SC—it has a very bad mistake (saying, instead of a mother protecting her child, she does not protect them… ). The best is to take it from here. 
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For memorizing pali its probably best to find a recording of a recitation first.
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There are many techniques to memorise the suttas, but they will not necessarily be remembered if your mind is overcome by defilements, so a sure way to remember is to uproot all unwholesome things…but once you have done that you might not really have the passion for or care about memorising vast amounts of suttas.
SN46.55
_ "Master Gotama, what is the cause and reason why sometimes even those hymns that have been recited over a long period do not recur to the mind, let alone those that have not been recited? What is the cause and reason why sometimes those hymns that have not been recited over a long period recur to the mind, let alone those that have been recited?”
_i. Why the hymns do not recur to the mind
“Brahmin, when one dwells with a mind obsessed by sensual lust, overwhelmed by sensual lust, and one does not understand as it really is the escape from arisen sensual lust, on that occasion one neither knows nor sees as it really is one’s own good, or the good of others, or the good of both. Then even those hymns that have been recited over a long period do not recur to the mind, let alone those that have not been recited…" _
_ "2. Why the hymns recur to the mind
Brahmin, when one dwells with a mind that is not obsessed by sensual lust, not overwhelmed by sensual lust, and one understands as it really is the escape from arisen sensual lust, on that occasion one knows and sees as it really is one’s own good, and the good of others, and the good of both. Then even those hymns that have not been recited over a long period recur to the mind, let alone those that have been recited. "
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Thanks @sabbamitta. That’s really unfortunatle about the mistake! I hadn’t looked it up on SC so didn’t know.
Here’s a version I particularly like:
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it’s been nearly a year since your first post. how did it go?