I think it is just a different way of memorizing. I think I depend on a lot of repetition, writing it down does help to get things into memory…
I have great recall for some things, numbers and work details, and much less so for trips I have been on or things I did as a kid. So it’s like my brain prioritizes some things over others. With appropriate prompts I can begin rebuilding memories of holidays or things that happened as a child.
So this thread is working like therapy for me, and I am going to change something about my guitar learning as a consequence. If I write things down, that helps me remember, but for the most part I am not diligent in writing out guitar things. I do have a book, but other than music theory I rarely use it. However I am going to try writing out chord diagrams etc. If I do things on a computer that doesn’t aid the memory.
I have written out the lyrics to songs and that has helped me memorize them. This is something that I am going to start doing more. I have been trying to use songbook pro, but I think I need to use that as a memory jogger and writing out the lyrics as part of the learning process.
In fact writing out @LievenDV 's song overview sheet is something that I am going to work on doing to see if the physical transferring of information to paper through my own hand may help. I’m off to find the templates.