When I got home, I of course transferred the video recording from the camera into the computer. I converted the video file into an mp3 sound file. The camera was just focused on a music stand the whole time it was recording at the choir loft. So there wasn't really a video component to review.
I also wanted to transfer the audio recording from my cellphone to the computer but then remembered I didn't have the necessary cable. It's an old low-tech cellphone, by the way. But I was still able to review the sound recordings since the cellphone, as low-tech as it is, had loudspeakers.
Continuous Practicing of the Chant
I was listening to the recording but I was just not hitting the right notes of the last line consistently. Somehow the melody of my psalm tone's last line kept surfacing many times. I somehow regretted that I memorized the old psalm tone too well, because now I felt I had to unlearn the old tune and now "rewire" the new tune into memory.
As long as I've heard the recording, I'm okay for the next few repetitions of the verse tune. An hour or so later, I'm missing the correct tune again. It is so frustrating since it is really just the melody of the last line (out of four) of the verse where I'm have trouble retaining. To be specific, it's the last 3 notes of the last line.
Writing the Notes for the Piano
Just to complete my analysis, I wrote on a blank music sheet the all 4 notes on each of the verse's 4 lines. With the cellphone recording in my ear, I tried to replicate the tune on the piano. See, that low-tech cellphone had some use after all. I proceeded to write the notes on the music sheet. When I finished writing the 4 notes of the problematic 4th line, I had a revelation:
The fourth line had EXACTLY the same notes of the second line of the verse!
As I was just training by ear, it wasn't very obvious to me. I just assumed they were all unique. But with that revelation, I knew it should be easier than I thought. So I kept telling myself to repeat the fourth line with the melody of the second line. It sounded easy but felt awkward at first. I did that the whole Sunday morning until it finally clicked.
By the afternoon (my church service was at 6 pm), the whole verse AND response melody was like second nature to me.
