I'm glad you're enjoying the lessons, laurobb.
Remembering and retaining: I don't really see these fingerstyle tunes as a bunch of notes to remember, but rather as a structure. To me, a tune is basically a chord progression/melody line/bass line. Those three elements are the same thing to me, so that's what I remember; the details, like which chord fragments to insert, the exact shape of the bass line, the phrasing etc., are flexible, they can change and differ each time I play the tune, so long as they remain part of the structure that really is 'the tune'.
When I put these together, I first make sure the chord progression is right, then I add the melody line (which is mostly chord tones) and bass line (always chord tones) ... I fiddle around with those elements, sift through the many ways of expressing them all on a fretboard, find a good, direct, compact way of doing so (keeping in mind that I am doing this as a lesson) ... then I record and film it ... only then do I tab it out. So there's really nothing for me to remember ... if you were to ask me to play one of these tunes later, it would be a different version.
It's not easy to explain, but the more you do of these, the easier it gets and eventually you can just pull them out of thin air ... the chords, melody line, bass line all merge into one thing, and any detail takes care of itself.
