In this blog, I will discuss probably a mundane subject,  but yet an essential part of ‘learning by hearing’…

Remember, learning by hearing does not mean not having to read notes. It means that as you learn to hear and decipher the notes of a song, you also need a way of writing those notes down so that you don’t forget them, or have a need to revisit the song again. It’s just obvious that as you progressively become better at learning songs by hearing, your repertoire of songs will increase, and it would be a matter of time before you realize that you cannot possibly memorize all your music or play them infallibly without referring to some form of notation, i.e., sight read.

You should therefore put some effort early in the stage to do this if you’re serious about learning and playing the piano.

If you already read and write conventional music, you may want to skip this blog, as it’s aimed at readers who don’t already know how to read notes; but if you would like to consider an alternative way of writing notes, do read on….

While it all started with my teacher making me ‘shortcut the system’ and write notes in the form of alphabets, I have since those early years written in better indicators to my notes, to make my interpretation of the song more accurate.  Watch the video…

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It’s like anything else - after you start on something, you get used to it and then you find ways of improving your system. For me now, I just can’t imagine myself learning those squiggly notes in conventional music (picture)…. let alone paying for it.

Moreover, in my performing experience, I only encountered, at most, two instances where I absolutely needed to know how to read conventional music, or else miss the gig.   This was well outweighed by the many other instances where I was able to quickly learn songs by hearing, where the music sheet was not easily available.

In a wedding gig, an advantage I have is being to tell a bride I’d happily learn 1-2 any special requests she may have for her ceremony, if she’d just sent me the Mp3’s, and provided that I hear  those songs to be ‘piano friendly’. I’d eagerly expand my new songs repertoire this way through hearing. And you see the amazement and fascination of many, whenever they perchance get to glimpse at the way I write my notes (picture below) !

So, I’m in a situation where I’m happy to perform as a solo pianist, and if some singer/instrumentalist wanted my accompaniment, I’d just say: “Give me ½ -1 hour to learn the song; otherwise, find another pianist“. No big deal; and no offence to my pride. Not being able to read conventional music has never been a stumbling block for me.

Unless you’re planning to play the piano in an orchestra or in a situation  (E.g. musical) where reading conventional music is absolutely necessary (and you have the dedication to the long theoretical route), it really doesn’t matter what ways you choose to write your music notes.

For instance, you could be writing it in ‘Do Re Mi…’, numerically as ‘1-2-3…’, in Chinese or Greek characters, or in whatever language or symbols you choose. That’s why there are different languages in the world to communicate the same thing; and music should be no different.

Basically, as long as you can understand your own notation system, it works well to translate what you hear in a song, and you it makes you enjoy music learning more - that’s all that matters.

No one else needs to understand your notes but you . They only need to appreciate the quality of the music that you put out when you read and play these notes/symbols to them.

At worse, if writing your own notes doesn’t work out for you, you can revert back to learning conventional music notes, perhaps through a teacher or the internet, where there is already an abundance of free tutorials.

For any song I wish to learn , I spend about 30-60 minutes to write the notes including cords. This is a very worthwhile effort, considering that there are many songs you can’t obtain music sheets for. You also derive a lot of personal satisfaction from learning the song directly by hearing.

In another blog, I will discuss how I actually write my alphabetical notes.

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