This Notes for You

Recently Stef has figured out how to "read" music by ear. The other night she wrote down all the notes for the Star Spangled Banner by singing it and humming it and then translating it into notes that she played on the clarinet. For someone who only "hears" music, I thought this was amazing.

I asked her if she could do "Here Comes the Sun" (a song she likes, perhaps proving that the Beatles will eventually outlast everyone and everything, including the beetle). For the next several minutes she hummed the song, then wrote down the notes and played it on the clarinet. She said she doesn't know how to officially write down all the notes, but she understands it the way she writes it. It reminded me of this story of how Phil Collins cued the horn section to play on his first solo album - he couldn't write the notes, so he jotted down a series of short and long lines based on how he wanted it to sound.

Next, I wanted to see if she could play ABACAB, because I heard Genesis named it that because those are the musical notes. Alas, it was time for Stef to go to dance practice, so ABACAB will have to wait for another time. Perhaps the next rainy day I'll ask her to do Stairway to Heaven.