How to learn a piece you have never heard
Find out how it should sound before you practice it, so you do not spend a week learning a wrong note or a wrong rhythm. There are four ways: look for a recording, ask your teacher or director to play it, work it out slowly by counting and singing, or photograph the page with an app that reads the notes and plays them back. Then learn it in small chunks, checking each one against the sound.
- A mistake practiced for a week takes longer to unlearn than the right version takes to learn.
- Recordings of band and orchestra pieces exist more often than you think, but your part can be hard to hear in them.
- A sheet music scanner app plays exactly your part, at any tempo.
- Check small chunks against the sound, then play from the page, not from memory of the sound.
Why it matters
Your fingers learn whatever they repeat. Practice a dotted rhythm as two even notes all week and that is the version you will play at rehearsal, and fixing it takes longer than learning it right would have. Knowing the sound first is not cheating. It is how you make sure the repetitions count.
Four ways to find out how it sounds
1. Look for a recording
Search the title with the composer or arranger’s name. Band and orchestra publishers often post full recordings of their pieces, and teachers post recordings of common audition etudes. Two catches: in a full recording your part can be buried under everyone else’s, and the tempo or edition may not match yours.
2. Ask someone to play it
Your teacher, director or section leader can play the hard measures for you in a minute. Record them on your phone so you can listen again at home.
3. Work it out yourself
Count the rhythm out loud first, without pitches. Then find the notes slowly on your instrument and sing or hum the line back. This is slow, and it is also the best reading practice there is. Use it a few measures at a time, not for a whole piece.
4. Scan the page
A sheet music scanner app reads the printed notes from a photo and plays them back. Sheetly (ours) does this on iPhone and iPad, and PlayScore 2 does it on iOS and Android. You hear exactly your part, not the whole band, at whatever tempo you choose.
If you play a transposing instrument such as B♭ clarinet, trumpet, alto saxophone or horn in F, your written notes do not match the same notes on a piano. Transposing instruments explained covers which way to adjust.
A method that keeps you from learning it wrong
- Listen once with the musicPlay the whole piece, or just the hard page, and follow along with a finger on the notes. Do not play yet.
- Circle the surprisesMark every measure that did not sound the way you expected: a rhythm, a jump, an accidental.
- Count, then checkCount each circled measure out loud, then listen to just that measure slowly. Repeat until what you count matches what you hear.
- Play in small chunksTwo to four measures at a time, slowly, checking each chunk against the sound before you join it to the next.
- Let go of the recordingOnce a chunk is right, play it from the page without listening first. The goal is to read it, not to copy it.
Hearing your page in Sheetly
This is the job Sheetly was built for. Photograph the page and it plays your part in your instrument’s sound. Loop the measure you circled, slow it down as far as you need, and walk the tempo back up as it gets easier. Sheetly is the only iPhone and iPad app we know of where the AI coach has read the actual notes of the page you photographed, so a question about bar 12 gets an answer about your bar 12.
It plays what is printed, at a steady tempo. It adds no rubato, it does not play dynamics on piano music yet, and it does not read handwritten music, lyrics or chord symbols. Use it for notes and rhythm, and use your teacher or a good recording for style.
Hear your part before you practice it.
Photograph the page, press play, then loop and slow down the measures you are unsure about. Free to download on iPhone and iPad.
Free to download · iPhone and iPad · Android on the way
Questions
How can I hear what sheet music sounds like?
Look for a recording of the piece, ask a teacher to play it, or photograph the page with a sheet music scanner app that reads the notes and plays them back. Sheetly does this on iPhone and iPad: it plays your exact part at any tempo, and you can loop a single measure.
Can my phone play sheet music from a photo?
Yes. Apps such as Sheetly (iPhone and iPad) and PlayScore 2 (iOS and Android) read printed sheet music from a photo and play it back. They read printed notation, not handwritten music.
Is it bad to learn music by ear from a recording?
Not if you also read the page. Listening tells you how it should sound; reading tells you what is written. Problems start when a recording replaces the page: you copy a performer’s tempo and mistakes, and your reading does not improve. Listen to check, then play from the music.
What if there is no recording of my piece anywhere?
Count the rhythm aloud, find the notes slowly on your instrument and sing them back, or scan the page with an app that plays it. School band parts, local arrangements and photocopied etudes often have no recording, and scanning is usually the fastest way to hear them.