How to get the notes for a song

Thinking of that nice song by Jay Chou that you've always wanted to play on the piano or guitar? Do you wanna play Jie Kou, Tong Hua and wondered why some people can just listen and play the song?

Below is a single method of identifying the score of the song:

1. Identify the Key signature.

This step requires some guesswork, hear the song and play on the piano / guitar, some notes that try to match the pitch of the melody. Identify what notes does the song have.

Each song can have only one type of note for each letter, ie. only A natural, A sharp or A flat.

For example, the following notes are identified: A, E, G#, F#, B

the scale which has F# and G# is probably A Major.
Is it an E major? look out for any D#s in the song.

for minor keys, this may take more guesswork, but once the minor key is obtained, convert it to the major key to get the relevant key signature.

how to differentiate if a song is in major or minor key? listen to the first chord of the song or first chord of the chorus. if it sounds happy, it is major. if it sounds sad, it is minor.

2. Identify the chords

chords can be labelled as tonic (root), dominant (fifth), subdominant( fourth), etc. Each has its different feeling.

e.g. tonic feels at rest. e.g. for C Major, it is C chord.
dominant feels the need to resolve, e.g. G or G7 chord.
subdominant is between the need to resolve and at rest, e.g. F chord.

other dominant and subdominant chords exist, e.g. Em, Dm, which are comprised of keys diatonic to the C major chord. Listen to the bass to distinguish between, e.g. an F and a Dm.

within a chord such as C major 7 or extensions such as C9 etc, extra care is required to "spot" the interval difference between C chord and the extension.

e.g. C chord: C E G. C9 chord: C D G. listen for the second interval.

3. Identify the melody

with the sequence of chords identified, you can try to listen to the melody and try to idenfity it. Method: same as step 1: trial and error.

but if u have listened to the song before, there is probably a higher chance of guessing the melody correctly. listening to the song about 20-50 times stands probably a good chance of playing the melody accurately and fluently.