Inquiry seconded. I have a vague sense of whether certain letters appear early or late in the alphabet (I don’t need to sing to know that B comes before X) but for any finer-grained distinctions I need the song.
You could memorize the numeric values of the letters (A=1, B=2, … , Z=26); if you can figure out which number is bigger without counting, you can figure out which letter is later.
Disclaimer: I have not actually done this, because memorizing 26 separate, individually useless items is a pain.
I did this a few years back while bored at school, and it has actually been surprisingly useful.
I find the easiest and quickest way is to try to write the number in a way that makes it look like the letter; eg for H imagine drawing two lines above and below to make it look like an LCD 8. Using this I thoroughly memorized the letters’ numbers in about 15 minutes. You’d need to periodically rememorize to keep the numbers fresh, though.
Like D Malik, I did this as a kid. I managed to invent modular arithmetic as a game; the big insight for me was that, although I had originally set ‘Z’ = 26, it was also true that ‘Z’ = 0. I suppose that it was doing these arithmetic problems (for fun) that allowed me to actually complete the memorisation.
After deciding that counting should begin with 0, I’ve tried to relearn them, but it didn’t take (it’s easier to just add or subtract 1).
While the song helps to remember the specific order, in order, of the alphabet, I just went ahead and found patterns in the alphabet. Can you remember the vowels? What does the alphabet look like without them? What letters are between a and e? e and i? Which letter is in the middle of the alphabet? Knowing those answers (and others) helps break the entire string up into chunks that you can manage easily and cross reference unconsciously with the entire song memorized so you can recall the relevant information quickly and easily. The practice also familiarizes oneself with the alphabet itself overall and other connections and patterns will be recognized in an out-of-conscious manner.
Oddly enough, I seem to “just know” this automatically and extremely quickly. On the other hand, I am sometimes at a loss for a while when I have to do mental arithmetic.
I’ve never really thought about it before, but I’m pretty sure I “just know” as well, in most cases. I think there’s a bit of ambiguity from P through U, (if you asked me whether Q or T came first, I’d have to think about it for a second), so that suggests that certain parts of the alphabet are easier for my brain to sequence than others.
I also just know it, even with the same range (‘P’–‘U’) of uncertainty. (And yes, I’d composed enough of this reply before reading the parent comment that this is an independent datum.) I sometimes even mix up ‘R’ and ‘S’ after thinking about it. (I never go back to the song, although I certainly do know that too.) I have been known to touch-type the alphabet in order when checking out a new font.
This has been useful to me. As a teacher, I alphabetise papers before recording grades, and it’s handy to be able to do this quickly and correctly. (I’m pretty sure that I just knew it before I started regularly using that knowledge, however.)
I’ve never had the need to be very fine in detail, but I’ve always treated it a an ordered set (much like the numeric values that Benquo suggested, except without as much memorizing). Then I would compare the letter I want with M (being the 13th element, it serves as a useful midpoint), to decide if the element belongs to the first half or the second.
I suppose that doing something similar with the (6th or 7th) letter, and the (19th or 20th) letters could tell you what quadrant of the Alphabet space you were in. So if it comes before F, between F and M, between M and U, or after U, you can focus your attention there. That takes more analysis, but if you are normal in your memorization methods, maybe keeping the alphabet in chunks of 5 to 7 elements could really help your memorization.
Or you could be like Derren Brown, and just use a mnemonic to tie the letters to numbers… searching… he calls them peg words. I use it when jogging to keep track of distance, and he seems to have a way to memorize 52 elements, which could make 26 elements seem pretty trivial.
If you know the alphabet song, the melody naturally (at least to me) separates the alphabet into a few groups: ABCDEFG HIJKLMNOP QRS TUV WX YZ. This may be easier than memorizing divisions.
Although that’s not the only way to divide up the ABCs to sing it to the melody of Baa Baa Black Sheep. You can also do abcd efg hijk lmn opq rst uvw xyz. Took me ages to figure that out after I learned how to sing the alphabet backwards and realized that backwards there was no rushing part.
the melody naturally (at least to me) separates the alphabet into a few groups
It’s not just you! (And FWIW, it’s actually the rhythm: with the exception of W-X, the last letter of each group is held for at least twice as long as any of the others—four times in the case of LMNO-P.)
Inquiry seconded. I have a vague sense of whether certain letters appear early or late in the alphabet (I don’t need to sing to know that B comes before X) but for any finer-grained distinctions I need the song.
You could memorize the numeric values of the letters (A=1, B=2, … , Z=26); if you can figure out which number is bigger without counting, you can figure out which letter is later.
Disclaimer: I have not actually done this, because memorizing 26 separate, individually useless items is a pain.
I did this a few years back while bored at school, and it has actually been surprisingly useful.
I find the easiest and quickest way is to try to write the number in a way that makes it look like the letter; eg for H imagine drawing two lines above and below to make it look like an LCD 8. Using this I thoroughly memorized the letters’ numbers in about 15 minutes. You’d need to periodically rememorize to keep the numbers fresh, though.
Like D Malik, I did this as a kid. I managed to invent modular arithmetic as a game; the big insight for me was that, although I had originally set ‘Z’ = 26, it was also true that ‘Z’ = 0. I suppose that it was doing these arithmetic problems (for fun) that allowed me to actually complete the memorisation.
After deciding that counting should begin with 0, I’ve tried to relearn them, but it didn’t take (it’s easier to just add or subtract 1).
While the song helps to remember the specific order, in order, of the alphabet, I just went ahead and found patterns in the alphabet. Can you remember the vowels? What does the alphabet look like without them? What letters are between a and e? e and i? Which letter is in the middle of the alphabet? Knowing those answers (and others) helps break the entire string up into chunks that you can manage easily and cross reference unconsciously with the entire song memorized so you can recall the relevant information quickly and easily. The practice also familiarizes oneself with the alphabet itself overall and other connections and patterns will be recognized in an out-of-conscious manner.
Oddly enough, I seem to “just know” this automatically and extremely quickly. On the other hand, I am sometimes at a loss for a while when I have to do mental arithmetic.
I’ve never really thought about it before, but I’m pretty sure I “just know” as well, in most cases. I think there’s a bit of ambiguity from P through U, (if you asked me whether Q or T came first, I’d have to think about it for a second), so that suggests that certain parts of the alphabet are easier for my brain to sequence than others.
I also just know it, even with the same range (‘P’–‘U’) of uncertainty. (And yes, I’d composed enough of this reply before reading the parent comment that this is an independent datum.) I sometimes even mix up ‘R’ and ‘S’ after thinking about it. (I never go back to the song, although I certainly do know that too.) I have been known to touch-type the alphabet in order when checking out a new font.
This has been useful to me. As a teacher, I alphabetise papers before recording grades, and it’s handy to be able to do this quickly and correctly. (I’m pretty sure that I just knew it before I started regularly using that knowledge, however.)
I’ve never had the need to be very fine in detail, but I’ve always treated it a an ordered set (much like the numeric values that Benquo suggested, except without as much memorizing). Then I would compare the letter I want with M (being the 13th element, it serves as a useful midpoint), to decide if the element belongs to the first half or the second.
I suppose that doing something similar with the (6th or 7th) letter, and the (19th or 20th) letters could tell you what quadrant of the Alphabet space you were in. So if it comes before F, between F and M, between M and U, or after U, you can focus your attention there. That takes more analysis, but if you are normal in your memorization methods, maybe keeping the alphabet in chunks of 5 to 7 elements could really help your memorization.
Or you could be like Derren Brown, and just use a mnemonic to tie the letters to numbers… searching… he calls them peg words. I use it when jogging to keep track of distance, and he seems to have a way to memorize 52 elements, which could make 26 elements seem pretty trivial.
If you know the alphabet song, the melody naturally (at least to me) separates the alphabet into a few groups: ABCDEFG HIJKLMNOP QRS TUV WX YZ. This may be easier than memorizing divisions.
Today I learnt that the two alphabet songs I was taught in age 7 pre-English aren’t at all what American kids learn.
(For the record, the slower one went: ABCDEFG HIJKLMN OPQRSTUV WXYZ, while the faster one was: ABCDE FGHIJ KLMNO PQRST UVWXYZ.)
And now you know what jokes about the letter “elemenopee” are referring to.
Although that’s not the only way to divide up the ABCs to sing it to the melody of Baa Baa Black Sheep. You can also do abcd efg hijk lmn opq rst uvw xyz. Took me ages to figure that out after I learned how to sing the alphabet backwards and realized that backwards there was no rushing part.
The alphabet song I learned (and Elizabeth is probably referring to) is to the tune of “Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star”.
It’s not just you! (And FWIW, it’s actually the rhythm: with the exception of W-X, the last letter of each group is held for at least twice as long as any of the others—four times in the case of LMNO-P.)
Even W-X is no exception, if you count syllable length instead of letter length.