In my case, I had just a bit of ear training and solfège but every little bit you have helps. I usually need to rely on software essentially to slow down the playback without altering the pitch and loop sections. This way it gives me more of a chance to get the notes, since I am surely a bit of a slowpoke 
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Hey Alexis Ffrench fans
I played it through a couple of times. The transcription was easy to follow and sounded good (except for a few times when I played G instead of Gb... oops!). I still haven't listened to the composer play it and I probably won't if I'm going to play this more. I like to develop my own interpretation first before listening to anyone else's.
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rogerch
That's a good approach. Just make sure to make the melody stand out clearly, because the accompaniment is often in the same register as the melody. On the right hand the melody notes are those with the stems pointing up. Make those notes ring like bells! Also feel free to use the pedal a lot. Oh and the ending chord is to be rolled (couldn't find the symbol in the software). Enjoy!
I ended up not being able to spend as much time on this yesterday as I’d hoped, but I had a hard time with it…. I also didn’t read it while listening to the original but I’ll try to include time for that tonight, so that may help.
It’s hard for me to read, but I can’t decide why — I mention this because if I could articulate what’s hard about it, you all could probably offer me advice.
I sort of fumbled through the first few pages, but tonight I’ll try to zoom in on just the first page, and see if I can get the notes on the page to sound like what I hear in my head.
I think I’m having a hard time reading it because I’m trying to find the different lines but they’re running together….
How many voices do you think there are? I’m thinking there are three? The melody line, the bottom accompaniment and then the line in the middle, which I think of as the inner voice.
If that’s right, I’m wondering if it might help to practice just the melody and the bottom accompaniment line, and then the melody and the inner line, and then maybe I can “hear” it in my head better.
Also, I am having a hard time finding the count, obviously I can count the beats on counts 1, 2, 3, 4 (that reminds me, @Rubens did you know that you didn’t put a time signature on the score? 
And those beats are (mostly) easy to find for the melody line.
But where there are rests in the inner voice, I have to really stare at the notes, state at the score, to see what kind of a rest something is (i.e., 8th rest, 16th rest) and then I find I’m looking really hard to match up where notes in the LH and the RH line up, and where they don’t. If that makes sense.
I think maybe it might be easier for me to sightread if there was one fewer measure per line and that inner voice line was spread out more. (I don’t mean to complain, especially since you made this score out of the kindness of your heart! But maybe if you see where I’m struggling, you could offer some advice?)
Anyway, I assume that once I spend a little more time with it, that issue will dissolve.
I think I had a similar problem with September Song, because it has these inner voices and it took me sort of while to decide how to distribute some of those inner notes across the RH and LH. I think the music that is easiest to sightread is music where there’s almost zero on-the-fly decision-making needed about those kinds of questions.
So hopefully, since I eventually found my way into the score for Sept Song, that means I will find my way into the score for this piece.
@Rubens if, after reading this probably incoherent message, you have any playing advice (or reading advice) please share!
Also, @rogerch I’m curious what you might have to say, since you’re playing this without knowing the original. What tempo do you think you’re playing at?
That might be part of my problem, I can’t hear it slow in my head, but I need to play it slow for now.
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Btw here’s an example of why I mean by a score that’s super easy for me to sightread. This is in 5/4 time, it’s a score for piano and violin. Zero inner voices.
Wind, by Brian Crain, for violin and piano:
And here’s a selection of September Song, also by Ffrench. I had a hard time sightreading this at first, but now I’m playing it at tempo and hoping to have it record-ready by the end of this month.
Hmmm, looking at Sept Song, I can’t decide if it’s easier than Miracles or not… I can play Sept Song now, so it’s hard to compare.
I think Sept Song has a more obvious melody line, so that may make it easier… and fewer rests. You wouldn’t think rests should add difficulty, but I think they add a reading challenging (maybe only for someone like me who doesn’t play by ear?)
Here’s Sept Song if you want to listen:
Sorry you've been struggling with inner voices, I will increase your medication 
Seriously I find the first page to be the most difficult in those terms, but it gets easier afterwards.
Yes there are up to three voices in the piece, as you have observed.
Also good observation on the lack of a time signature. This was obvious, and I rarely state the obvious, sorry.
To learn the piece I'd advise to listen to it with the score and then learn to play it. Like playing by ear but with the score to assist you. Rogerch's approach is more advanced.
As you can see I made a few small edits subsequently, so my apologies if you had already printed out the score before the latest edits! You can make the corrections on your sheet by hand if that's the case.
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Here's an alternate notation of the first bar, which is easier to read and would sound the same with pedal.
Maybe I'm the one who is hearing too many voices. Too much Bach in my life.
Rubens I totally agree with this comment.
There are always different approaches to notation when transcribing and it is entirely up to the transcriber to take whatever artistic licence they see fit. (based on preferences, experience, ease, etc.) Forgive me for mentioning that I cannot help noticing that this latest I think seems to be going more along the lines of my original attempt. Obviously I was notating at half speed (note lengths) from this and as I found out upon later re-listen, with some glaring missing notes in my haste to get something out in minimal time.
In any case, all this is a great exercise and a lot of fun
PS I yet have to have a closer look at the completed score - life is kinda getting in the way 
!
Interesting... I spent maybe 45 minutes on Miracles today.... and I'm thinking it's easier than Sept. Song... I'm only getting start though, let's see how I feel after working on for a week 
Anyway, I had a much better time with the score today! I did listen a bit, not too much though because I'm still playing it quite slow. But I think I can now actually work on the music from the score.
I think the reason I felt like it's a little easier than Sept Song is because today I didn't feel like it was a struggle to distribute those inner voices in Miracles between the LH and RH. Whereas when I was learning Sept Song, that was a huge struggle for me.
Although maybe Miracles just feels easier because I can already play Sept Song and maybe I've picked up some Ffrench-esque thing that makes Miracles more accessible as a result of having played Sept. Song.... If that's true, then after working on Miracles and getting it polished, maybe next I should revisit some of the pieces in his songbook that I previously felt were too hard...
Anyway, more to the point:
ThankYouThankYouThankYouThankYouThankYou @Rubens I am so grateful for your score!!! Being able to work on this makes me so happy!
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I'd say Miracles is more difficult in its first page which is quite busy with the intertwined voices, and the section that starts at bar 34, with its syncopated rhythm, but other than that it's about at the same difficulty level. I'm not usually a big fan of this kind of music but I like this piece, especially that syncopated section, exquisite. And yes, Ffrench's classic training really shows here, especially his training in Ffrench baroque. (Bad pun)
The first two times I played through, I just forged ahead as well as I could. I didn't get the voicing right and I stumbled through the trickier rhythms. Tempo was probably half speed.
Later in the evening I analyzed the piece some more so I could play more accurately. There were two patterns that I struggled to understand: measure 13 and others like it, and measure 37 and others like it. In both cases there is an eighth rest that I mistook for a 16th rest so there didn't seem to be enough 16th notes in the measures. Once I realized those were eighth rests it made sense.
I worked for a while on those two patterns and then played through a couple more times paying more attention to voicing. It was a lot harder than my first read throughs. If I decide to learn this piece it's going to take a lot of time and effort (it always does! ). This is a lovely piece and it would be worth it!
