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If you change 1,2,3,4 into A,B,C,D - you're still counting. You're just using different symbols to do it.

Take a moment longer to think about it and you realize that 1,2,3,4 are also just symbols - potentially raw counting does not require these symbols at all.

So ABCD is unlikely to make life easier for the subject of this story.

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We are in agreement then. I'm not saying it would make things easier, it's just convention. Being a lifelong musician, I will admit that it's so internalized in me, I never have to count or even think about numbers in any way, unless I'm counting some foreign complicated time signature. Honestly I think the tabla guys got it right with their syllabic mnemonics.

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