But, the basic concepts can be learned by just about anyone in a few hours. Once you've got the basics down, it becomes a matter of practice. The harp layout diagrams like the example above are another form of written symbol that you can draw from when building a musical map in your mind . These visualization diagrams can help pull together your different mental music maps, showing you both where the notes are and how to play them. Having a firm mental image to visualize while you play can really help your playing.
Some people keep in mind a mental image of the written down musical symbols.
They see the sheet music in their mind and it reminds them what music to play. Different people have different visualization strengths, and you have to pick what works best for you. This is essentially a muscle memory response to the mechanical demands of the instrument. It can be a guitar player's image of his hand and finger position for a particular chord, or a piano player's image of a handful of keys, or a harp player's image of how to play a particular note. You need to learn to play each horn by itself, and in a variety of pitches because low notes play differently than high ones.