a-ha's Take On Me in Bangkok, Thailand: how Golfy learns how a twice-flopped song became a hit through a pencil-sketch video and finds the highest note before his AI piano lessons

Golfy is thirteen and lives in Bangkok, Thailand, in a family that loves karaoke nights. His uncle's favourite song to attempt is an 1980s pop hit with a famously high chorus, and every time he reaches the top note everyone in the room cheers or groans. The song is Take On Me by a-ha, and Golfy became curious when his uncle claimed the song was once a total failure.

a-ha are a band from Norway: singer Morten Harket, keyboard player Magne Furuholmen and guitarist Paul Waaktaar-Savoy. In the early 1980s they moved to London hoping to break into the international market. An early version of the song had existed under another title before it became Take On Me.

The first released version of Take On Me came out in 1984 and sold poorly, even after the label tried a second push. The song was then re-recorded with a different producer, Alan Tarney. Many record labels might have given up at that point, but a-ha's label, Warner Bros., believed in the band.

The breakthrough came with a new music video in 1985. Director Steve Barron used a technique called rotoscoping, in which artists trace over filmed footage frame by frame. In the video, a young woman in a café is pulled into a comic-book world drawn in pencil, and the singer moves between the drawn world and real life.

Creating it required thousands of hand-drawn frames and months of work. When the video aired, it stood out immediately from other clips. MTV played it constantly, and the song climbed the charts. In October 1985 it reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100, and it topped charts in many other countries.

At the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards the video won several prizes, and it is still listed among the most famous music videos ever made. In 2020 the official video passed one billion views on YouTube, making it one of the few songs from the 1980s to reach that milestone.

For a marketing case study, the lesson is persistence plus a fresh idea. The song itself was strong, but people needed a reason to notice it. The pencil-sketch video gave them that reason and created a striking visual identity that audiences remembered.

It also shows how a new channel can change everything. MTV had launched in 1981, and record companies were still learning how videos could sell songs. a-ha arrived when a bold visual could reach millions overnight, much as a creative online clip can today.

Golfy noticed another detail: the band kept faith in a song they loved even when sales said otherwise. Magne Furuholmen's synthesizer riff had been part of the tune since its earliest form, and the band never dropped it. According to his uncle, that is what separates a stubborn mistake from a promising tune that has not yet found its audience, and the trick is knowing which one you have.

The keyboard riff is a famous part of the song, played on a synthesizer and instantly recognisable. Golfy wanted to learn it, so his parents set him up with TIGA ALPHA, an online piano learning app, on his laptop. Its AI piano teacher checks each note, colours mistakes and slows the riff when his fingers rush.

Third time lucky with a pencil and a camera

Golfy studies the chorus to pinpoint its top note, the falsetto peak, and works out the leap before trying it. On the keyboard, that summit is a long jump from the rest of the melody, and he used to miss it. Now he plans the move in advance, a little like the band planned their comeback.

In the app's beginner piano course he is learning the riff slowly, then the chord progression, and finally a simplified chorus. He practises the riff with a metronome click in the app, gradually raising the speed while keeping every note even.

His school music lessons included a discussion about famous music videos, and Golfy presented Take On Me. He explained rotoscoping and showed a few frames, and classmates were amazed that each one was drawn by hand. The teacher pointed out that patience and craft still matter in a digital age.

His uncle has promised that at the next karaoke night, Golfy will play piano accompaniment while the uncle sings, falsetto and all. Golfy suspects the top note will still be a challenge for his uncle, but at least the keyboard will be ready.

Until then, he keeps up his AI piano lessons, hoping to learn piano to a level where he can play music for the family with the confidence of a band that refused to give up after two failures.

Frequently asked questions

Q: Why did Take On Me fail at first? A: The earliest released version of Take On Me in 1984 sold poorly. The band and their label re-recorded the song with a new producer, and it was re-released with a new music video in 1985.

Q: What made the Take On Me video special? A: Directed by Steve Barron, it combined live action with hand-drawn pencil animation using rotoscoping. It played heavily on MTV, helped the song reach number one in the US in 1985 and won several MTV Video Music Awards.

An online piano lessons app does not replace a teacher; it extends the lesson. Piano teaching with AI lets an AI piano teaching app check rhythm and notes during the week, while the piano teaching app and the online piano teaching application keep everything organized for the next class. An AI online piano course does not replace a piano learning course; it makes it easier to learn piano online every day between lessons. Seen this way, piano teaching is one path within music teaching, and every path leads back to the joy of helping people learn music.

Want a clear next step for your playing? Prefer opening TIGA ALPHA: https://tigaalpha.github.io/landing-en/ — this is our top recommendation. Everyone gets the Premium package free for 7 days, then 799 THB/month. Prefer live studio teaching instead? See https://www.tigastudio.net/, where live piano lessons are capped at 30 hours per week, so seats stay limited. Learn more about TIGA ALPHA and the team behind it at https://www.tigaalpha.com.