does it look like a pencil threw up all over your score?

[49410enrique]

just for fun,

was wondering how people's music holds up the learning process, when you finally set it down (i don't like to say , finished, i mean are we ever actually done with a work?..) is your hard copy recognizable as noted music with a few notes or does it look like some jackson polockesque abstract visual experiment with copius instructions, reminders, etc.

i am finding more and more  lately that i need bigger margins to notate more and more exact cues/instructions/suggestions on more and more small details, the other day i looked at my one of my current projects/assignment's score and was like, holy katz that's a ton of markings!

[kellyc]

hi : Yes and not only just notes , colors also. I have my own notes, and then notes from my , professors, mentors, conductor, etc. I use a different color to separate out my own notes from everyone else's. Also what is interesting is to look back on music that you have lived with a long time and see what your original notes where and how there may be additions or changes over time. The crazy thing is that sometimes when I'm playing not only do I see the original music , I see some of the notes. 

Kelly

[swansonjw]

All the pieces I've worked on are all marked up, mostly by my piano teachers.  My most precious possessions are my music with teacher's markings in them.

[pianoplayjl]

My pieces can look really messy towards the exams because we have to add in performance notes, context of the piece, fingering, expression,etc.

[thinkgreenlovepiano]

Yup, my pieces are marked with dynamics, notes, fingerings, suggestions, words, scribbles and even pictures/sketches. It's messy, but I don't want to erase them because they are valuable notes. And they bring back memories of me learning the piece! And like kelly said, it's interesting to see how things change.

[pianoplayjl]

For me,  1 lesson can make the difference between a clean sheet of music and a messy one.

[mike_lang]

I try to be fairly clean about it, mostly because I don't like to read off of messy scores!  Interestingly, I find that the scores in which I've written the least are the ones that I know the best . . .

[pianoplayjl]

weird.

[1piano4joe]

I write all over the score. I have 10 different colored pens available if need be and of course white out.

I might do right hand fingerings in one color and the left hand in a different color. I very often rewrite fingerings that are too small for me to read. I circle difficult passages and make a note for future reference. I may write the date at the top the last time I played the piece and things such as hands separate speed and hands together speed. It's a diary for me and I find I prefer to have "my notes" conveniently available which for me is on the score. Different sections are labeled as such and the most difficult is again notated as such on my score. I add anything at all such as extra pedaling, an accent, a crescendo, a rubato, etc.  I use the symbols an arrow pointing up to move my hand in (slide in between the black keys for example and a down arrow means slide my hand back out). For finger legato I write the word "release". For inner voices yet another color is used and they are circled with the reminder to bring them out. And even the most obvious things I write down anyway such as to play chords quietly especially when they are in the right hand and the melody is in the left. I will right the piano street level of the piece in parentheses at the top.  Which edition. Things such as right thumb over left when the hands overlap.  Edna Mae Burnam calls that "piggyback" I believe. And  the tempo I think sounds best even if there is one and definitely when there is not.  What does "Allegro" and its brothers really mean anyway. A range with an upper and lower limit right. Well sometimes I like the lower end (or even lower) of the the range and vice versa.  Writing in the phrase, "Page Turn Now" is common in my scores. If I went to the trouble of figuring out the most logical place for the turn then I write it down so that I don't have to do it again. Well I could go on and on. Sorry about the long post.

P.S. MAKE A PHOTOCOPY (The score can be replaced easily. Hours and hours of analysis can not.)

[justharmony]

I'm with Swanson... my marked up scores are treasures to me.  My second piano teacher was not only a phenomenal teacher, but also a mentor, guide, kindred spirit, and remains a friend to this day.  When I play from a score we worked on together once upon a time, it reminds me of good things, and techniques and suggestions that I still treasure.  I will sometimes still hear her voice coaching me.  It's something I cherish and expect I always will.
M.