Do you write on your students' scores?

[pytheamateur]

My current teacher never writes anything on my scores.  My previous teacher was the complete opposite: he (or she as he/she has apprently changed sex since) would write fingerings, dynamics, comments, pedal marks, keys for certain bars, etc.  He/she would also write down detailed notes of things I should pay attention to on a notebook during each lesson and read them aloud as he did so.

What do you tend to do with late intermediate/early advanced students?

[perfect_pitch]

Are you kidding me???

I write on scores from the absolute beginning. Even if the student is learning Mary had a little lamb, and they pause on a particular note, I'll write a note to try and remind them to push past it.

If they play a note wrong repeatedly, I'll circle it.

I always write on music, whether it's theirs or mine.

[rachmaninoff_forever]

Both of my teachers did.  Except they did it in pencil so I could erase it later on if I wanted to.  But I like it when my music looks like a battlefield due to all of the pencil marks, it makes me feel like a good piano player lol

[zezhyrule]

My newer teacher always does, in pencil of course. Fingering/Phrasing suggestions are always helpful  I've lately started to write on my own music when I figure out a fingering that works or if I need to remember something helpful etc. but usually I just write notes in a separate notepad I have.

My old teacher would use a highlighter and a red pen all the time... I don't even remember why, but it never annoyed me until lately 

[danhuyle]

Most teachers do and surprisingly there are some that don't.

Yes I would write on students' scores. It raises their awareness and it's something to reflect on when they improve.

[iansinclair]

If I may chime in as a former student -- my teachers did write on my scores, and I'm very very glad that they did, and have been very glad they did all through my professional career (I am now retired; was a Minister of Music/church organist for almost 50 years).  There is simply no way I could have remembered their suggestions and interpretations over the years without their notations.

Not that I have always done things their way, as I worked along through my career -- I found myself (and still find myself!) respectfully disagreeing from time to time (particularly fingering, but also pedaling (in the organ, not piano, sense of the word -- and also, now I'm back at the piano, in the piano sense) -- but that's to be expected.

If you don't write on your students' scores -- particularly more advanced students -- it is my humble opinion that you are depriving them of something very valuable.

[j_menz]

I hate having a score written on.  I've upset a couple of my teachers by asking that they don't do it.  If it's important, I'll remember it. If it's not, the writing will constantly annoy me.

[j_menz]

Damn. Duplicate post. 

[quantum]

I write in my student's scores.  If there needs to be detailed text it goes into their notebook.  Chicken scratch is a no-no for me, so anything that is written is done so neatly.  Pencil is always used, coloured pencil when necessary.  If highlighting is required, I ask the student to photocopy the score.  I never use highlighter or pen in an original. 

One of my past teachers was really stubborn and used pen when I explicitly asked her not to.  Very annoying. 

If you like to have a clean score, photocopy it and bring the copy to lesson.  Leave the original at home. 

[cjp_piano]

Sometimes I write in their scores, but more importantly, THEY write in their scores. It seems to make more sense for them to write what makes sense to them. For example, we might discuss and experiment with a certain passage, and then I say, "Great! Go ahead and write down something to remind you how that's supposed to sound." Often, they come up with something that's different from what I would have written, but it is their own idea, so it sticks! Usually I just say, "mark it in the score." And then they write whatever seems appropriate for them.

[pytheamateur]

Sometimes I write in their scores, but more importantly, THEY write in their scores. It seems to make more sense for them to write what makes sense to them. For example, we might discuss and experiment with a certain passage, and then I say, "Great! Go ahead and write down something to remind you how that's supposed to sound." Often, they come up with something that's different from what I would have written, but it is their own idea, so it sticks! Usually I just say, "mark it in the score." And then they write whatever seems appropriate for them.

Thanks for all your responses.  I just found out in my last lesson that when he was a student my teacher actually disliked scores with editorial suggestions.  Now he has learnt simply not to pay attention to editorial fingerings.  I was also rather taken aback when he questioned the point of writing down my own fingering on the scores.  He seemed to go so far as to suggest that you don't have to stick with one fingering and can change from one day to the next: it's something you don't pay attention to, like which foot you walk on the 3rd step of stairs out of your local train station.  He seems to think little of muscular memory, saying it is the brain that you use when you play.  What's important is to have the right musical picture in your head and get the right sound.

This is certainly something new for me, and not something I'd be prepared to accept at this stage.

[jdezzie]

I'm a new teacher and I am finding that some of my students ignore what I mark on their scores.  This tends to happen to some triplets I'm teaching as they share music books, so by the time the second and especially the third child gets to a song the music is so marked up I don't think they pay attention to it.   Sometimes I find I mark on them so much that they aren't taking responsibility for noticing how they should be playing in their own music, they just expect the teacher to do it.  So lately I've been trying different things, marking less, making them do the markings themselves, and lately I've been experimenting with sticky notes which one of my teachers use to do.

[cjp_piano]

I'm a new teacher and I am finding that some of my students ignore what I mark on their scores.  This tends to happen to some triplets I'm teaching as they share music books, so by the time the second and especially the third child gets to a song the music is so marked up I don't think they pay attention to it.   Sometimes I find I mark on them so much that they aren't taking responsibility for noticing how they should be playing in their own music, they just expect the teacher to do it.  So lately I've been trying different things, marking less, making them do the markings themselves, and lately I've been experimenting with sticky notes which one of my teachers use to do.

Yes, that's why you should make THEM mark!

[quantum]

I'm a new teacher and I am finding that some of my students ignore what I mark on their scores.  This tends to happen to some triplets I'm teaching as they share music books, so by the time the second and especially the third child gets to a song the music is so marked up I don't think they pay attention to it.   

Also a reason to have the student copy a new score before it gets marked.  Especially if siblings are to be sharing the same books.  Leave the book alone and have marked copies for each student in the family.