Score Markups

[invictious]

Some people are fanatical about marking up scores, deriving a sense of satisfaction when the newly bought sheet music is riddled with pencil marks about every single detail.

Some people prefer clean copies, deriving a sense of satisfaction when newly bought sheet music can be resold as newer-than-first-hand materials.

Most people, I would assume, fall somewhere in the middle. Some markups to remind themselves of areas of caution, tricky fingerings, phrasing, interpretational liberties.

What is your opinion on marking up scores? How do YOU do it?

[outin]

Some people are fanatical about marking up scores, deriving a sense of satisfaction when the newly bought sheet music is riddled with pencil marks about every single detail.

Some people prefer clean copies, deriving a sense of satisfaction when newly bought sheet music can be resold as newer-than-first-hand materials.

Most people, I would assume, fall somewhere in the middle. Some markups to remind themselves of areas of caution, tricky fingerings, phrasing, interpretational liberties.

What is your opinion on marking up scores? How do YOU do it?

Mine are quite full with messy pencil markings (mine or the teacher's) at some point, but since I have trouble following a messy sheet, I tend to clean them a bit after they are learned, only leaving the fingerings that I feel I should save if I return to the piece later.

This is also why I prefer books to separate sheets. I always lose the sheets with all the stuff that took so much work the figure out... Can't see myself ever selling the books, even if I know I will never play from them

[awesom_o]

When I was young, I would mark scores quite heavily, as would my teachers.

The older I get, the less I need to do this, I find.

[quantum]

I prefer to mark scores neatly, making note of specific details or fingerings.  What I am not a fan of is the jumbled mess of circles, attempts to circle a given note when the circle surrounds two bars, markings in pen, messy inscriptions, illegible writing, an anything else that marked in an disorderly manner. 

One time in university my teacher wanted to indicate some pedaling, and picked up the first writing instrument available - a pen.  The pedal marks were as tall as the two staves, and very roughly drawn on top of the staves.  I would have gladly rewritten them neatly below the staff, except they were in PEN.  From that point on, I always brought a pencil to lesson for my teacher to use. 

IMO, inscriptions should be as neat and presentable as the engraved score. 

[Bob]

When I was young, I would mark scores quite heavily, as would my teachers.

The older I get, the less I need to do this, I find.

Ditto.   I've noticed pros don't really have any marking at all.

[pytheamateur]

I think one can generalise that Russian teachers do not tend to mark scores.  This might have something to do with how sheet music are traditionally made available to music students throughout the course of their training.  Sheet music is much less available for purchase in Russia, so as students progress through their training from music schools, to music colleges to conservatoires, they borrow most of what they need from the vast library of the institution they are studying at.

I personally think this is a good approach.  I am not against taking notes of what a teacher says in a lesson, but am rather sceptical how much that can be captured by marking the scores, especially when one is working with a piece for months or years.

[saranoya]

I actually like having pencil markings on my scores. When I look back at them later, they tell the story of my learning of the piece.

The brackets my teacher drew around the first two left-hand measures of one particular study remind me of first learning to play a soft accompaniment to a strong melodic line. An angry circle around a particular chord says: at one point, we both got *really* frustrated with the fact that you always managed to miss that one. I will sometimes put peculiar markings on my scores to represent the weird logic that finally allowed me to remember all the notes in that particular passage.

Often, there are pleasant memories attached to these penciled-in reminders. Memories of conversations that I had with my teacher. Memories of "aha" moments presenting themselves during the assimilation of a new piece. Memories of funny statements made by either one of us, such as "stop playing everything as if it were written by Chopin!"

It's a fun walk down memory lane. Which is why I *want* pencil markings on my scores, even though my teacher seems opposed to them.

P.S.: my first piano teacher was Russian, and she marked my scores with pen! The current teacher is most definitely *not* Russian, and yet she seems much more reluctant to write a lot on my scores.

[j_menz]

I occasionally fix typos in the score, though not always. Otherwise, clean as a whistle.

I'd quite happily go over some scores with liquid paper and get rid of editorial, and sometimes composer (I'm looking at you, Mr Grainger) suggestions. Can't be bothered, though.

[louispodesta]

Some people are fanatical about marking up scores, deriving a sense of satisfaction when the newly bought sheet music is riddled with pencil marks about every single detail.

Some people prefer clean copies, deriving a sense of satisfaction when newly bought sheet music can be resold as newer-than-first-hand materials.

Most people, I would assume, fall somewhere in the middle. Some markups to remind themselves of areas of caution, tricky fingerings, phrasing, interpretational liberties.

What is your opinion on marking up scores? How do YOU do it?

When I was young and stupid, I used to write all kinds of things in my music.  There would be notes, comments, practice reminders, as well as fingerings.

Now, that I am older, I write the chord designations above every single major chord, when I do a first read.  At the same time, I write in an "initial fingering."

What that means is you should do what is right for YOU!  Mix it up and experiment.

It is your life, and they are your two  hands.  Do what you think is best, as long as it results in a positive result, in terms of your playing of a particular piece.

Claude Debussy, one of your goals, used to mark up his scores to the nth degree.  If you want further reference on this, please contact me by personal message.

[erick86]

I right all over my pages.  Everything from fingering to writing down key words or imagery that help me shape a particular phrase the way I want it to feel.  I've even started thinking about using a highlighter to really help me draw attention to the inner voices that are less evident when initially working through a piece. 

Writing stuff down helps me gel the phrasing and musicality of a piece more quickly and intentionally.  I find it particularly effective when writing down a particular colour, feeling, or image, or idea that a specific passage evokes. 


Eric

[invictious]

Personally, I prefer cleaner copies.

I think much of what music is about is the execution of the piece at the performance. Spontaneity plays a pivotal role in the delivery of an interpretation, especially in terms of naturalness and persuasiveness.

Of course, there are many details which need to be well-rehearsed, but I have always had the fear of sounding over-rehearsed and thus, mechanical.

When I perform, I like to recall clean scores so I can still infuse my interpretational liberties and make minor adjustments as needed into the performance.

[lazyfingers]

I fall well and truly into the scribbling camp, but only on the "working" copy that I have photocopied from original urtext. I like my books pristine but find scribbling indiscriminately on copies immensely useful.

I've even kept very old photocopies of Chopin Etudes that my teacher scribbled all over years ago. Not only do they bring back memories like old photographs do, but what she wrote all those years ago hasn't diminished in value even if my memory has.

[awesom_o]

Personally, I prefer cleaner copies.

I think much of what music is about is the execution of the piece at the performance. Spontaneity plays a pivotal role in the delivery of an interpretation, especially in terms of naturalness and persuasiveness.

Of course, there are many details which need to be well-rehearsed, but I have always had the fear of sounding over-rehearsed and thus, mechanical.

When I perform, I like to recall clean scores so I can still infuse my interpretational liberties and make minor adjustments as needed into the performance.

Great post!

[erick86]

When I perform, I like to recall clean scores so I can still infuse my interpretational liberties and make minor adjustments as needed into the performance.

That's a really good idea.  It sounds like it would be liberating, making the leap from "practice" to "performance" in a completely different mindset. 

Well spoken.

[olivetree]

I usually keep the scores as clean as possible in order to force myself to improve my sight reading. I only add some fingering at tricky spots and other things to think about, but I don't indicate what notes to play. Unfortunately, sight reading is my biggest weakness, because my first teacher always marked every single note in the score. At that time I was a child, so I didn't understand that it was a bad thing. That's actually the reason why I need more time to figure out what notes to play, compared to others who started playing the piano at the same age. It's getting better and better now, but I fear that it's too late to catch up with what I missed during that time. It hindered an ability that is crucial for learning new pieces. If you have any other suggestions to overcome this problem, I'd be very grateful.