My viola teacher usually circle the passages where he thinks were my problem areas that I need to pay attention to and work on. Occasionally he abbreviates notes right above them or on the edge of the page next to those lines. He always done them in sharpened pencils and print so those notes will be legible.

I always have a 0.5HB automatic pencil handy on music stand when I practice, so if I need to make notes for myself, I don't have to go look for a sharpener. My handwriting is small and I find it is much more legible with sharpen pencil tip. If my teacher thinks that I overcome the problem area, he just erase the old note and move on.

My teacher writes on my music with thick colourful felt-tip pens!

It's very useful...

Both I and my tecaher write on my music, but in PENCIL! I would never write on my music in pen. Because I often use the "dot method" to practice, and draw circles around particluar bits I need to do my music does becaome full of pancil, but I don't mind it; for some reason it makes me feel more self-assured! Half of it is unecessary, but I never get round to rubbing it out, and I went into my GCSE exam with pencil scribblings all over it! I suppose I should cut down on a lot of it; most of the time it's just diminuendos at the ends of phrases etc that I never remember to do and ALWAYS get written in. Ooh, and I always seem to write at the top of some music that I need to remember to play expressively, otherwise it just ends up being a whole load of notes!

Argh. My old teacher used to do nothing but write on my music...maybe because I was so bad

She used to put in everything. Letter names of notes I missed/got wrong, fingering, dynamics, tempos, accidentals, comments, circles, asterisks, she even wrote on practice sight-reading tests, you name it - if she could put it there, she would; She would even look at the key signature and write at the top next to the title of the piece "Bb MAJOR - Bb Eb Ab" (or whatever) in huge letters. I always felt like getting a highlighter and writing underneath "Contrary to popular belief, I am in fact not a retard."

But my new teacher's much much much better. She's all for me working it out myself and nudging me along the way.

The odd underline of a dynamic ever-so-lightly in pencil, and maybe just a tiny tick to show where she wants me to practice up to...and then it all gets rubbed out a.s.a.p. It's helped so much with my sight reading it's unbelievable *blissful sigh*

My piano teacher fills every inch of the page with notes. Whenever there is something very trivial that isn't perfect, she writes it in... Letter names, dynamics, cartoon faces, timing, random words... she even writes lyrics to my piano pieces, like when there is a sextuplet in the piece she writes underneath "hos-pi-tal-i-sa-tion"

My cello teacher quite often writes on the top of music adjectives associated with the piece e.g. cantabile, sweetly, calm etc. and then will write in bowing or fingering. Much of this gets rubbed out before exams! My piano teacher doesn't do the former, but writes in fingering when i often don't need it - just slipped up once, but i can rub it out. for cello i have an up-to-date notebook but for piano an occasionally written in one.
However, both of these are generally in pencil although occasionally - when the pencil to hand isn't sharp - my cello teacher writes in PEN!!! i cringe every time!
PENCIL MUST BE USED in my opinion!

That is a bit of a worrying word is it a threat for if you get it wrong??

My piano teacher and I write lots on my piano music, so it's covered in circles and stars and fingerings. We both use pencil- I couldn't stand it if she wrote in pen (though she used a highlighter on it the other day, which I only noticed when I got home, and got annoyed about!) My clarinet teacher doesn't write anything on my music; anything that is written on is by me... I don't know if this is good or not because I'm so used to having pencil scribblings all over my music!

Please, don't get me started on some people's choir music, especially at school. Screwed up, dog-eared covered with highlighter and random un-related notes on the back
I don't write on my choir music much, except when our concucter decides to completely change a part or concense a SAT or SATB piece in to S1S2A And being a second sop (at the moment) it's usually our part with the most changes!!

I think I might fall into that category because since my choir folder has random stuff in it, like loyalty cards for "Treehouse Smoothies". I haven't a clue why

As a teacher, I NEVER write in pen. Just the thought of it makes me shiver.

I try to write as little as possible but I will put in occasional fingerings if a pupil is consistently getting a note wrong. I will also sometimes circle a note for the same reason if the fingering isn't enough.

I inherited a group of pupils at school and their previous teacher had written in the letter names for them over every single note.

Result: of course they couldn't read music at all. I basically had to start from scratch with them all.

My Music is written on loads! It looks more like a notebook then a Music book!

Oh my folder had random stuff in it, like Christmas cards for people I don't know any more from a couple of years ago

Urm well my teacher writes on the music and in a little notebook thing....I don't really mind either way!!!

Heiazz

When I was on lower Grades {*like under grade 4*} my teacher would write one it all the time. I've realised after reading your post that my teacher has only written on one of my Grade 7 pieces once!! Wow.... *looks into space with wonder*...

Much love<3

Lucy xx X X xx

Here we go with the lilac again...!!





Writing letter-names under notes is sh1te, though! A worse idea I have yet to encounter!

Like you, I used to have a teacher who wrote all over the music (but that was a few years ago now). My current teacher is the total oppersite, he can't stand marking the music and will only every write the faintest pencils marks (or should I say dots) over certain parts I need to pay attention to. I prefare this, as too many marks get confusing to look in the end...well I least I find they do

My cello tutor writes on my music, almost every piece I play, though I must admit I would be lost without her She's probably the only tutor who could possibly get someone as lazy as me through things

With string instruments I imagine that tutors would mostly have to write position markings on their pupils music, am I right?

I find it comforting!

*Looks at books*

most of the writing is mine, I can picture my piano teacher cringing when I wrote all over my own book in practise... oh deary me... Oh she has written numbers everywhere for timing... hmmm... and there is qutie a bit on my Debussy...

Hm... I scrawl most of it myself...

As a piano teacher, I have to say that I absolutely hate ink being used to mark a score. Pencils only please!!

I get my pupils to write their own markings based on my suggestions.

I mark my own scores quite heavily as it helps me to remember things that I discover along the way. I find this very helpful if I want to re-visit a piece weeks, months or years later.

Surely, the take-home message is that notes made in pencil can be very helpful. I've never had a problem with that.

There seem to be a few cases where teachers have used pen, but most likely because they were concentrating on the lesson and just didn't realise what they were doing. I know, because when I pointed this out to one teacher, she was shocked. It just had never dawned on her that she was scribbling in 'sombody else's' book!



Sorry, I disagree strongly with this. This is one of those old fashioned 'purist' views that has no place in music education.
When first encountering those notes with ledger lines that seem to rise above the stave into the stratosphere, writing the notes helps enormously, keeps the music flowing, and builds confidence.
I've had first hand experience of this. The brain links the note name with the note position, and the fingering. This is especially true where you have many high notes with ledger lines. Writing the names underneath allows you to play with less stress, but your brain is still making the connection with the note position!!
A week later, you can play the same or similar music without writing any note names.
Music is meant to be enjoyed. Why make it harder than it needs to be?

Steve

I've got a diploma and I still write the occasional letter name over a note - either because I've been playing it wrongly more than twice, or because the ledger lines are too many.

Piano
My teacher writes a lot on my music where I make a lot of mistakes, and my music ends up full of 'do rubarto here' and 'be carful of fingering' type of marks...


Violin
Occasionaly writes in difficult fingerings (mainly fingerings in 3rd position)


Oboe
Breath marks!!! My oboe music is full of them. My teacher keeps going on that I 'don't breath out enough'. I find breathing out difficult after playing a very long passage of music, and after doing scales. (maybe something to do with the diaphragm?)

all 3 of them use pencil, and not pen though

With strings there are so many alternatives for fingerings and positions that these are frequently marked up on the music. Also bowing often needs to be marked in or changed. These should be pencil as you will change your mind over time

I have a friend whose violin teacher many years ago used to mark up the music in 3 colours of pen. One for fingering, one for bowing and one for dynamics. Apparently he never entered into discussion on these and never changed his mind, but did keep a razor blade handy to scratch out markings if he ever did decide to change them.

It depends how they're being used - if they are just a crutch because the student can't be bothered to learn to read music, then thats no good. But, iflike yousay you have 5 or 6 ledger lines to deal with...