Hi everyone

I ask this question because one of my previous teachers used to write on the music almost every time you made a mistake. Now that I have a new teacher who keeps writing on the music to the barest minimum, I cannot facing looking at the music with tons of pencil markings on it. My current teacher writes things in my notebook that she wants me to pay particular attention to. How do your teachers deal with such matters?

If a pupil makes a mistake over and over again then I will circle it or write in the missed accidentals or write in a word or phrase that might help remember the rythm but other than that, I dont write on the music alot, I feel guilty when I write on the music and I always ask if they mind me writing on the book before I do it. And always in pencil! I have a problem of not writing on my own music enough though and find that weeks on I have learnt mistakes and wrong notes that could have been avoided simply by a quick reminder on the page like an asterix or a circle.

I try to write only timings and circles etc on my pupil's books. But I think I should get a 'practice book' so that I can write everything down properly! And I don't write enough on myself either!

My normal teacher does the same as me but a teacher I had privately for a few months scrawled all over the book in hard pencil markings which is fine, but it now doesn't look presentable and the book was borrowed. So i have now had to invest in two replacement books for the people who lent the books to me. It's fine as I needed my own copies anyway but it's the principle of hard pencil markings ruining the books! hmmph

I hardly have any markings on my music, I cant stand it! Currently have been making notes on what the teacher says on a pad and then referring to that when I practice. I will only mark in dynamic or tempo changes and accidentals. If I have other notes written around music, you end up being distracted when playing the music and loose some of the musicality.

I use a practice book, yes... very, very useful! a notebook of the pupil where I write everything to do/remember for studying at home. The only thing I mark on music is maybe some fingering... but try to do not!

There's a theory that amateur musicians don't write on their music (I know of several who consider it beneath them) and professionals do, but I think it's more personal than that. I don't mark very much myself but an amateur friend - who is VERY good - marks so much that I sometimes wonder how she can find the notes.

I'm gradually coming to the opinion that students should make their own markings, partly because they'll pay more attention to them and partly because they will draw squiggles that instantly mean something to them when they see them again.

(Sorrowfully remembering a pupil for whom I wrote the word FINGERING!!!!! in colossal letters at the top of the page, but whose fingering was still completely random a week later ... )

are you allowed to post a picture of a piece of music to show the writing that my teacher will do on my music?

scribbles covering the music say to me "you're bad" as this is the vibe i got from the private teacher. it could just be a mental thing with me but I don't think any pupil would like to have their music scrawled on because it does say 'practice a LOT more'!

I have pieces where you can hardly see the music and there is almost more writing than music.

I used to write a lot more on pupils' music than I do now - and very messilly. It's hard to be neat when you're at that strange angle! What stopped me in my tracks was the time a pupil had to provide a photocopy for a festival adjudicator, and she took the copy without rubbing out my scribbles. I was mortified. I had written things like 'shoooosh' over the top of diminuendo signs, in huge messy letters.

My oboe teacher writes all over my music and I hate it! I don't mind if it's just the odd thing here and there, but he circles whole bars and writes things in pen on my pieces, and I hate how messy it makes it look.
My cello teacher occasionaly writes fingerings in, but he always writes in pencil so I don't mind as much.

As far as possible I try to get my pupils to put in the markings that will help them, themselves, from the earliest stages, and gradually wean them down to what I think is reasonable. That way I hope to get them thinking independently and taking responsibility for their learning from the start. Likewise lesson notebooks/practice diaries - by getting pupils to write in these themselves I can check that they have understood what is required by the next lesson and makes the pupils actively concentrate and reinforce the lesson for themselves in the last, sometimes hectic minutes of school instrumental lessons.

I agree, it depends so much on the person what they will find helpful or offputting - same as with memorising stuff - some people will say, "oh you mustn't do X, it will stop you playing so musically/distract you/etc" others will say, "Oh you must do X, it will help you play more musically..."!! Depends on the individual!

I write on my own, sometimes a lot, sometimes a little. I have a set of divisions/variations in which I've marked the where the notes of the melody fall because they get lost in the forest of notes otherwise, and will mark in how I want to articulate, breathing, especially if I need to take a very deep breath or if opportunities are going to be scarce, what sorts of ornaments I want where, or have been suggested by my teacher - and in my diploma exam we ornamented two bars of a long held note so much we had to write out a stave elsewhere with the details, and put a huge arrow in to remind me to do said ornament....Sometimes markings can be erased as they stop being useful - but they help show the process of learning, and make music much easier to go back to after a break as well, since I am unable to learn it by heart.

I always use a note book for each pupil but write the odd thing on their music too. I always mark the sections that are to be worked with a tick for example. I will add fingering changes sometimes, I will draw a pair of glesses above a passage that needed attention and has not had it, and will add extra dynamic markings too. I always use pencil and rub the marks off when they have been understood and corrected. When I am learning new works myself I tend to mark up the copy for a day or so, but these are soon rubbed away too.

My piano teacher writes a lot in my note book. This actually helps a lot, for me to look for my mistakes and the teacher to refer to previous comments!

dennis~~

My piano and viva voce teacher love to write on my score.
They pen down phrasing, dynamics, mistakes and body language.
eg. "no head movement here" or "F#!!!"
I dont think I'll be able to play well without my teachers' handwriting.
I mean..I play what I see.
It's convenient, I don't have to refer here or there. ;-}

My teacher writes quite sparingly now, mainly articulation, breaths and phrasing, sometimes the odd word to remind me of the mood if it changes. I do find reassuring to have notes on my music but obviously if there's too much it would be hard to read when you're playing!

I tend to use Snopake highlighting strips which can be written on and removed when no longer needed. I usually get the students to choose the colour they want too - although I run out of the pink ones before any of the others.

*screams*

Pen!!!!!!! No!!!!!!!!!!!! Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!



That's a good idea! Mind if I blatantly copy your idea?

I don't write a lot on pupil's music, the occasional reminder of things like accidentals etc., and odd bits of technique. And always in pencil.

Feel free. I 'borrowed' it from someone else I know.

The only letter names I would ever write in are ledger lines - when pupils are sitting counting their way up or down with their finger on the page every single week. And I have to confess to doing this on my own music from time to time as well - Chopin's Berceuse is a killer. Once you know the first one after a leap, you can read by interval - until the mental block kicks in. I also sometimes put an exclamation mark - or angry face on my own music if I consistently find myself forgetting a natural or whatever at a modulation - when I only realise I'm wrong after playing it wrong, which means I'm cementing it in wrong, if that makes sense.

ARGH!! writing in pen on music!!! *runs away screaming*

I don't write anything apart from the odd fingering or bowing on my music - and only if they really are odd! (ie, nothing unless I'd forget it).

One of my teachers doesn't write anything on except when needed; the other doesn't understand why my copies are always pristine! He thinks I'll forget things, but I tell him that either my fingerings were good (in which case I'll find them again) or they were bad (in which case they're better off forgotten!)

If I let flautists do this their music would be covered in writing!

My piano teacher scrawls all over my music, pedal markings, articulation, dynamics, feeling of the music, phrasing and reminders of bits I slip up on with big circles and arrows He also writes in my notebook every week in detail telling me what I need to work on and how to go about it. I find it really helps and every time I practice I can remind myself of what I have to do. My other teachers don't do this simply because the lessons are in school and there is not enough time, so alot of the time I find myself going to practice but forgetting which bits I really need to work on and not sure how to go about practising them!

Brilliant idea!


Ditto!!




One of the advantages of having played violin and flute for such a long time, leger lines above the stave don't tend to bother me and the ones I'm confident on go high enough that I can *usually* read by interval as far as they're likely to be written out at pitch... legers below the stave or on bass clef on the other hand...............

I sometimes use what I call "working copies" which are photocopies of the original with different colour highlighter pens to mark different things, otherwise the original copy can get horribly confusing with a million different things all marked the same way - in pencil.......then when the pupil has got the hang of whatever the working photocopy is highlighting I take the copy back, and we carry on again with the original - or if something else crops up I do another photocopy and again using coloured hightlighters mark whatever the new issue is......I got the idea from Philip Johnston's Practiceopedia book.....

That's an interesting point. I would often forget to read what had been written in my notebook. Most of my teachers would use a notebook to indicate what was required for the next class etc, but my second viola teacher used to get me to take general performance notes myself and I probably paid more attention and retained the information better because of it. I still keep some of the notes in my instrument case cause they were usually really useful.

Most of my teachers haven't tended to write much on the music but to use a notebook/practice book, except for my first violin/viola teacher - I still have copies from that time that are completely scribbled on. I'd never tend to use anything other than pencil myself and would usually keep the markings to bare essentials.

I used to have a piano teacher who would write on my music before I'd even played anything as she used to say that everyone made the same mistakes. I hated this and used to feel that it was showing me where to go wrong.


My oboe teacher pencils in articulation and breathing but gets me to write anything else, mainly because we discovered early on there was a language problem. He pencilled in "G" (for gauche), for example, to remind me to use a left-hand fingering for an Eb and my mind would go into overdrive, I was reading an "E" but the letter over the top was telling me it was a "G" so then I would start thinking I was reading in the bass clef and then ask myself why the oboe would be in a bass clef and the end result was I wouldn't know what to play.

I write on my music as little as possible - I hate the scribbles! So, the odd accidental, breath mark and note names for very high notes, ie top b flat/ a in the 1st weber movement! In p[encil

Another point Id like to make is that I dont like marking expensive sheet music! I have made minimal markings to my copy of the Ibert Flute Concerto which costs £38 for flute and piano sheet music!

My teacher always writes on my music.

My first teacher destroyed my ability to see proper music : Lot's of circles , squares, lines, dots, comments and that can come across you're mind.
I think that's why I have sight reading problems

My current teacher writes ina notebook. Phew..

My first piano teacher used to write fingerings, phrasing, notes, random picture and such like all over my music in her none too tidy handwriting... not sure if it really helped, but I disn't really have anything to compare it to. My teachers now write some stuff on, but not much.
And it has always been drilled in to me that you always write on musc in pencil. Actually I shouted at my friend in orchestra once because he went to write on sheet music with a pen

Both my kids have teachers who often write in their books. However I had to have a word with the the piano teacher once. She was actually writing in PEN!! That is just plain rude! She was sooo apologetic and now uses only pencil. Of course, it was my duty to inform the police and she is now doing 5 years for damage to property, vandalism, grafitti, breach of the peace and possession of a piano without a licence!

I scribble on my own music and often use coloured felt tips to help me remember dynamic markings - red for forte/crescendo and blue for piano/dimuendo etc. This is on p/copies though, not the books.

Steve

My guitar teacher always writes on my music in pen

Would definitely write in pencil myself.

Car Expert

Phew!! Why so expensive??

I write in pencil as little as possible on my pupils' music, just from force of habit. But I find that they don't read their practice notebooks very much, ie they remain closed from one lesson to the next, so sometimes I use the space round the title to write "what to do in particular this week" and then rub it out when it's been corrected, and usually replace it with the next instruction!

My clarinet teacher used to write in pen... My flute teacher writes in pencil, and so does my piano teacher but in a way that you can still see everything after you've rubbed it out!

The curse of the flautist (and others, but so much of flute repertoire is French). French music still under copyright is horrendously expensive. The Bozza Aria (Grade 7, single sheet flute part) is £10.50.

Thank goodness for ebay, basically

Does anyone know, is it similarly trop cher en France?

On the subject of expensive french music - the Gaubert Sonata no 3 is £25 and I REALLY want it!

Golly .. some of you are fussy

If I have an expensive book or piece of music I first photostat it before I start the piece.
That's my working copy.

My teacher writes on it, I write on it, if I keep forgetting I use that peeloff highlighter tape. Sometimes my teacher even draws a pair of glasses to remind me to look at something,

It all helps me play the piece better.

Gradually I rub out bits I don't need. If I'm entering a competition I still have the original to play from and also to photocopy for judges (rather than them seeing big circles around a note so they think " ah ha he normally forgets a sharp here!!" )

However once I've done my judges copy I will often transfer neatly any of the markings I think I still need.

Learning a piece of music is a work in progress and markings on the music help that in my case. I have a notebook but generally everything ends up on the music.

It is quite interesting... I write on my music and on my pupils' music, fingering, expression, dynamics, odd words / phrases to make them remember mood etc. In their notebooks, I write what and how to practise certain passages of difficulty.

I try to use pencil but I must confess on occasions, I have used pens...

Sorry- I really do have a BIG objection to pens- luckliy my teachers do as well!

My violin teacher doesn't write much apart from bowing and fingering.
Piano teacher quite a bit and her handwriting is HUGE!
Organ teacher- only when necessary.
Singing- just breathing marks and smiley faces when she wants me to smile in the music.

........and all markings are in pen.

*screams*

Pen!!!!!!! No!!!!!!!!!!!! Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!![/i]

no, absolutely no pen or biro on copies.

Ha! Yes, I've done that too, for similar reasons. Also I write on pupil's exam music in a gentle fashion so the examiner might not be able to see it from where he's sitting.

Another thing that annoys me is that when I go to my choral soc. I see some folk with their scores marked up with their entire line highlighted in yellow or pink highlighter. I just put a cross by my line if I remember (or am feeling bored while the sops or basses are going through their bit). I find highlighter pen makes the dots go blurry - maybe it's my eyesight. (sorry, bit off track here, just airing one of my little irritations)

My piano teacher doesn't write too much; most details go in the notebook. My flute teacher writes a fair bit. Both write in pencil (thankfully!)

My teachers scribble lots in the tiniest handwriting in my notebook. Occassionally when they write on the music it is only ever in pencil.

My piano teacher writes all over my books and music - I can hardly see the page. However, I think it actually helps me (with dynamics etc.). I tried using a notebook but it didn't work, because I never looked at it. My bassoon teacher scarcely writes on my music, so sometimes I forget stuff.