Pencil me in
There are some mistakes that get made all the time by an awful lot of people. And some of those are the ones that leave you shaking your head because the solution is so simple and so easy. But despite how easy the fix is, it still doesn’t happen, for some reason.
No, I’m not talking about something complicated like putting the coffee and water into the maker at night before you go to bed so the morning is smoother. I’m talking about something even simpler. Something that can make you a better musician. Something you can do with the stroke of a pen. Well, a pencil, actually.
MARK YOUR MUSIC!
You’ll be amazed at how simple your life becomes when you embrace this fix! It has three steps –
First, make a copy of your music (Do Not write on your original!). If you have a download, print a couple. Or use your home printer to copy it. Or go to the local big box office supply store and use the self-copy machines. There is no excuse! (Of course, this is you making a copy of music you have bought for your use – no violating copyrights!).
Second, now that you have extra copies to write on – find a pencil. Not a pen! Any ol’ pencil will work (or buy some while you’re in the big box office supply store making copies).
Third, and this one is a biggie – use the pencil on the copies! Mark anything you need to have marked. Forgetting a fingering? Write it in. Not used to reading all those ledger lines? Mark them. Missing a dynamic? Circle it. Any time you have a hitch in your reading, leave yourself a note so that you have a smoother experience as you continue to play.
Why not a pen? Well, you want to be able to correct errors in your marking. But you also might change your mind as you continue to work on the music. Or you might completely change your understanding of the music and decide to mark it differently. Or you might no longer need the notations. There are a ton of reasons that at some time in the future you might want to erase what you’ve written.
A quick point – consider using colored pencils to highlight different items. I usually use black for fingering, yellow for lever changes, red for dynamics, blue for repeats, etc. This is your system for you to play your best so do whatever it takes for you to feel comfortable and confident while looking at your music.
If you’re not a strong reader, then make two copies and use one as a “note speller” which will help you read the music and will improve your reading (because like everything else, reading gets better with practice too!). My students suggest putting the note speller copy in a sheet protector and use a dry erase marker so you can read, reread, and rereread – as often as needed until you build your reading strength.
Remember, it’s not a library book. You can write all over the music – it’s your copy! Feel free to mark it up, erase it, mark it up again – as often as you need. And if you want to, you can even leave yourself a sticker for doing a good job! If you’re one of those people who tries to remember what you were doing before (and forgotten) – are you ready to mark your music now? If you already mark your music – what do you do? Let me know in the comments!
I upload them in to Forescore and then can type in fingerings, use different colors to annotate etc….. HVibg the typed numbers makes them more legible.
Ooooh – that’s good to know – especially that whole legibility thing!
Copies – check!
Markup:
1: bracketing in pencil, above
2: fingering, where needed, in pencil near brackets.
3: Yellow highlighter above passages that give me trouble.
4: blue flair pen for enlarging chord notation on lead sheets, if needed.
If a sheet gets too marked up, or if I no longer need all of the markings, I’ll either erase or toss the copy and start with a fresh one.
I keep a mechanical pencil, an erasing stick, a straight edge (for brackets) and a highlighter on a shelf under my music stand.
All of this really does need to be for YOU. I used to be embarrassed for anyone to see my music – covered in marks. Adult people actually fun of me, but I got my part right! I had gotten away from that recently but I’m finally working smarter not harder!
Great tips! Another option for temporary marking of paper scores: transparent post-it notes! I recently discovered them and find them really useful. No need to make a copy of your score and mark up the copy. Stick on the post-it, write on that, remove the post-it if you find you no longer need it. You can still read your music through the post-it.
Great for marking up library books, too! 😉
Ooh, cool! That sounds great – do you have a link you could share?
Copies, and pencils, abound in my harp nook— so do Erasers! I also like to mark the sections/parts/phrases (duplicates/similars), and— this is big for me— I mark the Trouble Spots. Loud and clear. 😉.
Cheers and God bless! —Helen
Ah, yes, the erasers! How did I forget to include them?!
Funny, I was just thinking about this last night as I pencilled in fingerings. I mark only the critical ones, so that gets my attention, and also I can see it coming up and don’t have to read through a bunch that are obvious.
Great point about signaling to yourselfthat you need to be ready! I was doing that last night too 😄
absolutely a good plan. i did it! use colors, too!
it’s also encouraging to look back at an earlier copy and realize that you don’t Need all those markings anymore.
That’s a great point about being able to look back and see how you have grown!
Thanks for the suggestions about dynamics and fingerings.
I always make copies of tunes I’m working on. I put a colored sticker on the original so I can identify the copies and put the original in a binder or folder.
I also sometimes add notes for dates of composers, or which published collections you can find the tune in, or country of origin.
Adding notes is a great idea – then you have everything you need to introduce each piece!