iternabe The first book was full of ball pen marking: fingering, dynamics, counting, even dates of assignment on each piece.

In "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince", Harry got an old, used and shaggy looking copy of the "Advanced Potion-Making" book. On the first page, someone wrote "Property of the Half Blood Prince". The book was full of hand-written scribbles on every page. But those scribbles helped Harry to be better in potion brewing than anyone else in his course - including Hermione. 😉

    This works much better. Although now I can see why the "Ped ❊" notation is more cumbersome than the bracket style.

      Sort of off topic somewhat, but I saw this reference ages ago on the question of pristine versus marked up scores. This belongs to Yehudi Menuhin.

      I also found this article where a guitarist is advising TO mark up one's score, but he also suggests making copies. I do often make one or more copies of what I'm working on. (I have a scanner because of my work so I'm spoiled.)

      https://douglasniedt.com/markupyourmusic.html

      iternabe Although now I can see why the "Ped ❊" notation is more cumbersome than the bracket style.

      I just write "P" and "X".

        iternabe But how to cross out things cleanly?

        Gently put some correction tape on the pedal markings, copy the pages, remove the correction tape from the original score, and write your own pedal markings onto the copied score.

        *
        ... feeling like the pianist on the Titanic ...

          • SStub

          • Post #20

          You could try using erasable colored pencil (Crayola sells them) to mark the wedges (which are what you want to keep). Use a bright or contrasting color to make the wedges stand out from the connecting lines (which you will be ignoring). After you're finished with the piece, erase the colored pencil marks. I use colored pencils all the time on my scores. They erase very well.

            Stub You could try using erasable colored pencil (Crayola sells them) to mark the wedges (which are what you want to keep). Use a bright or contrasting color to make the wedges stand out from the connecting lines (which you will be ignoring).

            That is a great idea!

            I change the fingering markings so often from the printed ones that my brain now ignores any fingerings that aren't in my handwriting. So sometimes even if I'm doing the same fingerings as marked, I write over it in forScore. Same with pedal markings, the original ones are printed so lightly that I hardly notice them but if I want to pay attention I write P and X over them. Colored pencils might be able to retrain your brain to pay attention to only your markings.

              Stub brilliant! Ordering color pencils now!

                If you do use forScore, there’s white in the annotation tools which you can use like white out. And because it’s digital, it’s erasable.

                When I was still playing from paper, I used to always make a copy of the score and play from the copy so that I kept a clean version, and wrote only on the copy. (With multi-page scores, I had a system of taping them together like a booklet so the copies also served that purpose.)

                These days I have my scores almost exclusively on the iPad though.

                  ShiroKuro If you do use forScore, there’s white in the annotation tools which you can use like white out.

                  There is?! Is it in the pens section? This would make my markings so much cleaner!

                      twocats There is?!

                      Yes! I can't remember if it comes up as a pre-set option or you have to pick on of the pens and change the color. I just did a quick and dirty google image search, so these might help:

                      See where it says "hue"? If you don't already have a white option, I think you can change it here:

                      This is another photo from google image search, you can see that thick white pen mark, to the right of black? That's it. And you can change the line thickness (size) etc. I have used the white pen for all kinds of things, including to correct scores, cover up annotation I don't want to see etc. Oh and also for paper scores that I once wrote on and then made a PDF without erasing my earlier markings like fingerings etc, I use the white when I want to update fingerings etc.

                          ShiroKuro This is another photo from google image search, you can see that thick white pen mark, to the right of black? That's it.

                          It's probably been there the whole time and it just never occurred to me to use it 🤦‍♀️ I will look for it next time I'm at the piano!

                            ShiroKuro I used the eraser today and cleaned up some of the fingerings where I had written over the existing ones. It looks so much nicer now!! 😃

                                twocats awesome! I’m pretty sure forScore has tons of functions I don’t know exist. Well, and probably some that only work with newer iPads or tablets maybe. I think my iPad Pro is from 2021 and I think I’m using the original Apple Pencil (I’m not exactly sure though, my memory is rubbish). But my piano teacher has a newer one, and I think he has the newest Apple Pencil, and I see him do stuff with forScore that I can’t do…

                                    • twocats

                                    • Post #29
                                    • Edited

                                    ShiroKuro I think my iPad Pro is from 2021 and I think I’m using the original Apple Pencil

                                    That would be Pencil 2! My iPad Pro is a 2018. I also have the first big iPad Pro from 2015 that uses the original Pencil, but the writing experience is pretty awful. The upgrade to get Pencil 2 was worth it.

                                    I know the newest Pencil Pro has some additional features. I think one of the useful ones is to squeeze the barrel to switch between writing and erasing, which would be very convenient.

                                    I have learned many useful tips for forScore here! Sgisela told me about the split screen feature for learning transitions across page turns. I should really sit down and write a post about backups because last week I figured out how (I think) it all works and how to back stuff up to Dropbox to avoid losing your notations if your iPad gets damaged or stolen.

                                        twocats I think one of the useful ones is to squeeze the barrel to switch between writing and erasing, which would be very convenient.

                                        Yes, that's what my teacher has!! I want it!!! But now that you mention it, I'm pretty sure I have the Pencil 2, and it's fine.

                                        I should really sit down and write a post about backups because last week I figured out how (I think) it all works and how to back stuff up to Dropbox to avoid losing your notations if your iPad gets damaged or stolen.

                                        Oh yes please!! I need to do that! Yikes!!!

                                            ShiroKuro Yes, that's what my teacher has!! I want it!!!

                                            I know 😂 I priced it out and had to pass though. If I'm going to spend a buttload of money it's going to be on maintaining my piano.

                                            I will try to write up a post on forScore backups in the next couple of days!

                                                twocats I priced it out and had to pass though.

                                                Yep, new iPads are way too expensive. This current one needs to last me like another five years at least! 😅

                                                I will try to write up a post on forScore backups in the next couple of days!

                                                Thank you!!

                                                    ShiroKuro Yep, new iPads are way too expensive. This current one needs to last me like another five years at least! 😅

                                                    I think it will! My almost 10 year old one is still going strong!!

                                                    I just priced out a new 13" iPad Air plus Pencil Pro with trade-in but they won't take my Pencil 2, so it just is too much trouble to have to sell the Pencil 2 separately even if I was willing to pay the extra cash. Plus I like Face ID because sometimes I step away and come back and I don't need to enter a password!

                                                    I got my 3rd Gen used for a good price so hopefully it lasts a long time. Plus then if it does get stolen I won't feel as bad-- as long as all my forScore files are properly backed up!