How to Mark a Piece of Music

CEFR Level B2-C1

The Background

When I was in high school and college, I was embarrassed to write on my music. I thought it meant that I wasn’t smart enough to remember something. I was worried that if I wrote an expression note or put in a breath mark, my flute teacher would tell me that I was wrong. They usually did tell me that if I wrote in something on my own. Even though I know they were doing their teacher job, it made me learn to not trust myself.

Decades later, I started voice lessons. That teacher also encouraged me to write in my music. I dutifully marked breaths where she suggested, but for other concepts, like “think up when you go down,” I didn’t have a set of symbols to reference. It took a while to make some up for myself. The longer I took lessons, the more I saw  my teacher’s music. It was covered in pencil marks! Slowly, I started adding notes to my music, but I was still shy about letting her see. To my relief, whenever she did see my music, she either didn’t comment or encouraged me to make more notes.

The years passed and eventually, I switched to piano lessons. Since I was playing simple music to match my piano skills, my teacher integrated theory into my lessons. These discussions ranged from simple things like, “What key is this in?” to the more complex like, “What’s the chord progression.” There were frequent requests to sight transpose. I started writing in chord numbers before I got to my lessons. The more I wrote on my sheet music, the more comfortable I became notating my thoughts. 

After about a year, we found a good method-book level for me and my teacher started assigning me music that I actually had to learn. Before, I could get through five method-book pieces in a two-week period. Now, I’m struggling to get three pieces lesson-ready. I also have started on “real” repertoire that is definitely a stretch for my piano skills. 

The only way I can manage the repertoire is to spend time analyzing the structure of the piece. I may or may not mark all the chords, but I certainly mark repeated sections and sections that are similar. To this, I created a notation system that makes sense to me.

The Process

I thought that other hobby musicians might also struggle with knowing how to mark their music, so I took a photo of the most challenging piece I’m working on and will try to explain what the marks mean. There’s nothing special about the start, hearts, and other symbols. I just needed something small and easy to draw to mark the sections. 

At the top, after the date of the first lesson this was assigned for, you’ll see that I’ve written in that a quarter note equals 40. This was as fast as I could play with a metronome. As I learn the piece better, I’ll add the most current top-edge beats per minute. I always add the BPM that is slow enough that I can recover and keep going when I make a mistake, but fast enough that I do make mistakes. I’ll woodshed at a slower tempo, but also spend time at this edge speed. For me, this is a good method to keep me moving into the written tempo without turning mistakes into muscle memory. 

To the left of the first system is the letter “A.” This marks the A section, as I determined by seeing that the same music is repeated on page 2. 

To the right of the A, just before the tempo marking is a hand-drawn star. This marks the start of a passage that gets repeated. Another star closes this section. You can see that measures 5-6, and others, are an exact duplicate of measures 1-2. 

A heart starts and closes another section. Measures 3-4 are repeated in 19-20. 

A heart with a slash through it indicates that those measures are very similar to the sections with the heart, but there is some type of change. To avoid confusing myself, I use the slashed heart for any variation on the heart section, even if those variations are different. The intent here is to keep my brain from going on autopilot and reading the notes of the first instance, even though what’s written is different.

The square bracket on measure 13 marks the start of a particularly challenging section. This bracket is closed somewhere on page 2. Another opening bracket is at measure 25. This is a hard section within a challenging section. That bracket is also closed on page 2. 

“B” to the left of the bottom system indicates new thematic material. When I mark these thematic sections, I’m not using the rules we get taught in theory class. As you can see, I haven’t started analyzing chords. The way I segregate thematic sections is based on how they sound. You can see in this photo that the B section is nothing but straight quarter notes, in contrast to the A section which has different rhythms.

How to Use Marked Music in Practice

These markings help me practice. Once I get these structural markers in, I can target my practice. For example, if I learn measures 19-22, I’ll also have learned measures 1-4. The advantage of learning measures 19-22 first is that it leads into a transition to the B section. Usually, the start of a piece gets worked out without trouble, so I make a point of starting anywhere but the beginning for most of my practice sessions. In the case of measures 19-22 = 1-4, I’m getting double duty out of the practice if I keep going through the transition. 

The brackets that mark challenging sections are also good places to start. Once I can play those sections well, I’ll go back a measure or two and work on the transition into them. The transition out usually takes care of itself.

Tea Break Practice*

I rarely have a solid 30 minutes to sit down and practice, so I’ve developed the skill of Tea Break Practicing. I put the kettle on the stove and while the water is heating, I pick one of the marked sections to work on. Once the kettle whistles, I steep my tea for 5 minutes, giving me a solid 4 minutes to work a few measures. 

It doesn’t sound like much, but these mini-practices are how I’ve managed years of music lessons as an adult with a full-time job. During most of those years, I worked outside the house. Most evenings, I would be so exhausted, I could barely think, let alone practice. That’s when the Tea Break Practice was born. If I could get just 5 minutes of initial practice in, I often ended up practicing for longer. If I was still exhausted, then I didn’t force it. Teachers always say that a little a day is better than an hour on Saturday. I’m living proof that it’s true. Or at least, it’s true if you know how to target your practice, which is where marking your music can help.

I hope this illustration and explanation of how to mark your music for practice was helpful. Let me know if you have tips or questions.

*If you use the term "Tea Break Practice," please credit me (Jill Hames) as the creator. Thanks!