How to mark up your score for secure memorization and faster “re-learning!”

Peter Golemme Thank you for the great idea.  I'm starting on 2 fugues this week, so I'll use your idea.

Gail Starr Gail Starr Hi Gail, it's great.  Most of the issues I have are "User error" types of issues.  I'm still learning how to arrive at a spot, and put my marking right there, without the screen jumping away due to some unintended gesture etc.

I am gradually marching through the entire Well Tempered Clavier.  I'd love to share notes, thoughts questions & comments with anyone embarked on a similar projects or learning individual ones like yourself.  feel free to share yours from time to time.

Peter Golemme Gail Starr also, which ones will you be working on?  I'll be happy to share my brilliant [?] thoughts & insights on those if I have any.  many of my insights fall into the category of "Dawn breaks on Marble Head"  -- things more educated musicians know all about but which I am finally seeing for the first time!  Very exciting for me nonetheless!

I'm not perfecting each one as I go along for now, just trying to get through all of them with fingerings, markings and perhaps being able to play to a slow metronome.  The perspective this is giving me on individual pieces & Bach's methods is very revealing.

Peter Golemme Oooh, I'd love ANY pointers, because I'm quite the newbie.  Haven't had an actual piano teacher in, um, decades so just starting now in September with Jarred Dunn.  Thought I'd prepare Book I, C major and c minor to start at the very beginning.  Obviously!

Peter Golemme Sounds like a great plan.  We'll stay in touch.  I'm literally starting this weekend.

Gail Starr hI Gail, you're "in luck", as I have many thoughts on both of them.  I happen to have previously learned and actually performed both of those among others in recitals we gave many years ago as part of a Performance seminar I took through New England Conservatory Prep/Adult Cont. Ed division.  I'll save my comments until after you've taken a first (I assume) look at them this weekend.

I'm mostly a pop/semi-jazz player but I've always tried to learn classical pieces throughout my life. In college off & on I had the opportunity to work with a world-class teacher on classical repertoire, but nothing since then for me either. Looking forward to connecting with a teacher when I retire next year.

what a privilege for you to be studying with Jared Dunn! did you make that connection on ToneBase? I'll have a thousand questions about that but will hold those for now too!

Peter Golemme Hey, when we lived in Boston (a million years ago) I took a year of Saturday adult theory and a 2-piano summer workshop at NEC.  Small world!  Who was your teacher at NEC?  I also took a cool "Earobics" class with a teacher from Berklee/NEC another summer.

My friends and I connected with Jarred here on Tonebase.  I'm only going to see him on Zoom occasionally starting in September (since he lives in Canada & Poland), but some of my friends work with him much more often. 

Gail Starr The NEC professor who oversaw our"Piano Performance Seminar" was David Hagan, a wonderful pianist with a very patient and relaxed demeanor. We'd pick pieces we wished to perform, and he would act much like a coach, with comments & suggestions. At the end of each semester we'd perform the pieces from memory in a recital for an audience consisting of friends & family members who had been coerced into attending.. It was great for me, the closest I could get to working with a teacher at the time. Plus I could stay behind at night and practice on the Prep Division pianos, a godsend at a time when I had no piano in my apartment. I took several semesters of this course from about 1998-2001 and performed a total of 5 WTC Preludes & Fugues, Beethoven Op. 7, and all 24 of the Rachmaninoff Preludes (very poorly, but staggered through them all nonetheless) over that period. 

Gail Starr If you were in Boston in the 1980's & 1990's you might have heard me play.  I played at Lily's in Fanueil Hall for about a year, then every Saturday at nearby Crickets for most of the 1980's, then Thursday's at the Sheraton on Dalton Street for most of the 1990's and frequently at the Copley place Marriott as a sub for my friend there, and intermittently at lots of other places -- all solo piano gigs. I sadly watched the solo-piano gig market dry up in the 2000's as most places got rid of their pianos.

Peter Golemme Wow!  We were there at the same time.  I took theory on Saturdays with a great professor from Harvard (who was at NEC on Saturdays) and the Adult piano class and 2-piano workshop with Alys Terrien-Queen.  Did you know Alys?

Peter Golemme I bet I DID hear you at one place or another, since we definitely would have visited all of those locations.  Small world!  (I have NO idea how to play solo piano...I only did amateur chamber music until Tonebase, LOL).

Gail Starr  Hi Gail, sorry to have this conversation interrupted by my very intrusive day job. I did not know Alys Terrien-Queen.  You might have encountered Sam Adams there in the prep division? Also an excellent pianist and his students raved about what a great teacher he was.

By now you might have had your first assay at the C Major & C minors from Book 1.  what do you think? - how did it go?  Are you recording a practice diary? I've wanted to start a practice diary of my march through the WTC, & the C Major is one of the most-ready ones.  If I end up posting something there on that I'll let you know.  The Prelude is actually one of the very most difficult ones for me -- not so much the notes & fingers, but what to do with it musically and how to keep the touch consistent from phrase to phrase.  it really exposes the rough edges of my so-called technique! anyway, would love to hear your thoughts on these pieces as you assimilate them....  

Peter Golemme Good morning!  Alas, I haven't had time to work on the Bach yet because I'm participating in a Chopin Nocturne challenge on Instagram at the moment.  But, as soon as I get a moment to start Bach, I'll keep you in the loop! 

And, I definitely know Sam Adams.

Gail Starr there you have it (fewer than) six degrees of separation!  Good luck with your Nocturne and don’t give up on becoming more of a solo piano player. I think you are well on your way already!

I’ll let you now if /when I post something on the WTC.  Seems like I’ve been planning & talking about this forEver, and am THIS close to finishing a few of them to post on the practice blog.  

Peter Golemme I need to check out the practice blog!  Thank you for your encouragement...and the 6 degrees of separation. We'll be up in Boston in April for the marathon, so maybe we can grab coffee if you are in town?  (I am not fast enough for the marathon, but I always do the little 5k, LOL).

Gail Starr Hi Gail, it would be fun to meet for coffee when you folks are in town.. LMK as the time approaches whether your schedule will permit. We moved to the suburbs a few years ago, but I expect I'll be in the city a lot during April.  I'll have retired by then but probably helping out part time at my firm with its tax-season overflow. That's impressive that you run the 5K. You've certainly got a lot of things going on.! "There are no days off in retirement"  my friend likes to say, and you're living proof.  Can't wait to find out for myself! My target date is 12/31 & I'm looking forward to having hours per day for music & practicing.

Peter Golemme Retirement is VERY fulfilling.  We never had enough time to do the activities we love before.  But the really special thing is that we are done paying for university.  Grad school won't be  on our dime, LOL.  Do you work in accounting?

Gail Starr I'm a tax lawyer. My firm represents a large number of trusts and in addition to their legal work we do tax returns for most of them.  I also have a little niche practice in international tax and about 30 or so of my clients have me do their returns. All in all we collectively do several hundred returns per year, and we are not that big a shop, so it always makes for wild crushes of work every April and October on top of whatever legal work we've got going on.  Post-retirement, I plan to help out a little with the seasonal overflow, but within strict limits so that it won't take over the rest of my life. I'm glad to hear your report from the 'other side' that you're finding retirement fulfilling.  I have no doubt that I will too.  I am SO much looking forward to being able to devote hours per day to a consistent regimen of practice. 

Peter Golemme We have a lot in common!  Even though I don't have a degree in tax law, I've dipped my toe in MANY times...and have relatives abroad with dual citizenship who struggle with their returns.

Gail Starr Hey Gail, I thought from your ‘recently retired’ description that we might have traversed some of the same ground with our day jobs. It’s been a very interesting field to work in, full of fine and complex intricacies, challenges & opportunities, and my only complaint is that it’s taken too much time away from the piano! I’ll probably be radio silent on Tonebase for the next 6 weeks or so until our October crush is behind us (tho I might sneak a peek at Claire Huangci’s sight reading workshop tomorrow!), Then I hope to finish all my existing cases by 12/31, so I can devote full time to music in ’24. Can’t wait!

Michael from London I only just starting using it.  Mostly I prefer IMSLP because I like to compare editions.

Michael from London  Having tried both, ForScore is much easier for marking up. You can convert Henle music to a PDF and use it in ForScore.