A skill of its own!
Marking music with purpose and clarity makes for more efficient lessons and practicing. Perfecting this art has been an ongoing goal of mine.
The Issue
Piano teachers are in a constant race against time—there’s so much content to fit in during the 30-60 minutes per week that we see a given student. I am in never-ending pursuit of spending less time talking and writing down assignments and more time making music! Throughout this journey, I’ve found myself returning to two questions:
How can we actually engage with what we mark on the page?
Are assignment sheets truly helpful? If so, how can they be more practical?
Over time, I’ve realized that I’m most comfortable and at my best when I understand the exact purpose behind what I’m doing in a lesson. If I’m going to invest time in a system, I want to refine it so that it clearly supports the student’s progress. Ultimately, I want to spend less time writing instructions and more time making music. Thoughtful score markings help make that possible.
Why do we mark our music?
A marking is a call to action. It signals that something deserves attention. When I reflect on the markings my students and I make, they generally fall into a few categories:
To analyze
To encourage phrasing
To prevent mistakes
To reinforce a new concept
To give meaning to an abstract concept
To guide practice
How Students Interact with Their Scores
I think of markings along two independent spectrums:
Passive vs. Active
Fixed vs. Flexible
The first describes how a student engages with a marking in the moment (usually during the lesson). The second describes how the marking functions over time (usually during practice at home).
Passive vs. Active
Passive markings are teacher-driven: I circle something, I write an instruction, I highlight an error.
Active markings invite student ownership—the student identifies the issue, makes the mark, and engages with the solution. When students interact with their scores directly, they begin thinking like musicians rather than simply following directions.
Fixed vs. Flexible
Fixed markings stay on the page. Examples include:
Circling accidentals
Labeling formal sections
Marking harmonic events
Flexible markings evolve over time. They are moveable, removable, stackable—the list goes on. I like to use removable highlighter tape, but I have also used erasable colored pencils. The goal is that flexible markings be eye-catching, engaging, and fun.
Glenn Gould’s score to Bach’s Goldberg Variations. (Source)
More About Flexible Markings
Flexible markings are especially helpful for:
sudden dynamic changes
sudden position changes
practice strategies for particular sections of music
errors made in a run-through of a piece
places where memory slips occurred if a student is working toward memorization
In these situations, I use flexible markings for a few reasons:
The tape can be removed when the student solves a problem. Errors can also be highlighted again in another color to show that a concept still needs another week of practice. Asking students if they think the tape is ready to be removed also sets the tone for self-evaluation.
Visual clutter doesn’t accumulate over the weeks. Students won’t likely practice the same way each week; practice techniques can be swapped in and out.
Students love taking ownership of their scores by choosing colors and applying tape on their own. Even my high schoolers enjoy picking the week’s tape color.
How does this relate to practicing?
If we expect students to practice independently, these conditions must be met:
The teacher has shown the student how to practice their material in the lesson.
The student has successfully replicated the practice techniques more than once in the lesson, under teacher supervision.
There is a clear, concise explanation of these techniques where the student can review them, like a practice notebook—or, better yet, right on the score where they require fewer steps to access.
Therefore, thoughtful, intentional, and dynamic markings that extend the practice notebook onto the score in an engaging way can be considered a student motivator. When we know what to do and how to do it, we’re more likely to take action!
Examples
Burgmüller Op. 100, No. 9: The Chase
Here, we have a few flexible markings that outline which practice technique to use in specific passages.
O.F. = on the fallboard
G.P. = ghost practicing
S/P = stop/prepare
I don’t always use abbreviations, especially with younger students. Practice technique shortcuts like these are only useful if the student knows what they mean and how to execute them, so I write more detailed instructions in an assignment book, if necessary.
Kabalevsky Op. 27 No. 13: A Little Joke
Since different practice techniques will be used to master the rapid position changes and left-hand speed and clarity, this passage is a great place to use flexible markings.
B.P. = blocked practice, with circled notes practiced together in a “block” to aid with the rapid position changes in the notorious B section of this piece.
Rachmaninoff Prelude in G-sharp Minor, Op. 32 No. 12
I wanted to include an example using fixed markings to illustrate the potential for creativity; fixed markings don’t have to be passive circles on the score. Here, I’ve quantified the gradual crescendo (an otherwise abstract concept) that begins in the first measure of this page. This activity is a great opportunity for advanced students to listen to recordings of concert pianists, observe the artists’ varying interpretive decisions about the crescendo, and decide for themselves how and when the volume will increase in their personal interpretation of the piece.
The Takeaway
The marks we make on our scores can be active or passive, fixed or flexible. When we are intentional about those choices, our expectations become clearer and our teaching becomes more efficient.
When students know what to do and how to do it, practicing feels more manageable. Whenever possible, students should participate in marking their own scores so that they develop ownership of their music.
Flexible markings, in particular, allow students to track progress without cluttering the page. They encourage reflection, reinforce strategies, and support steady growth over time.