# Do you follow along with the sheet music?



## ladyrebecca (Mar 19, 2009)

When you hear a new piece, does anyone routinely follow along with the sheet music? I got the score to Brahms' Double Concerto for Violin and Cello, Op. 102, from IMSLP and found following along to have completely heightened my experience with the music. I'm going to go hunting for some mini scores soon. While I've done this in the past for violin stuff, it's never *really* dawned on me to do it for pieces I'm not playing.


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## Edmond-Dantes (Mar 20, 2009)

Yes actually, though not as a rule, due to my lack of free time..

It truly does ad a whole greater range of depth to a piece. You're always hearing little nuances you might not have picked up on before.

Do you know what is an amazing piece to listen to and look at the sheet music at the same? Rhapsody in blue. Even if it's just the piano, the complexity is a truly amazing thing to rediscover.


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

I never did, neither heard of this idea. But if you say that it helps to understand and enjoy music, I shall try.


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## World Violist (May 31, 2007)

I love doing this with pieces that I think I already know quite well. I very often discover little details that I never would have guessed were there. It's more difficult to do with pieces one does not know, or, even worse, pieces in a style you don't know yet. It was nigh impossible for me to follow along with the MET live broadcast of Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore last weekend for the sole reason that I don't know any bel canto opera (nor much opera in general, though I did succeed quite well with Das Rheingold the previous week).


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## ladyrebecca (Mar 19, 2009)

Aramis said:


> I never did, neither heard of this idea. But if you say that it helps to understand and enjoy music, I shall try.


I'm only recently starting to really understand differences in interpretations of classical music. Or rather, I'm not understanding them as much as I am forming opinions about what I do and don't like in various performances of various pieces. This has had a number of implications about my appreciation of classical music:

Conductors/musical directors are incredibly important in bringing a work of music together.
Ensembles have to communicate very well to interpret together.
Soloists can express themselves much more when these lines are fuzzy.
Different groups performing the same work really can sound very different.

I think I was trained to observe all written marks on sheet music, more or less, as the Law of the Music or something. But the allowances taken by some of the greats are totally reasonable and often go well beyond the written rhythms and dynamics. It reminds me that the written language of music is not entirely perfect.



World Violist said:


> I love doing this with pieces that I think I already know quite well. I very often discover little details that I never would have guessed were there. It's more difficult to do with pieces one does not know, or, even worse, pieces in a style you don't know yet. It was nigh impossible for me to follow along with the MET live broadcast of Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore last weekend for the sole reason that I don't know any bel canto opera (nor much opera in general, though I did succeed quite well with Das Rheingold the previous week).


Related to this, I find that following along with the original language words of operas allows me to hear these languages much more effectively. It's still difficult for me to follow an entire score's worth of music - hats off to the conductors out there. It was hard enough juggling as much as I could of both violin and cello parts of the Brahms.


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## handlebar (Mar 19, 2009)

If i have time, most definitely. I own hundreds of orchestral and piano scores that make the music come to life for me. I was taught that way as a child. That the notes breath as much as a recording does.

Jim


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

I enjoy doing this with pieces I already know well as mentioned above. With new pieces I would prefer to just absorb the audible music and not be distracted by the printed page - except maybe brief annotations between movements so I'll know what to listen for.

I too have found nuances I wasn't aware of from just listening alone - especially with very contrapuntal or polyphonic melodies played on a single instruments where it can be hard to pick out the individual lines.

This same effect happens when watching a piece live or on a video. I had listened to Dvorak's 9th for decades before I realized what I thought were two different motives in the first movement were really the same motive with the accent displaced and a note added. It's hard to describe in words but really simple. After the pleasant quiet opening, the strings come in with a jabbing minor three note motif that sounds rather ominous. A bit later on there is another motif that is really the same but with a brass blast added at the beginning. I always heard these as two distinct motifs, but had to _see_ the brass hitting one note and quickly switching to strings doing the remainder to realize they were virtually same motif. I wish I knew the notes so I could represent what I'm trying to say more clearly. Anyway, seeing it was rediscovering it.


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## ladyrebecca (Mar 19, 2009)

Weston - I think you're absolutely right about new pieces. I definitely don't reach for a score on a first listen; I can't imagine doing that, though I wouldn't be surprised if someone enjoys music that way. I only do it, in fact, when I want to learn a piece I know very well and like very much, even if I'm not playing it. It's like getting something extra out of the piece, a bonus.


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## JTech82 (Feb 6, 2009)

What's fun, in addition to following along with the score, is standing up and acting like you're conducting the orchestra. I did this one time and my girlfriend walked in on me. I wouldn't have minded so much, but I was wearing a tuxedo jacket with no pants just my trousers. Yeah, I was a little embarrassed. 

She just rolled her eyes and went into the kitchen to start cooking dinner.


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## ladyrebecca (Mar 19, 2009)

JTech82 said:


> What's fun, in addition to following along with the score, is standing up and acting like you're conducting the orchestra. I did this one time and my girlfriend walked in on me. I wouldn't have minded so much, but I was wearing a tuxedo jacket with no pants just my trousers. Yeah, I was a little embarrassed.
> 
> She just rolled her eyes and went into the kitchen to start cooking dinner.


Nice. For the record, there are far worse things to be walked in on.


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## Edward Elgar (Mar 22, 2006)

Listening with the score, I find, is fantastic. You will learn orchestration, composition techniques, analysis and the history of music without knowing it because you're having so much fun! That's my experience anyway, I'd recommend!


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## Herzeleide (Feb 25, 2008)

In general I try to be familiar with the music before I follow the score. Because concentrating on the score (I find) can vitiate the experience of listening to the music when I'm not familiar with it.

I love spontaneously remembering bits of orchestral pieces then going and looking the passage up in the score. One of the best ways to learn orchestration.


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## Edward Elgar (Mar 22, 2006)

Yes, listening first without visual reference is vital. This is because we must remember that music is not what we see, but what we hear.

This sounds obvious, but then again, how many of you have heard someone say "I'm going to hear "Take That" or "I'm going to hear Britney Spears". Nobody whom I converse with seems to hear popular music. This seems odd to me somehow, but then again, only the finest human specimens are selected to become the next vessels of wealth for the fat-cat producers in the pop music industry. 

In this respect, it's vital that we see, as well as hear which seems to have become the byproduct of visual stimulus. One can't deny that music videos help the flow of money in the direction of popular culture, they wouldn't be made if they weren't profitable!

Sorry for this slightly off-topic rant, but I really feel that people should take advantage of the art that will benefit them and not someone else.


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## Enjoying Life (Aug 2, 2010)

I have just started working with sheet music while I listen. I find that it helps me pull out the themes and transitions. I also find it helps with polyphonic music which is fun to watch happen in the sheet music while you listen.

I am slowly learning chord structures and open and closed cadences. I hope to build a simple cheat sheet to help me with key signatures and the related tonic, dominant and subdominant cords.

I suggest starting with Mozart or Haydn since their music is fairly structured and somewhat predictable.

Dover publishes a lot of sheet music and you can get it from book stores or Amazon. You can also find a lot free on line - search Wikipedia for a specific piece and they usually have links to sheet music. in its form.


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## Wicked_one (Aug 18, 2010)

Yes, I do. For several years now. I love the little black dots on the paper and seeing the actually orchestration and how they should play it and all the dynamics... oh, dear! Love it! Especially a conductor's score with 20+ staves while the orchestra has a powerful character attached to it.


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## djmomo17 (Aug 12, 2010)

Reading along adds immensely to the experience, but if you're not used to it it can be frustrating. One of my earliest score-reading attempts was Rite of Spring! I think I made it half way thru before passing out. I did recently read thru the complete Beethoven piano sonatas and that was a sublime and thrilling experience. I felt so confident that I tried reading thru the Missa Solemnis - whew - back to the chamber music!


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## Norse (May 10, 2010)

It varies how often, but I do this pretty regularly. For some reason I tend to listen along with the score more often if it's a sonata (or other works in sonata form; string quartets, symphonies etc), than if it's not. For instance, I've actually printed all the Beethoven piano sonatas from IMSLP in "study format" (2 pages per sheet) so I can follow along and plot in some basic analysis as I get to know all 32.


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## djmomo17 (Aug 12, 2010)

My recent blog post is relevant here I think. It's about following scores using notation software:

http://lvbandmore.blogspot.com/2010/09/92-scorch-musescore-synthfont-rocknb.html


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## Yoshi (Jul 15, 2009)

I did it before with musical pieces that I knew already, but never with a new one.
Maybe I should try it.


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## ozradio (Oct 23, 2008)

I've tried and quickly got lost. I probably need to start with easier pieces.


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## emiellucifuge (May 26, 2009)

Of course, before proceeding to study any score, simply following provides invaluable insights.

Its great, and i have purhcased many scores Ill never get to round to properly, just to be able to follow along!


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## Nevohteeb (May 5, 2010)

I love to take my scores with me, when I go to the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont, in August. I sit in the dining hall with my music, and try to follow. What drives me nuts, is the repeats in Schubert's trios. I'm happily going along, and then comes the deadly double dots, and , so I go back to the previous set of d.ds, but the musicians keep on going on, ignoring these dots, and so have to scramble forward and try to get back on track. Oh, well, it's a good learning experience, matching those black notes on paper, to the sounds I'm hearing.


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