Marked up the book, interfered with my leanring
By suspenseful
@suspenseful (40192)
Canada
February 5, 2010 10:51am CST
All right, I am not going back to school, but I am taking music lessons so I borrowed a book from my friend. I am also in the choir, and often we get a piece that has been played a few years back. And sometimes I pick up a text book from the thrift store since I am horrible at math. Now what usually happens is the previous teacher or the previous student went and marked the rest stops, what the soprano sings, or in the case of anything else, some particular paragraph or a reference point that they need to remember.
I now I could easily erase them, but sometimes the eraser messes up depending on what pencil they used and of course, if they used a hi liner or a pen, spoils it all.
The trouble is that those marks mess me up and makes it harder for me to learn.
So do you find that marking in the book makes it easier or harder for you to learn the subject.
2 people like this
8 responses
@suspenseful (40192)
• Canada
6 Feb 10
It really confuses me. It took me longer to learn that piece, not because it was very hard, but because the extra marks that the student put in, stopped the flow that would have happened if the piece were not marked. Also the music teacher or the one who wrote the book has a certain objective in mind and if someone marks the book different, that sort of interferes with the objective.
@suspenseful (40192)
• Canada
8 Feb 10
It depends on whether they have several of the same books. Usually when I am at our thrift store, there are only one of a kind I did find a music theory book that had two of them and I picked up the less marked up about a month ago. However, when I was in our local thrift store, every music book was marked up, but I did need some extra music to practice and I wanted ones with a little difficulty. Oh yes and they used a pen to mark them up. Could not erase them.
And the very very easy ones were hardly marked up. I guess i will wait until we can go to a real music store and have to pay a lot for the music books i want.
@suspenseful (40192)
• Canada
5 Feb 10
It would be hard to go to a second hand store, and stand there with an eraser in your hand and erase all the marks on the pages. Not many have that much time. The best thing is for the seller to not high light what they want to learn.
2 people like this
@suspenseful (40192)
• Canada
6 Feb 10
The trouble with marking music books or song sheets is that every conductor interprets the song different. For one thing, in a choir, he might want you to breathe at a certain place or maybe instead of saying Lord out loud, may want you to say God out loud, he may want one phrase said quiet, and perhaps instead of the all the sopranos sing the highest notes, just have the first sopranos do that.
If one is a soloist it is different, since usually the singer keeps the book, but if one is in a choir, it is a bit different.
1 person likes this
@dawnald (85146)
• Shingle Springs, California
5 Feb 10
NO, I wouldn't propose cleaning it up. I can't speak for music books, but I do remember that with used textbooks, some were kept up much better than others. So I always used to do an inspection before I bought a used book (if there was more than one to choose from).
2 people like this
@jezzmay (1845)
• United States
6 Feb 10
I find it makes it easier for me to learn, by
marking key sentences. It helps me to remember
them that way. I guess we all learn in different
ways. As far as music I can not tell you how this
would effect me.
Have a great day.
@suspenseful (40192)
• Canada
6 Feb 10
That is the trouble, we all learn different, and also when we get a second hand book, maybe the part that they marked off is not what we are having difficulty with. With music, we all know or most singers or musicians know that there is the soffalgio or do, re, mi, but when one happens to get a sheet of choir music, and the previous user was an alto and they are a mezzo, or if the previous conductor wanted the choir to sing that passage softly and a slower speed and your conductor wants you to sing that passage at normal speed, and you see the passage "sing softly and slow" you kind of get confused. It is that the notes you make may not fit the person who will buy your book.
@dragon54u (31634)
• United States
5 Feb 10
I never marked up books because I wanted to re-sell them when I was done, I was always on a shoestring budget whenever I took classes. I don't think it would have helped me. What helped was physically writing facts down, taking notes. I might highlight a word in my notes so I can easily find it but never the books!
Sorry yours is all marked up. I got a book like that once and wondered why the person make those marks--they highlighted things that were not important and wrote illegible notes in the margins. I wasn't able to get much for that book! 
2 people like this
@suspenseful (40192)
• Canada
6 Feb 10
For me, I want to keep the book as new as possible since unless I go to a thrift store, I saved to get the book and worked hard for it. Also I find unless the marks are universal -like putting do, re, mi in song books, it does not help anyone. Unless that person is the duplicate of the person who first marked the book.
And I do not learn by notes. I learn by listening and doing.
@Hatley (163776)
• Garden Grove, California
5 Feb 10
hi suspenseful I went back to the U after I was in my fifties to get the last two years in and get my BA . I found that while used books did cost less a lot of them were marked in and this made learning harder for me. For one thing the passages I would h have highlighted were of course unmarked but other passages were hi lighted, so for me it hindered me in studying. I do not like to mess up a book much that way, as I intended to sell back some of them. I think its much better to make a small notation way to the side of some passage that you particularly wish to learn, something that will not bother the next person who might wish to study the book. I can see that in the case of music it would be even harder to study with marks all over the place. In this case I would think the first user should have just made a notation in a small notebook of things he or she wished to observe leaving the page clear for any other users. I dont think that marking like that on music lessons is a smart idea at all. I hated it when I found some pages almost all highlighted as it made it harder for me to read and to remember with all that distraction. 
2 people like this
@suspenseful (40192)
• Canada
5 Feb 10
I find that it is cheaper getting the book at a second hand store, but when the person marks the book all over with what he or she has difficulty with, it makes it harder for me to learn anything. For instance, I do not like it when they draw a wiggly line from the note in the left hand to the note in the right hand if it is over quite a bit. And when they put their voice in yellow (what happens if the next person to get that piece is not a soprano but an alto?) Notes in small writing in pencil on the margin that are easily erased all right, but why did not they not erase them? And what about their own note pads?
1 person likes this
@myzire72 (1154)
• Singapore
6 Feb 10
I do mark up my books - plenty of handwritten notes in the side margins, lots of highlighted text in different colors, diagrams, underlines, etc. It makes revising easy for me, and I bacame a more efficient student. In fact, this technique has been recommended by Edward De Bono, creator of the famous mindmapping tool. Of course, you don't have to mark up your books if you don't want to. You may want to invest on your own book if the mark-ups really bother you.
@suspenseful (40192)
• Canada
6 Feb 10
I have friends who find it easier to learn by reading and marking up their books, and their music sheets as well, but it just confuses me. I will often write in a separate note pad, but I often figure that maybe you might want to sell the book. Also I find it easier to use my memory by not marking the book. Otherwise I get a bit lazy and think "well I already marked that passage, so I do not need to memorize it."
@danishcanadian (28955)
• Canada
6 Feb 10
that drives me nuts, regardless of the topic of the book. I need new, unmarked books, ur used but unmarked books. If the books are marked up, then they are useless to me. I have a hard time seeing, so i need the pages to be clean, so I can see what I am supposed to see without a bunch of distractions.
1 person likes this
@suspenseful (40192)
• Canada
6 Feb 10
I am slightly far sighted and need reading glasses for small print. Also I need to see something in a dark contrast in the text, and often these notations are made by those near sighted people who can write teensy weenie and you waste your time trying to figure it out.
@salikcell (32)
• Indonesia
6 Feb 10
I guess the marked sentences on the book would make us more easier remember the subject of than unmarked book, but it depend on study style of person that learned. and if that marked book make you hard to learn, it would be better for you to buy new fresh music book
@suspenseful (40192)
• Canada
6 Feb 10
I learn better by listening and doing rather then reading. Besides if one is doing a solo, one has to get their own music book. There is also that you may have difficulty learning something other then what is marked in it. And if you want to sell the book later on, the other person might not like that idea.
