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I was wondering about when you learn a piece, Does anyone work out where the beat goes then mark it on the score in each bar, or do you just remember where it goes.
I have always tried to just remember which I find difficult, how does everyone else on here do it, do You have your own way or do you mark the score. For me reading is hard enough as it is without remembering , especially something like 13/8.
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If you are just wondering how others do it vs marking, I just do it. If I don’t know a piece, because I am not musically inclined and able to do a piece I haven’t heard the beats and accents to, I just don’t do those pieces. It is hard enough for me to be able to play with correct intonation, so I have to know how a piece is to sound before I can play it. Since I have to know how a piece is supposed to sound before I can do it, by definition, I know the beats and accents and just do it. I am so not musically inclined. Makes this very difficult.
But if you are asking because you think there is a right or wrong, I would think you do whatever works for you. I think you mark whatever you need on your sheet music.
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I was wondering how others do it. I can learn a classical piece for instance, and as you say, if I havent heard it first it generaĺly sounds nothing like the tune when I do hear it for the first time, 
Cant beat a sunny day
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@stringy
From my own experience, I have a pretty set way that I count because it was drilled into me as a child (drum student), so kind of part of my being now 
. However, even then, with complex rhythms (like you say 13/8, etc., ), I’ve written out things on my sheet music – and sometimes it will vary from the counting “rules” that I have for myself. When I find that I need to write something out, I’ll start with the downbeats, & then annotate whatever I need to do to (syllables, etc.,) to have it make sense to me.
I’ve attached an example of what I did in the Bach Double, 3rd movement. It is in 3/4 time. In measure 11 (2nd violin), it has a few triplets followed by 16th notes & some slurs, too (which will throw me off). The highlighter is added for this example (I wouldn’t use highlighter in my sheet music).
So, the first thing I do is find the 3 down beats, & draw a line separating them. In this case, I separate the 1st beat into two parts because of the 8th note rest (1, + - which I articulate as “one, and”).
And then since the 2nd beat is structured much like the 1st beat (an 8th note (rather than an 8th rest) and a triplet), I separate it the same way (2, +).
The 3rd beat is just four 16th notes (3 e + a – “three, eee, and, ah). So, I can leave the 3rd beat alone for right now.
Back to the first two beats. In my “method” of counting, I would normally count triplets as “one-laa-lee two-laa-lee”, etc.,. but since the triplet does not start at the beginning of the beat, I found myself counting it as “one, trip-pa-lee” followed “two, trip-pa-lee”. "One" on the down beat (8th note), "Trip-pa-lee" on the upbeat (fills the space of an 8th note).
“Trip-pa-lee” is just what seems to translate to me – I’d say whatever comes out for you that makes the rhythm right is the right thing for you to use. I did not write “Trip-pa-lee” on the sheet music – it was enough for me to just annotate the down & up beats (8th notes).
As for the slur on the 2nd beat from the 8th note to the beginning of the triplet – I would play these first two beats slowly, and either pause slightly at the slur, or I would initially play the 2nd beat without the slur. Once I could hear it, I would remove the pause/replace the slur.
Once I got the 1st two beat down, then I would put the 3rd beat in. Since the last beat is 16th notes, I would need to make sure I was focused on the 3 beats of the measure—that each beat had its allocated notes. If I had trouble, I might pause in between each beat to make sure I played the notes within that beat correctly before going on to the next beat.
Once I got the measure down, I would then go back to the previous measure 10 & play thru measure 11. Then play measure 10 thru measure 12, etc.,
And I would definitely listen to the piece (on YouTube, etc.,), too.
Not sure if that’s helpful, or the kind of answer you were looking for.
Characterize people by their actions and you will never be fooled by their words.
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Its exactly the kind of answer I was looking for sharon, thanks a mill, I will be honest I had to read througH it a couple of times to understand what you were meaning ! as I am thick as two short planks, but I get it, its basically maths division, a lot of practice indeed) thanks for taking the time to show me how you do it, its much appreciated.
I am getting into complicated music, which is easy enough to translate to the fingerboard, in as much as the notes and where they are, but phenomenally hard to get the correct timing.
Cant beat a sunny day
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stringy said
I was wondering about when you learn a piece, Does anyone work out where the beat goes then mark it on the score in each bar, or do you just remember where it goes.I have always tried to just remember which I find difficult, how does everyone else on here do it, do You have your own way or do you mark the score. For me reading is hard enough as it is without remembering , especially something like 13/8.
In orchestra music, I mark beats if it's even the slightest bit hard to read, whether it's because of a tricky rhythm or even simply because of how it's printed. Even if I'm going to get it right 99 times out of 100, I don't take risks there. It's harder to remember than solo music because many of the tricky rhythms are in the background, not the melody.
In solo music, I do it less often because I find it easier to remember, but I still do sometimes if it's especially tricky.
Unlike Sharon, I do not number the beats. I mark where the conductor beats.
In more complicated rhythms, where the conductor may beat a mixture of long and short "beats," I use triangles above the staff to mark the threes and plain lines to mark the twos. For example, let's say there's a passage in 7/8 time where the conductor is in 3 (3+2+2), I'll mark the dotted quarter note "beat" with a triangle to signal that it's three eighth notes, and the quarter note lines with plain lines.
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