The Score Marking Dilemma

First quarter of Grad School(yes the quarter system is weird) is almost complete. I performed in my first concert in a long time. Still in awe of playing on the Hindemith "Symphony in Bb" and Rodrigo's "Adagio" is one romantic, fiery piece! It's been 5 years I think and my chops have sure let me know it, however I think I'm in better shape now then I ever was in my undergrad...

playing with my iPhone4

Wind Symphony and Chamber Players gave a good concert last night. I was glad to be part of it, but I can't wait to be conducting them next quarter. The piece is still TBA, but I'm starting to score study some options. That brings me to the point of this post. Why can't I find a score study method that is clear, thorough, uncluttered, and makes perfect sense to me???

In an effort to relieve my headache this afternoon. I took a break from marching band rehearsals at Centerville and marking up scores to "google" score study. Here are a few links I found:

Professor VanWinkle(New Mexico State) on Score Study

Kenneth Woods on "Score Questioning"

Tim Reynish website on conducting

WindRep.org's resource list from various wind conductors

Dr. La Rue(Georgetown) handout on score study

Drew Collin's Vocal Score Study Guide-It shows a lot of depth!

A Student Teacher's Score Study Outline for Portfolio

Denise Grant handout on "nuts and bolts" of score study

Last an excerpt from one of my favorite books, Boonshaft's "Teaching Music with Passion"

So I read through these today and I'm just as confused as before I started. I am in grad school to try to find my conducting "voice" or my style, and of course to gain credentials for a good job.

I sit here now with my erasable colored pencils with which I have marked dynamics and time and cues and wonder if I should do less. My score looks cluttered, but I can easily see what's happening. Then again am I too focused on what I've carefully marked in the score?

Should I do a little less and write more in the margins? Should my cues be like ( connecting those I want to cue? How do I make sure I take care of percussion too? Should I use highlighters? my colors? Just a regular pencil? Macro? Micro?? ahh what I'm I supposed to mark to help me help the ensemble? Should I mark spots to listen for common errors? How do I show who's the counter melody together without making broad strokes across the whole page? How do I show phrasing? How to I keep track of rapid fire meter changes.

Looks like I'm going to take this to the www.musicpln.org! Then again I know in the end it's all personal choice. I just don't know how to get there now. What is my method and how do I discover it?

My mentor keeps telling me that everything in life is a conducting lesson. He also says that I will leave our lessons with more questions than answers. The great thing is I didn't even have a lesson today.