[robertddyson]

I find that for sight reading piono scores, if they are complex I print them out enlarged and go through to make sure I read the right notes on those staff extensions, and put in extra sharps & flats etc where they may get forgotten. There is an essay by Busoni the details of which I have forgotten now arguing for a new, clearer notation. The notation is a means to an end, so hack it to make it work for you. I am doing this with some Medtner piano music now. Then I try to get the notes right first time by going as slow as needed, annotating as I go. I am learning to use Dorico now, so some things I am rewriting to solve two problems at once. Whatever, I think a slow test of tricky passages with annotation is critical for me.

[robertddyson]

I have had a Sony ICD PX820 for a few years. I bought it as dictaphone, but tried recoding music and found it amazingly good – certainly totally fine for recoding practice time especially if put into the super high-quality monaural recording mode. Newer models could be worse, but check the reviews.

[robertddyson]

That is a useful, balanced way of putting it. Nothing should be mindless. Even if a whole scale run is not used in a work, as it is in many Chopin works, it is useful to have those patterns of fingering well established for even for short runs. A big eye-opener for me was learning the Grieg lyric piece, Butterflies, where I followed for a while the fingering in the score with a lot of stumbling. Then I realised that the short chromatic runs did not follow what I would use for a longer chromatic run. As soon as I switched – no more stumbles.