Does anyone else find it intensely annoying that with so many quality notation programs available,some publishers STILL print music to look like the spiders have been partying in the ink well?Novellos now print a wonderfully clear version of "After Syrinx 2" by Richard Rodney Bennett after years of studying a 50%music,50% hieroglyphics copy,yet PME (and this gripe isn't aimed solely at them)have sent me Peter Klatzow's "Figures in a Landscape" notated in such a way as to make me not want to learn the piece for fear of developing a squint! Am I just getting old or is this a common complaint?

very valid complaint Mike...

I also have a problem with scores which have been written in a way which makes it impossible to the perform the piece from the score (bad page turning points, size of score...etc...) As you know I used to memorise most of those "spidery" scores when I was at college, but now I do this less and less with new music I'm learning...

Although a different issue all together, I think it's important for mallet players to read and memorise challenging scores in performance. There will always be the odd passage which has to be executed with eyes at the keyboard...

Of course percussion scores in general have long suffered from inconsistancy in score "design" which compounds the problem when added to "bad" penmanship....

Encouragement seems the only solution I can think of...

TA