I play Cello since I was a kid.

1) I's easier to rest my hand on the stand and annotate if there is enough thickness to support the paper, especially if the stand is a hollow wireframe. If it's a lone sheet of paper, I tend to just lay it flat against my cello and annotate there (and I must be careful not to mark the wood underneath the paper).

2) Correct. But so do good bindings, to a lesser extent. Many bindings aren't easy to lay flat, though.

3) That depends. If you play the piano, a whole collection of studies sure will be heavy. But a melodic instrument playing a focused piece you will go through? No heavier than separate sheets: you'll use them all anyway.

4) That issue is mitigated by most good editions, where the bottom right corner of the right page is a pause long enough to let you turn. I've seen many poor editions that could be laid out properly, but weren't.

1. I have a binder with hard back

3. I play the violin and most of my music didn’t come in one piece one book. Each book has many pieces.

Only concertos sometimes occupy a whole book. Even then, they also contain the piano accompaniment scores.

4. I agree, some good editions are very considerate.

> Only concertos sometimes occupy a whole book. Even then, they also contain the piano accompaniment scores.

Aren't the piano score separate, so you can give them to the pianist? All concerto scores I have a separate, thin, staple bound score for me, and a thicker one for the pianist. (I don't know how they manage to turn their page with the audience hardly noticing.)

Some has a separate, loose solo score, but not all of them. (But I’m mostly talking about carrying scores for practicing and lessons. For performance, the soloist has to memorize the score anyway.)

Ideally, there should be a page turner sitting next to the pianist.