It’s usually not enough to learn your own part when you’re an accompanist – you need to know what the soloist is doing as well. The accompanist needs to learn the soloist part (as well as their own) Musical continuity is key, and it takes a high degree of flexibility to figure that out. Even if it means repeating a part, or skipping a part. Even if that means making up something that isn’t actually on the page. The accompanist needs to just go with the flow, and keep the musical continuity. If you have to stop and pause to get your bearings, it’s going to really mess with the soloist, who has already messed up. See, it’s all about making the soloist look good. Not only does the accompanist need to be able to hear if the soloist is skipping part or playing the wrong notes, the accompanist needs to be flexible enough to adapt to it. You need to hear all of these changes and adapt on the fly, almost to the point where you need to be telepathic. The soloist might change tempo, they might skip an entire part, or they might play something that isn’t actually on the page.
You have to be a fantastic listener because of this. Some have a sense of tempo others do not. Some of these students are well-practiced and well-prepared others are not. Some of the accompanying work I’ve done in the past is playing with band students. Accompanists need to be excellent listeners So if you’re the kind of person who likes blending into the background and you don’t need a lot of personal credit, then this might be up your alley. The violinist, the singer, it doesn’t matter – you’re simply there to support them.Īt best, you’ll get a thanks, or a footnote on an album. When you’re playing for someone, it’s all about the soloist. Accompanists are underappreciatedīeing an accompanist is not the gig for you if you’d like to get any credit at all. Some people are really cut out for being an accompanist, though, and that’s what we’ll talk about today – the skills that are required to be a great accompanist, and why it’s such a challenge. I personally consider it the toughest musical gig there is, which is why I don’t do it anymore.
In the past I have done accompanying work – where you play piano in the background while someone plays another instrument or sings. I’ve talked about piano teaching on this channel a bit in the past, so I thought it would be fun to take a look at other musical gigs, particularly the ones I’ve personally done. I shall be accompanying a grade 8 recorder exam in a couple of months - pieces are not difficult for the piano though, otherwise I'd probably have turned it down, as I did when the same person asked if I'd accompany his ATCL recital flute exam - one of the pieces seemed really hard when I looked at it.Today we’re going to take a look at what it’s like being an accompanist. She just carried on and said afterwards that she'd been wondering why the audience had started laughing in the middle of the piece!!!! My worst of all time accompanying disaster was when I fell off the piano stool in the middle of accompanying a violinist. The examiner probably hadn't heard it before either, and he came and stood right behind me to read the music as I was playing it!! He was playing an ultra modern piece and the piano part had so many accidentals and weird chords in it that I'd not been able to get the hang of it properly.
My worst experience in an exam was when I was accompanying a saxophonist (can't remember what grade, but one of the higher ones). This results in me being probably just as nervous as the soloist. He got First Prize, by the way!Īlthough I don't think that a bad accompaniment will reduce the marks a soloist gets, I am acutely aware that if I play badly or make lots of mistakes it may affect the performance of the soloist. The child I was accompanying carried on playing (as per my usual 'carry on whatever happens' instructions) and I finally got back in about half-a-page later. Regarding accidents, I still remember a ghastly incident at a music festival in clear detail from nearly 20 years ago, where I was accompanying a fairly brisk piece and inadvertently turned over two pages by mistake - and THEN while one-handedly trying to turn it back succeeded in throwing the book on the floor, and had to grovel for it under the piano.
Think of it as providing a framework for them to hang their piece on! I've played some frightfully difficult accompaniments for the faster pieces at higher grades for my recorder pupils, in which quite honestly the best that can be said of my contribution is that it is rhythmical and keeps going - and yet they have come out with excellent marks for those pieces. I accompany my pupils in exams and festivals all the time, and no, it doesn't matter in the slightest if you make mistakes, as long as you are competent enough not to let it throw you and thus endanger the soloist's performance.
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