How do you help each other keep time in duets?

[keyofc]

Hi there,
When you play a duet with someone at a recital,
how do keep time without counting out loud?
keyofc

[pianistimo]

i think the proximity of pianos is extremely important if students are playing on two separate pianos.  once, i had to play with someone on the opposite side of the stage.  i couldn't tell if i was hearing reverb or if we were together.  thankfully, there's always the bobbing head.

seriously, you have to be able to hear each other.  if the student is only listening to him/herself - the duet goes nowhere.  tempos do not suddenly change unless there is indication.  i would set a metronome for a while and make them both stick to the beat.  then, gradually - let them play together and stop them when one starts going faster or slower than the beat.  or, start tapping the pencil.

one person and then the other can 'take the lead.'  this, to me, means being the one to DECIDE to speed up or slow down.  this would be much later - when tempos have been established. 

i also think that it is only fair to let each person 'shine' in certain portions in recital.  so they should highlight where each is going to 'knock it down a notch.'

[Jacey1973]

This is a good question.

I played in a piano duet this year for the first time and I didnt realise how keeping in time would be so difficult!

I think as pianists we get so used to playing alone and keeping our own time that it is a whole new concept doing a duet/2 piano work - as with larger ensembles there tends to be a conductor, or at least one instrumentalist (say in a piano trio for example) who will take the lead.

To overcome this problem when I was rehearsing with my piano duo partner we learnt to use eye contact/breathing to help us keep time together. It was really difficult - as we're both quite confident solo performers, as we had to support each other by really listening to both our parts; pedal for each other; realise when our part was less important (accompanying the other part) and visa versa.

I think it just takes time to adjust to the piano duo/2 piano concept. Using things like eye contact/body movt's etc to keep yourselves in time with each other will probably come quite naturally to you both in time.

What pieces are you doing?