How to be good accompanist?

[dora96]

At the moment, I am really struggle to be accompanist. I have been playing the piano for 25 years, and sight reading is quite good. Come to play at church recently, I am really battling to keep in time with the song leader. We have gone through the music each week and practice the repertoires by myself and rehearsal as a group. However, come to the service at Sunday, the rehearsal is always different from the actual performance, either the people sing it too slow, or I am ahead from them. I know it doesn't matter to the congregation, to me I want to do it well to bring the worship in joy and cheerful spirit. Music not keep in time is really like a sore thumb. Despite, I use metronome and count out loud, it is not completely perfect.   

Someone said to me "To be accompanist, I found that if I practice like 120 percent, in the actual performance if I can perform 70 percent in result, I am doing it very well." There is so many things happen, we rehearsal one tempo/ rhythm, the congregation sing it slightly different tempo, plus I sometimes play the the wrong notes, miss the repeat, chores. or the song leader miss the opening. Another thing, during the solo part, it is  hard to join part together. Singing and accompaniment of music is different from the actual playing the piano, because singer has to breath, I find that hard to adjust or tailor  the length of the phrasing. 

How to practice it if I am practicing on my own? Is there any good accompanist out there? Can you give me some tips or tricks? How to flake it when I miss the music to cover the mistake? How to do the damage control, even though, not playing at church, for instrument accompanist or competition question is how to be good accompanist and support and enhance the performance of the singer? 

[db05]

Yes, I have problems accompanying too (I play keyboard in a band). What I would do is to sing while practicing. It's a bit difficult, but it's good because I don't have to sing pitch-perfect, and not metronome-perfect either. Guitarists do that all the time, and I prefer guitar accompaniment to piano. But I love solo piano. I think the piano has a mind of its own. 

[dan101]

It's tough getting into an accompanying frame of mind without a partner. Keep in mind that listening is one of the key factors in achieving success. Having said that, the more you rehearse with a soloist, the more you get a sense of your colleagues rubato, etc.

The hardest type of accompanying occurs when a minimum amount of rehearsal is involved. I would suggest two strategies; more rehearsal time (if possible) and knowing your part inside out (remember that you will have to know it well in order to divert some of your attention towards the person that you are playing with).

Good luck.

[iumonito]

Hi Dora,

To be a good accompanist you have to do two things, in rehearsal you must be clear in your musical expression, so that without saying a word your partners will find their place in time, dynamics, and feeling.  Sometimes you have to stop and talk about what you envision, listen to what they envision, and develop what you all envision.

If you play with musicians that are more experienced than you, chances are they do this to you, even if you are not aware of it.  One of the strongest musical experiences in my life was playing a few bars with a great violinist years ago (Shostakovitch sonata, they guy had played it with and for Shostakovitch a million times).  He led each phrase with such intensity and confidence that I had to go with him, even though the aesthetic of his vision was light-years away from what my friend and I had been doing with the same passage.  He didn't say a word about tempo, dynamics, rubato, or anything.  It changed me for ever (Thanks, Mr. Dubinsky; good teaching!)

Chaliapin, who was a genius, is said to have said once that when he sang with Rachmaninov it was inescapable to embrace the strongest climaxes and the inexorable logic of his architectural understanding of the music, from the most minute ritenuto to the drama of entire operas.

In other words, you have to assert yourself.

Ah, but then...

You are not alone.  In performance, you simply cannot play along with the metronome and leave everyone else behind.  The piano, being a percussion instrument, usually has the best chance of making immediate adjustments so that things stay together.  If your singer needs to breath, the piano has a much easier time of keeping the two of you together than the singer, who needs an eternity to take air in, and then a little while longer to make a sound.

Don't be self-rightgeous about the pulse.  "Together" usually sounds better than "in time - but just me (my singer is coming to this beat soon, don't worry!)" any way.

And with congregations it is even worse.  You have no rehearsal, and they hear you at different times (and you hear them even later).  Sound, after all, travels.  It takes a while for it to go to their ears, the ones in the front sooner than the ones in the back, and then their voice to yours (and the lower notes will take longer to produce and wil travel slower through air).  For congregational singing, then, you have to do both of these things at the same time, and tolerate a modicum of temporal mis-allignment.  Monteverdi and Gabrielli had it worse, so no worries.

The secret in that situation is to have a firm and predictable beat before they start singing, so they can predict (even though they don't know it) where the next beat will be.  But then, for some magical reason, then they will all sign more or less together (after all, usually they know the tune they are singing very well, and it is usually not a horribly complicated pattern). Once they do you just need to embrace their tempo and keep it steady and predictable.

One last hint: the flow of shorter time values, which usually is yours, dictates where the next beat should be.  Use this power wisely.

The good accompanyst is invisible, some say.  I say invisible but the one keeping everything together and in place, like gravity.

en fin: there are musical ideas that are nearly impossible to pull off when playing with others (small-scale rubato being usually the worse if it involves notes occurring simultaneously).  But, alas, if the idea is clear, and shared among the players, there is really no limit to how flexible your musical discourse can be.  (not that you are going to get your Gypsy or Latin self to the rendition of Ein Feste Burg).

Good luck and enjoy.
Cheers,
IU

[dora96]

Wow Lumonito,

Your post is absolutely amazing and uplifting. It has been worrying me for some time. Firstly, most of the people servicing the church are very busy, not only they have to work, but also they need to care for their family. Time is essence to achieve which I don't have very much of it. The rehearsal is only once or if I get lucky maybe second time, I feel extremely frustrated and lack of confident. I think it has been issue and happening to most churches and congregations. Our leaders encourage us that don't worry God will be with us, just have faith and we will be right. No matter how much faith and confident is in God, we are still human being and need to mould and shape.

You are right about the music, the feeling about the music, since I come from the classical background for contemporary music,  it is hard to get my head around it. But like dh05 said " try to sing it, when I play". I start doing it, it helps, however, English is not my first language, to break the word down into the note, I do need to work on it. The worst of it, if you have to accompany singer who is singing other language like Italian, or German. I haven't tried that yet, but in Chinese, it sounds even wried. Therefore, to feel and in tune with the music must be first thing, get known to the music. I mean the Gospel song is not hard at all, but getting in time with other people is tricky.

You also mentioned that one of my song leader is very experienced and musical, she demand a lot with the music, the music get emotion, I need to be emotional and spiritually involved. The architectural understanding of the music, how the chords progression, and minor and major, and changing the key to reach its orchestral level to bring whole congregations into God' glory and majesty and the phrasing of the passages go etc.... really make me feel  that playing the piano for these years, there are so many things I still don't know about. You advises and ideas have enriched my understanding and desire to do better. Thank you.   

[richard black]

The only real difference between being a soloist and an accompanist is that in the latter case you have to listen to sounds you aren't making yourself. You'd better get used to that, and in fact the less you listen to yourself the better. Seriously - you should be able to play at least reasonably well (accuracy and tone) even while listening to something like loud conversation on headphones, i.e. something distracting and unmusical. Then playing while listening to something musical and related to what you are doing is not such a trial. (Musical and unrelated is difficult but hardly relevant!) Get used to 'reading' the other performer(s) ahead of their next note. It's only a knack.

[Bob]

Just follow and anticipate.

But if it's a church choir director, are they really that good of a director?  It could be their fault.  There are plenty of crappy directors out there and if it's a church, they might not have gotten someone with any conducting background. 

[antoinedoinel]

The only real difference between being a soloist and an accompanist is that in the latter case you have to listen to sounds you aren't making yourself.

I'm agree. In any case there is music to listen to carefully (not too much attention to other things).

[paradisi]

I accompany a LOT!  Community choirs, school choirs, soloists, and yes - CHURCH!  Listening is key.  I practice things at different tempos - trying to make sure that whatever speed the director takes, I'll be able to stick with them.  Listening at phrase endings is especially important.  Singers need to breath, and natural pauses often result.  Mark phrases/breaths in if you need to.

In church when I'm on the organ - I'm sitting behind them in the loft.  It often sounds like they're lagging in the tempo, though I suspect it just takes their sound a brief second longer to get back to me. 

As for the song leader - often church song leaders aren't that experienced and it may not be you - but him!  Unfortunately, it doesn't matter!  As an accompanist your job is not only to do your best, but also to make everyone else sound THEIR best.  Even if the song leader/congregation is off, you need to follow them.  Just like finding a soloist if they miss a measure (it happens!).

As for people who think that "God will be with us", they're right.  But it doesn't mean that we don't need to be prepared.  One pastor once told me "we ought not to pray for things we aren't willing to work on ourselves".  On the other hand, I am very comforted by the story of the 5000 being fed by Jesus on a few loaves of bread and fishes.  God will multiply all of our feeble efforts, when we dedicate them to Him.

Hope this helps!

[thine]

well, if you're just an accompanist(say for example in church) you should be fluent in improvisation .it is not you who is highlighted. it is just you who tie things together, the foundation per se.

[Bob]

Haha.  I just remembered the phrase, "Polishing a turd."  There's really only so much you can do and so much you can reasonably follow (without giong overboard and memorzing the music so you have instant reponse to any event).  If the group isn't that good and the director isn't that good, there's only so much you can do.  Just don't let them blame you for their poor performance.

[timothy42b]

The only real difference between being a soloist and an accompanist is that in the latter case you have to listen to sounds you aren't making yourself.

Yes, but I think we can be even more specific than sounds. 

It is not really the sounds, but the time.

Thinking about it over the 19 days of this thread, we haven't emphasized time anywhere near enough.  Playing together with a group is not about volume, expression, etc., but first and primarily about time.  You have to listen with big ears! to the time.  To the beat, to the change of the beat, to whether you are laying off the beat slightly in either direction, etc.  You're lucky on piano, you don't need to include intonation. 

It is very common for experienced pianists (and especially organists) to become casual about time.  I suspect they don't know it themselves, but the rest of us have come to expect keyboard players to be sloppy about time, unless they have experience playing in groups on another instrument.  Count, subdivide, work with a metronome, play duets. 

[Bob]

And watching the conductor for a big group.  That's all visual.

[dora96]

Yes, but I think we can be even more specific than sounds. 

It is not really the sounds, but the time.

Thinking about it over the 19 days of this thread, we haven't emphasized time anywhere near enough.  Playing together with a group is not about volume, expression, etc., but first and primarily about time.  You have to listen with big ears! to the time.  To the beat, to the change of the beat, to whether you are laying off the beat slightly in either direction, etc.  You're lucky on piano, you don't need to include intonation. 

It is very common for experienced pianists (and especially organists) to become casual about time.  I suspect they don't know it themselves, but the rest of us have come to expect keyboard players to be sloppy about time, unless they have experience playing in groups on another instrument.  Count, subdivide, work with a metronome, play duets. 

You are right Tim, I always struggle with time. I have to ask my song leader to give me hand conducting during the service. Please give the signal that the song leader want to slow down or pause during  singing. I couldn't  read anybody's mind especially so many thing happening during the service, they sing and they talk between the worship. The worst thing  I strictly follow what the music written, but they don't, and sing it what they want. However, if I am very experienced I would easily make adjustment to their rhythm. I am afraid I am lack of this sort experience. Now I find the more I try the more I will be familiar with the worship.

I find that accompany instrument is more easy than accompany singing. The timing is really bad. People basically don't want to count for the rhythm, want to listen by ear or feel with the body. It is really hard especially I have to be solo player in the congregation. 

[doowlehcc]

I am just an amateur... so not sure how valid my experience is.  check out my blog on accompanying:

https://www.rickerchoi.com/?p=603

Essentially I feel that being a good accompanist, besides knowing how to balance the sound right, I have to know the vocal line (or violin line etc...) as well as the vocalist (or violinist ..)  I have to feel the music exactly as how the singer / instrumentlist feel it - so there is a lot of talking / discussion / then rehersing.

In the end, I must have the music flowing as one team (me and the soloist).  On the piano, I literally take the same breaths as the soloist in critical moments (e.g. start of a dramatic phrase)

I used to make the mistake of trying to 'be together'... now I realize I really need to 'flow along'.

[avguste]

Greetings
I have been performing as accompanist for both voice/instrumentals and ensembles for many years as shown by my website,so here are my thoughts:

A pianist should know each part as his own.That way the pianist can make adjustments on the fly during a rehearsal or a concert.
Now if there is a conductor,the pianist must watch and follow the conductor at all times.
Finally,a pianist must listen,hear and follow the other artist.
The above doesn't come overnight and one should play often as accompanist to be able to do the above without thinking
However,doing those three things should help any accompanist.

[dora96]

My problem is I always hit the wrong note if the music is advanced and complicated. My improvisation is not very good. I want to do something interesting with my left hand. I find that when I play the hymn at church, there are 3 to 4 verses. It is so boring to play more or less the same. I want to learn more, but for me just listen to other pianists playing or recordings I feel I don't get very fast being playing the actual music.

Last week, I have recorded for some gospel music. I would like to upload, can you guys give me some comment. Do you think my improvisation is ok ? If you can give some idea to make my music more interesting less boring. Please let me know. Thank you

[avguste]

One of my past teachers told me one day that as accompanist, if needed we can cut some of the piano parts,especially if it is a transcription
Will listen to your recordings tomorrow

[richard black]

pianist should know each part as his own.That way the pianist can make adjustments on the fly during a rehearsal or a concert.
Now if there is a conductor,the pianist must watch and follow the conductor at all times.
Finally,a pianist must listen,hear and follow the other artist.

I'd add one requirement to that - an accompanist must know how to lead, subtly, from behind - and must know when and where this is appropriate!

as accompanist, if needed we can cut some of the piano parts,especially if it is a transcription

Sure, cut notes out of orchestral reductions if you need to, add a few in if you know what's not there. You're on shaky ground taking liberties with anything actually written for piano, though.

[avguste]

which is why I wrote,especially in transcriptions

[dora96]

From my experience, most people I work with, they are not professional singers. Sometimes, I find that if I do too much improvisation, it will only confuse the poor singer, if too little just focus on the melody, it seems too boring specially if the music has few verses and chorus.

The timing is hard to adjust, last week, when my song leader and I was rehearsing. He wanted to sing bit faster so I practice the tempo to suit his need. When we came to the worship, the congregation started singing too slow. I was struggling to slow it down, because the rhythm was engraved in my head. I always find the difficult to follow the sound while I am in big hall. It seems the sound traveling different speed than what I am actually playing the piano. 

[avguste]

Usually this type of issues happens in church settings.
But both you and your singer should remember that the congregation might very well start to sing so the tempo should be appropriate for them also.
As far as you being able to adjust,besides practicing and knowing the music in and out,it is mostly experience.At least as far as I am concerned

[theodore]

This may have nothing to do with an accompanist’s skills but it is a true story.

Recently I went to a meeting of pianists and heard them play various selections from the standard piano repertoire. One pianist played the first movement a Mozart sonata and it sounded quite crisp and exhilarating. The melodies were punctual and much emphasis was put into stressing a strong rhythmic agogic.

Then 30 minutes later another pianist, who was a vocal accompanist, played the finale of the same Mozart sonata at a rather brisk tempo. The second pianist made the  melodies sing, even at the fast tempo.   It seemed to me that this accompanist had exposure to a wide variety of musical experiences, with singers and other instrumentalists, and that it made her performance alive and vibrant with different expressive tonal ideas.

[brianedward]

It looks like this topic may have died, but i would like to share my thoughts.

For me, accompanying vocalist can be quite easy if you pay attention to their consonants and inhalations. The consonants tell you where they are rhythmically, almost as if they have a percussion instrument coming out of their mouths. You don't even need to know what the words mean, or what they are even (though it doesn't hurt!), just let their consonants be your metronome and it will help a lot. Now, since you're leading a group, your focus should be on the conductor much more than the congregation. Just watch where they are (make sure you are able to see them without any problems i.e. choir members in the way, floral arrangements...) and you should not have to worry about being out of sync.

About wrong notes:
Wrong notes are great! Embrace those things! They let you know you're alive. Panicking about wrong notes is what will get you out of sync with the group very quickly. Just remember every student, or children's recital you've been to where everything is going fine until one wrong note comes by and creates a train wreck for the performer. If you are still experiencing that awful feeling when you hit wrong notes, you need to practice playing wrong notes. To do that I would suggest playing unfinished pieces for other people, an when wrong notes pop, just keep plowing through until you get back on track, or record unfinished pieces or your church music and have your focus be on keeping the tempo going no matter what. There is no reason to have note perfect church music every week (unless you really like the piece), learning to work with wrong notes will help you manage your practice time better anyway. Spend practice time emotionally preparing for wrong notes, and playing with different recordings ( i use youtube a lot for that). A quick tip for wrong notes is to just treat them like suspensions and resolve them to the note below or above, just make sure not to announce to everyone that you just played a wrong note by playing it and then following it with nothing, people will notice that.

Simplification is your best friend:

No one in the congregation is looking at the score while you're playing (maybe a hymn book, but even then they're reading the words not the notes), so don't think their going to feel cheated if you simplify difficult bass lines, or reduce octaves to single notes, 4-note chords to 3 or even 2-note chords. And also remember that your piano teacher isn't in the congregation circling wrong notes and judging your playing under a microscope. Your teachers simplified and played wrong notes too, and if they didn't they were either lying or just over achievers.

improvisations:

your improvisation (i only listened to the first one) was fine, the obvious complaint would be variety. Try different accompaniment patterns like alberti bass, repeated chords, sustained chords, broken chords, syncopated chords etc. Don't get too complex, keep things simple just playing the next verse in the upper register is enough sometimes. People like repetition though, most pop songs and hymns are just a repetition of two musical ideas anyway, so don't think you need to change the world for each verse.

Good luck!

ps becoming comfortable with the possibility of wrong notes will actually make you play more right ones because you've stopped worrying so much, which should ,over time, relax you.

[dora96]

Since I posted the thread, I have been reading and learning your tips and suggestion. They are absoluately wonderful. The last two months, I am starting enjoying  the service and leading the worship with congregation. I guessed that I have more experienced on the stage and it has been 6 months accompanying the song leaders.

One more thing, what is preacher chords? Another thing if I want to change the key with music, what key should I use if I am playing Bb major for the song? Is there a rule about changing key ?

[darnmat]

In accompanying, make sure your hearing your singer or, for your case, go with the 'people' singing. i think listening to them also is the key... the 'performance' itself will always be different, one way or another...

[penguinlover]

My experience with accompanying is that the more practice with the leader the better the performance.  I work with a leader that can't count worth beans!  I just need to go with the flow and "do it wrong" for the sake of the congregation (who really don't care!) 

About changing the key, you need to always check it out with the leader first.  There is no rule about it, but remember that changing the key may make singing more difficult. Always see if the leader can reach those notes before you change it,and NEVER do it on the whim without his knowlege.  It makes for funny utube performances, but in church it doesn't go over so well.

[dewapnd]

Actually if your background strongly come from classical, it's little bit hard to be accompanist, because the classical pianist playing either solo or with an orchestra, but don't worry. I also have had the same problem as you, but finally my piano teacher taught me how to be the accompanist. First, If you want to accompany, you have to know the character of the song you accompany for. It's like the key, the beat, the note etc. Second,  if you have known it, try to play the accompaniement part of the song. Practice this a lot to make your skill up to par. Third, if you have capable enough try to practice it with a singer to check whether you do well or no. After you think that you have make a well-accompaniement you can continue to the next step. In Church you usually accompany a choir so, you have to know the characteristic of them. A good accompanist should know their role as well. In rehearsal, try to practice with them and also ask for advice to them about the way you should play. The good choir also can give you the way they want to be accompanied. Actually, if you practice well, the result in the real 'show' should not be far different with the practice you've done. About the mistakes. If you make a mistake in the 'show', like play the wrong chord, too much faster or slower, do not be harsh. It is normal if you have not had a role as accompanist before. Follow my simple way.
1. If you play the wrong chord, do not change to the right one, because you'll lose the beat of the choir. Keep continue
2. If you play whether too fast or too slow than the choir, try to balance to the choir's beat.

I hope my explanation above can help you to be the good accompanist. Keep practicing and good luck!

Pandu Dewa Nata

[keyofc]

Dora,
I listened to your recordings - I think
they sound good -
For variety - think of the chords you're in - and change the melodic line a little
returning to the chords on time
and you can make it sound just a little different - but still keep people on track.
I hope this is helpful.