Lazy Singers

[666666]

I play piano in college for the band and sometimes for the choir.  I really enjoy playing for the band, but for some reason I can not stand playing for the Choir.  I feel like I'm playing for children, they ask me to do things and play in ways that are not always comfortable (speeding and slowing the tempo randomly simply to benefit their interpretation, or lack of interpretation of each piece).  They will give me 12 page songs 2 weeks before performance, and expect me to have it down perfectly.  In band, the other musicians are always sensitive to my plight, complementing my ability to side read 2 staffs quickly, and they will adjust the tempo at first for difficult pieces, and let me work my way up to speed.

I have decided when I do start I real career in music (paid), I want to avoid these lazy singers as much as possible.  After all, why should I work so hard to support the music of people who don't seem to work hard, or care about music at all. 

Has anyone else had this type of frustration dealing with Accompanying singers?  Is it always this tedious?? 

[Bob]

After all, why should I work so hard to support the music of people who don't seem to work hard, or care about music at all. 

Because they pay you?  It doesn't matter level they're at, you still need to have everything ready for accompanying.  It really doesn't matter so much how the soloist has prepared (or group).  If they're bad, you just plug along with a steady beat and drag them to the end.

What are they asking you do more specifically?

It might be that the choir members are learning their parts during the rehearsal.  You might be asked to play any of their parts alone -- S, A, T, B,  and any combination might be asked.  That's part of accompanying a choir.  And you have to have your piano accompaniment part down.

It's completely different than band -- Actually for band, you're just another instrument part.  It's probably a much easier piano part for band, although I've seen a few weird ones -- trickier rhythms, lots of octaves.... Probably using the piano more as a percussion instrument or for the occasional solo section.

And depending on the band piece, they could probably the cut the piano part and still have the piece.  For choir, piano is so essential... during the rehearsals and for the performance.

I'm guessing you had a lower level choir?  Freshmen?  The bottom choir?  If it's the top choir, I would think the conductor would move things along pretty fast. 


Accompanying solo vocalists has been the same as accompanying solo instrumentalists for what I've done.

For choir, you're supposed to be able to play the piano accompaniment, all the parts separately and in combinations.  And do their little warmups.

[kitty on the keys]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh yes singers . After doing my time with them in college....teahing notes...rhythms...language..ect. By the time I was a junior/senior....the voice teachers loved me cause I knew most of the literature....but I told them if they want me as an accompanist....they are either prepaired..or I walk.....and I did on a few ocations...I rocked those divas....hahahaha.
   But if you are bing paid....be prepaired on your part and take the good with the bad. At least you will look professional and will be reccomended to others.

[richard black]

You may have just stumbled across a lousy choir, for all I know. I've accompanied lots of them and mostly they really want to get their stuff right - any help the pianist can give is gratefully accepted. Choir singers, amateur ones anyway, are often some way behind instrumentalists in terms of training but they are in my experience usually pretty humble about it - sometimes excessively so, really. Individual singers (recitalists and opera singers) vary enormously in their musical skills, and there are some very good opera singers (familiar names at houses like La Scala and the Met) who rely on a pianist pretty much teaching them the notes. I work for a few singers in that category and if they're pleasant people - as most of them are - I'm happy enough to help for my usual hourly rate. Then there are singers who will learn fantastically difficult opera roles pretty much unaided and come to me just to sing them through once or twice before meeting the rest of the cast. And everything in between!

[sashaco]

There are always some hard-working singers, but for the most part high-school and college singers seldomn look at their parts outside of rehearsal.  Some of them don't even have the skills to learn their parts alone anyway.  Richard writes that some opera singers barely have the skills for that.  I was frustrated with my fellow singers in both high-school and college.  Those of us who could read were essentially singing our parts loudly for the first 10 or 12 rehearsals, rather than trying to make music.  Over time, though, I've come to think that that's just the deal, and there is a different pleasure in pulling the less experienced along.  If you don't find any satisfaction in that, you don't do it.  I remember urging the conductor tof the largest choir in high school to devote ten minutes of each rehearsal to teaching sight-reading, but he felt that would sacrifice too much time.  I thought that in the longer run it would save time, but now I'm sure he knew better. (I also recall correcting accompanists occasionally- I must have been lovable.)

I do remember a conducting class where we sang orchestral parts for one another to conduct, and it amazed me what awful sounds some of the orchestra players could make, but I'm sure they were equally stunned at some of my weaknesses.  I do remember that the only time I was complimented for anything in that class it was for my singing of the horn-calls in der Freischutz, which I did in counter-tenor.  Bright college years...

Sasha