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Topic: Piano Accompaniment Tutorial  (Read 941 times)

Offline aaronpetit

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Piano Accompaniment Tutorial
on: May 14, 2021, 11:54:10 AM
Hi all.
Collaborative piano has been a passion of mine for many years. I have been fortunate to play some major works with high level instrumentalists and singers in many different performance settings. I finally decided to make as "comprehensive" of a tutorial as is reasonable for YouTube. 5 weeks later, it is done. Inevitably, there will be sequels to this, but here it is for now. I hope this will be helpful to some of you. It's rather lengthy (30 mins) so I recommend digesting it in small chunks.

The link is acting weird, but hopefully this works.
[https://www.youtube.com][/watch?v=ad4M2B_323U]

Also, I couldn't tell if this belongs in performance or teaching since I am presenting my view for eventual performance rather than discussing how to teach this etc. Just let me know if I should post it in the other section.

Thanks for the watch!
Feel free to reach out if you have any questions for me on this.
Aaron Petit




Offline annonymouse2

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Re: Piano Accompaniment Tutorial
Reply #1 on: May 14, 2021, 01:16:02 PM
Aaron Petit,   your link doesn't work because it is in brackets.   
Here is the direct link. Just to help out.

Online lelle

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Re: Piano Accompaniment Tutorial
Reply #2 on: May 16, 2021, 07:56:54 PM
Thanks for sharing. I think often you have to play even softer than one might think. When you play 30% softer you can hear the other musicians, but you often can't hear them clearly. It's a common problem in college ensembles. The piano doesn't exactly drown the others out, but it's slightly too present in the balance nonetheless. Unfortunately, playing as ultra-softly as you might need to in some voices or even fast passagework requires a highly developed technique.

Offline quantum

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Re: Piano Accompaniment Tutorial
Reply #3 on: May 17, 2021, 06:29:15 AM
Good video, covering many important points in collaborative piano. 

In vocal music, awareness of text and its translation is another consideration.  There are times when the text asks for a break in phrasing at a point where a pianist or other instrumentalist would not commonly place one.   Also if there are multiple verses using the same melody, the phrase breaks might be at different points in each verse according to the differing text.  To a pianist, this might mean phrasing differently with each repetition, even though the notes remain the same. 


Some instruments are able to endure long rehearsals more than others.  Vocalists and wind players require caution to not push them singing or playing for too long a period.  Strings and keyboards tend to be able to go on for longer periods.  One should be mindful to budget rehearsal time according to the instruments involved. 
Made a Liszt. Need new Handel's for Soler panel & Alkan foil. Will Faure Stein on the way to pick up Mendels' sohn. Josquin get Wolfgangs Schu with Clara. Gone Chopin, I'll be Bach

Offline aaronpetit

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Re: Piano Accompaniment Tutorial
Reply #4 on: May 31, 2021, 02:20:31 PM
Good video, covering many important points in collaborative piano....

Thanks for all that you said. You bring up many excellent point, all of which I agree with. It's always hard when covering a topic this huge to even scratch the surface I an overview. I may do a second video addressing all of those things and more.

In any case, thanks for the watch! :)
-Aaron

Offline aaronpetit

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Re: Piano Accompaniment Tutorial
Reply #5 on: May 31, 2021, 02:23:19 PM
Thanks for sharing.... Unfortunately, playing as ultra-softly as you might need to in some voices or even fast passagework requires a highly developed technique.

Thanks for watching and providing feedback. Yes, I agree. I always say heir on the side of quieter than louder. And you are correct about having to have a highly developed technique to control the volume. Like anything done well in music, most accompanying isn't meant for intermediate or beginner levels.

Offline aaronpetit

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Re: Piano Accompaniment Tutorial
Reply #6 on: May 31, 2021, 02:26:03 PM
Aaron Petit, your link doesn't work because it is in brackets. 

Thanks for giving the link. When I hit the YouTube button it was putting everything in brackets and when I pasted it on its own, it simply removed it when I posted. Do you know how to get around that problem in the future?

Offline anacrusis

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Re: Piano Accompaniment Tutorial
Reply #7 on: May 31, 2021, 11:13:55 PM
Thanks for giving the link. When I hit the YouTube button it was putting everything in brackets and when I pasted it on its own, it simply removed it when I posted. Do you know how to get around that problem in the future?

I use the Youtube embed button by clicking the button to get the brackets/tags, and then copy/pasting the video link in the middle of the opening/closing tags. It seems to work for me.
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