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My daughter has been invited to join her violin school's performance group (yahhh - we are so excited!!!) Her teacher knows I play the piano and asked if I could accompany them for repetoires sometimes. They have a great accompanist who plays for thier performances and most repetroires, but she isn't always available and he would like to add more repetoires. Since I have to be there anyway, so I might as well play.

I've let him know that I'm not great and that I will make mistakes, but he doesn't care - as long as the children have something to play along with. So, I've been practicing LOTS and can get through most of the songs pretty well. I probably won't start playing with the children until after the new year, so there's still time to keep working and polish things up.

I've never accompanied before, so what are the most important things for me to do? I know timing and playing with a good, steady beat are important, so I've started practing with a metrenome. Any tips for this new exciting, but scary adventure?

Help is very appreciated! Thank you, Stacey.

How wonderful, Stacey. It sounds like great fun.

Because I am a closet player, the best advice I can give is practice with people in the room so you can adjust to an audience.

And, practice looking at someone else while playing. As you will be playing with students, they will depend on you to keep the beat and stay with them, when they falter, as best you can. So practice watching someone (your daughter would be perfect as she could practice with you).

Other than that, have fun, laugh, relax....all the things I do not do......

The single most important thing is to stay in time--much more important than playing the right notes, or even playing all of the notes. No matter how many mistakes you make, you just have to keep going!

If you're used to playing solo, then you're probably used to trying to play all the notes on the page no matter what. It's a hard habit to break. As a beginning accompanist, you need to work out what's important and what can be left out. For most pieces, if you're confident that you can play the correct harmony on the first beat of every measure then you have a good foundation.

I hope you enjoy this new experience!

Yep, accompanying is a different skill and mindset than solo piano playing. Along with the other advice you've received here, I'd add this:

1. Don't stop playing. (This sounds stupidly obvious, but if you get stuck, the soloist can just stop and collect themselves.)

2. Don't go back and correct your mistakes. Just keep going. (This relates to #1.)

3. You need to follow the strings, not lead them, in terms of tempo, etc. They will determine dynamics and tempo, adding rubato, etc. You just follow them. (Do they have a conductor? I'm assuming not--but if they do, obviously you follow the conductor. Otherwise, 1st violin generally.)

4. Be flexible. You will probably not play every note, unless the accompaniment is really easy. Things happen, page turns are necessary, etc. Learn to "wing it" if you get stuck. Sometimes you can do this by just playing the left or right hand for a measure while you collect yourself. Sometimes you'll just vamp a chord or two. Whatever. If there's a measure or two you just can't play, plan something easier to get you through.

5. Plan your page turns. You may have to memorize the music around the page turns until you get to a point where you can turn easily.

I love accompanying. But it took some getting used to! Have fun.