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It's festival season and I have accepted roughly 8 pieces between 2 families which I will accompany for (all musical theater pieces). The parents have been asking if I will record my accompaniment for their kids to practice at home with. Obviously this means less rehearsal time which is both good and bad (bad because I will make less money due to less rehearsing). This also means I have to fully prepare these pieces earlier than I normally would so that they can have a quality performance to practice to. What would you do?

Hi IPlayPiano. I do not know how these things are commonly handled, but I have had the occasion to hire an accompanist for my daughter. I have never asked for a recording and I cannot imagine asking for a recording. However I always ask the teacher for the score of the piano accompaniment, which my daughter studies thoroughly and refers to copiously when practicing the piece at home. For the purpose of musical development I believe that this is preferable.

I think it is rare to ask for a recording. How about you charge a high price for recording that equals to how many rehearsals you anticipate to miss?

I would not make a recording. My friend's kids see an acting coach and voice teacher along with a strictly voice teacher. The voice only teacher charges a lot and she plays while she teaches. The voice/acting coach has an accompanist and charges an extra fee for the accompanist on top of his fee. It would be cheaper for them to use a recording but that just isn't how it works.

Unless you know the families well I would be reluctant to make a recording. I sometimes do recordings for a friend of mine who is a voice teacher but it's usually sight readable and we record at their house as they have the equipment.

I would encourage them to listen to some recordings of the pieces perhaps. There's no harm in them even singing along if it's in the right key and is the same version.

But......

The job of an accompanist is to respond to the soloist. A recording can't do that. I would put it to them that way. Singing to a backing track has no flexibility and that's a big problem, especially with musical theatre songs. They need to practice with you in a live situation. Having said that I don't think you need to rehearse a great deal for these things. If they know their solo reasonably well then one good rehearsal will cover it. For exams and festivals that's what I usually offer. A fixed price which covers one rehearsal and the performance. If I turn up to rehearsal and they don't know the rhythms or notes etc. then extra rehearsals cost extra. They can even sometimes turn into coaching sessions!

Do this.

I am actually familiar with the practice. My son was in an arts magnet school, and as part of the program he had two performance exams per year. His accompanist told him to bring a cassette. He had a piano that could record the piano part alone while they played, and it could also duplicated it at half speed but original pitch. I later asked my accompanist to do the same thing, but since she had an acoustic piano we just stuck a tape recorder by the piano. She played it through once during our rehearsal time. In both cases, no extra time was taken. In other words, the recording was produced during paid time.

Going by my experience, this does NOT take the place of a rehearsal, and it is not the same as a rehearsal. In a rehearsal you are working with the accompaniment, working out how you will play the piece together. If you are a student more at the beginner end, a good accompanist will also guide you in various ways. (The coaching that was mentioned).

Having a recording was invaluable for other things. Still being a student, I was able to follow the piano part with the score, see how piano and my instrument worked together, and what kinds of cues I might catch from the piano to help me. I got used to the interplay of two instruments. I found it helpful, but it did not replace rehearsals.

I did three accompanied performances. One of them included a recording as I described above. There was NO difference in the number of rehearsals for performances where there was a recording to work with, and those without a recording (because recordings do not replace rehearsals). My son did many more performances than I did, and his number of rehearsals per performance didn't change either.

You are charging for your service, which is probably a per hour fee. If it takes you 30 minutes to do a recording, then that should be your fee. Not "this replaces 3 rehearsals because the student can work on his own, so I should charge for the hypothetical 3 rehearsals."

Out of curiosity - when performing more difficult and unfamiliar music, you would need to practice and learn the piece. Is the time taken for that considered in coming up with your total fees?

Having a recording is valuable for the performer, even though it is a fixed tempo.

But that doesn't make it the accompanyist's job to provide. There are lots of alternate ways to get a recording, including buying a CD. (or doing your own in software. I make lots of recordings for singers with a notation program and midi. Some of these I possibly could play, but if I'm going to do four recordings, each with a different part louder than the rest, software is the way to go.)

If they need to learn to cope with an accompanyist and changes of tempo, there's a software way around that, too.

In what I related, the accompanist had a DP with a place for a cassette. After they had worked out their interpretation, he rehearsed with my son while the system recorded his accompaniment only. This reflected their interpretation, which no software or commercial recording could have done. If this is a desired service and it is feasible, why not consider it?

Also, this had nothing to do with "coping" with an accompanist. The person receiving the service was quite at home with it.

Yes, that was an unfortunate choice of words. I meant rehearsing the skill of live performance, with give and take on both sides.

A recording is the same every time, as is the metronome. A duet is never the same twice.

There are programs that can follow the performer, like Band in a Box, but I've never used one. I have used a conductor program like Tapper, which has lots of potential. You can vary tempo and dynamics and there is no upper limit on difficulty.

I don't. To be honest sometimes the preparation would cost so much there is no way anyone would pay. I absorb the cost (in time) partly because I enjoy learning new music and also because it's there if you ever need it in the future.

I can only go by our experience, and how we used it. I did not "rehearse" with the recording, but I did use it. You are picturing somebody playing along with the recording like a substitute-accompanist. I agree that this would not be good.

I agree that recordings can be useful to listen to.

The problem I find is that students who perform with recordings don't lead. They follow the recording because they have to. Learning to lead and be independent is something you can only do with a real accompanist.

That is a very important point. And if you are at an early stage, it is hard enough to get the confidence to lead in the first place.

I am picturing somebody using a recording to prepare for the accompanist, using it to be rock solid on every entrance and pitch, so that the rehearsal time is used for interpretation and getting used to working with each other as a team.

I guess that I was too. It is possible that the manner of preparing might be different.

Singing with a recorded accompaniment is terribly annoying, but it can be helpful. Definitely charge what you think is reasonable for your time to make the recording should you choose to do so. However, there are accompaniments already made that the parents can usually find online and pay for. Also, on youtube often the accompaniments to popular songs can be found there. No sense in doing the extra work in recording (there is a bit of a pain in the post-production part). What if you don't have great recording equipment? Are they going to expect high-quality recording that you can only get with expensive equipment?

I have had my students work with recorded accompaniments when I am unable to play for them (aka, Skype students). It's better than nothing, and they still have to rehearse with their accompanist for the festival they're singing at, but this will cut down on difficulties with singing with the accompaniment (it's amazing what the mind can add in for the harmonies when you've never heard the accompaniment before - sometimes you think it's a totally different song until you hear the piano part!). So I think the practice of it is good and better than nothing.

I would record the accompaniments, but I live in a town where there are several of us who have a lot of vocal accompanying experience and it's pretty much expected that we're able to sight-read most of the MT literature. (I've played several auditions where singers would walk in, put a piece on the piano, and then you play.)

Especially at the high school level, a recording can be very useful. The student will have to follow the accompaniment - this means that when you rehearse, they'll know the accompaniment and will be less likely to get lost. (This is nice because it means you get to spend more time rehearsing the music instead of teaching them their part.)

A couple of things you might do:

1) Charge for the recording. If your regular rate for rehearsals is $30/hour, then charge them for the time you spend recording.

2) Make the recording during the first rehearsal. Tell them to bring a tape recorder (or, more likely, their cell phone) and have them set it by the piano during the rehearsal.

3) Set a flat fee for the project. Say you'll provide a package (recording, performance, and up to 2 rehearsals for $50 or whatever you think is fair.)

I do make accompaniment recordings from time to time, and I've worked out a fee schedule for this. No, it's not ideal, but it is useful for the (usually) student performer. They still have to learn how to perform with a real live pianist, when to lead, when to follow etc. It's not so much that it cuts down on rehearsal time, but that, as Kreisler says, the rehearsal time can be spent on the music rather than teaching them their part.