Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Am I crazy or is this? (Accompaniment going on)

Tell me if I'm crazy, but I just got the sheet music for three pieces for this choir rehersal Sunday and was expected to be able to play at choir rehearsal Tuesday. I told them it wouldn't be anywhere near together that, but if they really wanted I'd still come (and they still paid me). I was basically still in the sight reading stage after two days of hard practice.

Now they expect me to have five pieces prepared by rehearsal on the 24th. These are not short pieces. This seems like a lot of music to be learning in such short amounts of time. Do people actually do this?!

I'm going to get at least a couple of the pieces as prepared as possible by then but I don't know if I can have all five at the level they were demanding yesterday.

Well, if you are accompanying, you might have to expect this type of short notice on learning the music. Just do the best you can, and in the future, as the choir director (or whoever is in charge) if they can give you the music sooner so you can get it up to playing standards.

Good luck.

What were the pieces?

For what it's worth, I play with a few different church choirs and while what you've described stinks, it definitely doesn't seem out of character for what they expect of you. At least they gave you a couple days. I've had multiple experiences where they put a piece down and tell me to play it right then and there with the choir. I've even had them do this and also ask me to transpose it up or down. They seem to think pianists are machines that can just pump out anything they want whenever they want.

I'm lucky in that I'm a really good sight-reader, so most of the time it's no problem, but if you're not really good at sight-reading, it can be really tough. I'm only so-so at sight transposing. Once I know a piece back and forth then transposing isn't too bad for me, though.

All I can suggest is to try to make a compromise with the choir director. On their part, tell them your concerns and ask them (nicely, of course) if they could give you more advance notice. On your part, though, try to work on sight-reading so you can shorten the amount of prep-time you'll need. It's a great skill to have, and like it or not, there will be times where you need to learn something really quickly. Also, if it's just in a rehearsal, feel free to drop some notes if you need to in order to get through the piece.

On somewhat of a side, for those of you who play with churches, what do you think of the piano writing in a lot of these songs? I find there's an interesting mix. Some of them have really good writing and some of them are just plain horrible. I guess maybe certain composers don't know how to write well for piano and others do. Sometimes it's not even a matter of good or bad piano writing, but just bad music (i.e. bad voice leadings, breaking rules of 4 part harmony, etc...) A lot of times I just "re-write" most of the songs on the fly when I play them. For some of the worse songs, I think my arrangements are much better than what's on the sheet, IMHO.

It's interesting, they need me to know my part as well as be able to play the choir part rhythms. I've accompanied singers before, but mostly instrumentalists. It seems like playing with a musician, band or orchestra, they have a better understanding of what I have to do than vocalists.

I told them prior to rehearsal and again during rehearsal that this kind of short notice wasn't ideal (as nicely as possible). Then today I receive a phone call and email over emphasising how I have to be more prepared for the next rehearsal. Which I agree is true, but still. The number of hours I need to do this much music makes the forty dollars a week seem like a lot less than it was when I agreed. I can see why the previous accompanist left!

Yeah, they did give me a couple pieces to just read during the rehearsal in addition to the five I'm supposed to work on. "Play the first soprano part, play the second soprano part. Now play all four parts together. Now the piano part with us." It was like the sight reading test from heck. I thought I was a decent sight reader, but I'm just going to have to keep working on reading.

I'm not used to being caught unprepared which made it that much more uncomfortable. Luckily I have a digital piano so I can practice this late at night I feel like at the next rehearsal I have to really prove myself after having such a difficult time...

I've done that before too. Once they think you can do it once, they'll keep dumping the music on you in short notice. I do have to admit though it is a lot of fun once you get used to it.

8ude - transposing on the fly? Cool. I've never done that.

John

yeah this happens all the time to me. sucks. but oh well, it's what's expected of you as an accompanist.

just deal with it. I've gotten far worse than this.

This really is a new art that you've got to perfect if you want to accompany. It usually helps if you're sort of good at sight reading!?

I know this might sound a bit mean, coz I haven't really done it myself, but I've seen my teacher do it. He sight-reads the stuff like three or four times, and then is able to give a moderately good accompaniment - just sort of grabbing the stuff here and there and throwing it together, if you know what I mean.

But I'd really charge a higher price - coz you're probably putting more time, and a higher level of skill is demanded of you.

Good luck!

Hi from South Africa

Working as a repetiteur for a choir is a VERY different skill to accompanying and if you are going to be charging for your services there are some skills that you really need to develop.

Sight-reading, I'm afraid, is number one (as it is in most situations where you are working with other musicians as any kind of accompanist). It is not unusual, or unreasonable, for a choir director to expect you to play out individual lines (Sop OR Alto OR Tenor Or Bass) or even to play, say, the Sop and Tenor lines together and so on. This includes any unusual clefs you might be faced with (I've had to play alto and tenor clef before now). I don't mean to sound harsh, but if you don't have the score and sight reading skills to do these things, you really shouldn't be charging for your services.

It sounds like you need to do lots of sight reading using choral works. The piano parts are usually reductions of orchestral accompaniments and, as such, very unpianistic, but you are being engaged as someone who can cope with this so you must ensure that you can.

Where possible the choral director should indicate (in a bigger work for example) that 'we are going to look at the Kyrie Eleison and the Benedictus next week' but you must understand that should those movements be practised to an appropriate point, the director cannot say 'Oh well we actually have time to look at another movement but the pianist can't sight-read it so we'll scrap the last half an hour of our rehearsal'.

I am not saying these things as a choral director but as a pianist who has worked as a choral repetiteur and continuo player at professional level on complex works like the Bach St. Matthew Passion, Mozart Coronation Mass etc as well as shorter pieces in a variety of styles.

If you are going to feel really comfortable and maintain a good work/life balance as an accompanist of any kind your score and sight-reading skills need to be second to none.

Sorry if this sounds hard or not what you wanted to hear, but these are the hard cold facts.

Good luck with it.

Welcome to the NFL.

What does NFL mean?

I think he's trying to say "Welcome to the Big Leagues"

*laughs* I was just about to say "Welcome to the Big Leagues", but I was beat by Mr. Tude, and ultimately by Kreisler's perfect comment! Damn!

NFL = National Football League (in the United States)

And yes, 8ude is correct!

("Welcome to the NFL" is an idiomatic expression in American English.)

After todays practice I just read through each piece a few times and they're already together. I used to sightread through one of my books a day (like through Chopin Waltzes, a volume of Beethoven Sonatas) but I think the writing in the choral pieces are more modern than I was used to. Plus I hadn't been doing that as much in the last month since I finished my degree. I figure, they hired me because of my resume and experience so if I can do all that I'll have no trouble doing this.

Oh 8ude asked what the pieces are. Here's the list so for: Like a Tree, The Earth is Singing My Name, Ella's Song, Avowal and then I'm expecting two other pieces to arrive by mail

It's not a church choir, just a community organization. There is no director, so a group member directs each piece.

I'm just happy to hear that it's normal. Wouldn't mind hearing more practical advice

Forty bucks a week, huh?

Seems to me you ought to show up and do the best you can for about two hours, and not spend any time at all preparing. That's twenty bucks an hour. They're getting a deal.

Then, if they don't like that amount of labor for forty bucks, they should go out and see if they can get someone better at the same rate. My guess is that they'll have to pay one heck of a lot more to get someone that can do everything they're demanding.

I don't think they appreciate you. It sounds like the kind of job that isn't worth the gas getting to.

I've been around choirs way too much to be very sympathetic to them.

In your last post you say "there is no director, so a group member directs each piece."

Oi weh! This is a nightmare. There is nothing easier than getting up there and waving your arms around and calling yourself a choir director, and everything is really the responsibility of the pianist.

Wake up. Smell the thorns. This is not a good position for a conscientious musician.

Tomasino

Tonight I went to rehearsal, At the beginning I made it pretty clear the amount of time I need for a piece. I practiced the couple pieces they gave me originally and pretty much didn't get much time into the new ones they sent. We only rehearsed like one of the accompanied pieces I learned though.

I still am responsible for going over individual parts, rhythms, etc. Considering the practice time alone, it's hardly worth the money. I'm just limiting my part in things and discussed with them the limitations. I might stick with them for a little while to see if things improve.

Hopefully they won't continue to pile on new music every week.