The Accompanist’s Plea – Winning our Favor (aka How Not to Tick Us Off)

Life’s good when you have an accompanist who is your greatest support. The mutual respect you develop between each other can go a long way in making your performance experiences purely delightful.

Now, before you go running to the store and picking up a copy of How to Win Friends and Influence People, you should know that some of these interpersonal relationship tips I’m about to share merely stem from being an accompanist for these past 26 years and from working with numerous musicians, young and old – amateur and professional. My 2 cents worth.

The Accompanist's Plea

PLEASE communicate with me

  • If you’re meeting us for the first time, be friendly. We don’t bite.
  • After introducing yourself, let’s share contact information and decide how best to get in touch with each other.
  • Let’s talk about scheduling rehearsals. Be flexible – and we’ll try to do the same.

PLEASE respect my time

  • Respect my time, and I’ll respect yours.
  • Let’s schedule rehearsals in advance. Decide on specific times and venues.
  • Need to rehearse in that auditorium or classroom? Please book the venue in advance.
  • I’ll pencil you into my schedule, if you promise to do the same.
  • If you’re running late for a rehearsal, a call or text message would be appreciated. I promise to do the same.
  • If you’re calling to cancel a rehearsal, 24-hours’ notice would be so welcomed.

PLEASE give me music in advance

  • Some of us sight read brilliantly; some of us, not so much. Please give us our piano score ahead of time.
  • If we have our own copy of the score, we’ll let you know.
  • We’d appreciate an original piano score, not copies. Besides, you could be hunted down by the Copyright Police. And we ain’t gonna bail you out.
  • If it’s alright with you, we’d like to pencil in (lightly) markings that will help us do a bang-up job for your performance. We’ll be glad to erase ‘the evidence’ after, but if you’d prefer us to leave our pencil markings in there for your future reference, we’ll be glad to do that too.
  • Could you secure a reliable person to turn our pages if needed? That would be nice.

PLEASE be my musical partner

  • Let’s chat about musical details and interpretation. I’d love to know how best you plan to deliver your performance.
  • I’m a collaborative pianist: one who performs beside you – not for you. Let’s share musical ideas with each other.
  • Let’s both mark in our scores the musical details we’ve decided upon. This helps in securing a consistent and cohesive interpretation of the piece. Let’s not ‘wing it’.
  • I’d love to know what interesting information you’ve dug up about the piece – its musical form, performance style, composer’s biography and background. Anything that might throw more light on the piece.
  • I’ll commit to knowing your solo part well, and hope you’ll know my piano part too.

PLEASE be prepared for our rehearsals

  • Let’s be efficient in our use of time at our rehearsals. Come knowing your part well, and I’ll do the same for mine.
  • I don’t think teaching each other notes and rhythms is a good use of our time – although I’ll be glad to help.
  • I have my pencil. Do you have yours?
  • Come refreshed and ready to make some music with me. I’ll bring coffee if you want.

Like I said, life’s good when you and your accompanist are mutually respectful of each others’ time and talent. Build a strong, supportive, positive relationship with your accompanist – and you won’t regret it one bit.

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