Am I Too Loud?, Understanding the plight of the accompanist Options

[silverfoxx]

This thread has morphed out of viledin4u's thread entitled 'How to find a good singing teacher'. The discussion touched upon the singing teacher's accompanist credentials when selecting a teacher.

I hope to place this thread initially within the viva voice forum for discussion in the hope that we may achieve greater understanding about the world of the accompanist and I have begun by naming the thread after the famous accompanist Gerald Moore' s book entitled 'Am I Too Loud?'

So is a good accompanist essential when selecting a singing teacher and what exactly is an accompanist?

[corenfa]

I can't comment on the singing teacher bit or whether it's essential, but as someone who has played at accompanist for a few forum events now (and on-and-off when I was a music student), I see my "job" as:

- it's about the soloist not about me. Even if the piano part is particularly juicy, it's not about me. My job is to make the soloist sound good.

- that means I have to follow whatever they do. If I play something in a way that they don't like, they get to tell me not to do it that way. (I would obviously disagree if somebody was telling me to do something musically wrong, like saying that I am playing wrong note values when I am not, but I have not encountered that).

- I have also not yet encountered a soloist who was really out of whack like dropping beats all over the place, but if I did, I'd have to follow along.

- For accompanying wind instruments or singers, be aware of their breathing. It helps that I have played horn before, so I have some idea that breath-operated instruments (including voice) require breathing.

It gets really fun when I just suddenly get that magical "click" with the soloist and we get to play off each other musically. In a sense, I live for those moments.

If I wanted to do it for a living, I think I would have to be able to do the following:

- be able to reduce conductor's scores

- be able to transpose at sight, maybe not all the notes but definitely enough to be able to provide musical support. I am guessing that accompanists for singers may have to do this a lot?

- be able to sightread enough and fake enough styles that if I get an unfamiliar piece put in front of me, that I can fake enough to get by. I feel I'm 75% of the way there with common practice stuff (baroque, classical, early to middle romantic). Can't sightread modern music to save my life! (I do love it though)

I find accompanying more fun than solo playing most of the time but maybe that is because i don't have to do it for a living (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Dulcet]

I just saw the thread title and thought "gosh I know a lot of singers who OUGHT to ask that question"!
Quite disappointed to see that it was about accompanists... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[silverfoxx]

I just saw the thread title and thought "gosh I know a lot of singers who OUGHT to ask that question"!
Quite disappointed to see that it was about accompanists... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

The question naturally includes whether the soloist is too loud. Please feel free to pitch in?