Hello all,

I am looking to start taking on some pupils next year but am concerned about my piano skills..

My past singing teachers have all been competent pianists as well as fantastic singers and teachers, my current teacher was a first study pianist first..I really worry about how i will cope with accompanying pupils.

I am about a grade 5 standard piano and hope to improve my skills, but was just wondering, those of you who teach..how well do you play.? And to those of you who have lessons, how do you feel about your teacher as an accompanist?

Thanks

My teacher is an extremely good pianist. I suspect it has been very helpful for her to be so competent in this way. There might be ways round it though. For example, there are a range of software available that convert sheet music into midi files - enabling your computer to provide accompaniment if needed (the smart music suite also gives 'sensitive accompaniment' - you connect the singer via a mike to the puter and the accompaniment responds to their voice. It's obviously not perfect, but it's a reasonable substitute for piano skills.

That said, I feel fairly sure that grade 5 piano is probably perfectly adequate for practice type accompaniment, but you might want to refer your higher grade students to another accompanist for some practice, and for exams - perhaps have the accompanist in for the last few lessons before an exam or recital?

I don't think your faced with an insurmountable problem, here.

Hi Songflower

Don't let your current level of keyboard skills put you off. My singing teacher isn't the world's greatest pianist, but he's a terrific teacher.

I am also relatively limited in my piano ability, but am coping OK at teaching.

Most of what I'm doing is achieved equally well without a piano - and it stops the singer relying on the piano for pitch. Not only that, but I can concentrate on my pupils' technique a lot better when I'm not trying to play something at the same time.

I have a couple of accompanist contacts I can bring in when I need them, and that serves my needs.

cheers

Katyjay

Hi Songflower! I'd echo very much what katyjay said- none of my singing teachers have been great pianists - that's not really what I'm looking for in a teacher! I'd put someone who could help me with technique way above good piano skills. Obviously, it does help and is useful in lessons, but I'd imagine grade 5 would be perfectly adequate and there's certainly no harm in looking to improve. As long as you can recommend a pianist to your pupils for exam purposes I really wouldn't see any problem.

Best of luck!

I'm doing my Grade 8 this year.

I'm not a natural pianist, but always try to play for pupils.

It's done my sight reading the power of good.

Normally my students are happy enough with my playing to let me accompany them for their exams.

I'm currently with my 4th singing teacher, and all of them have been awful pianists!
However, my voice has gone from strength to strength, and the piano playing hasnt affected my lessons or my progress.

Just make sure that you have a good accompanist contact for exams/recitals etc!!

emily

I have been playing for 5 months, and am also a singer, piano skills are meant to be very useful for universitys i hear.

I would consider myself to be a compitent pianist and accompanist - fast sight-reading is essential as is modifying accompaniments! However that's only my opinion....!

The thing I find really hard are playing accompaniments for pop songs which are so obviously not arranged for piano. The kids then complain that they don't sound right and they can't sing (well they're obviously not going to if they are normally played on rock guitars etc....!)

David

No David, fast sightreading and the ability to modify accompaniments on the fly are two of the abilities that I find myself calling on too!

I jokingly refer to "The impossible dream" - (Man of the la Mancha) as "The impossible piano part"!

For popular music I tend to use backing tracks for performances, and go to the sheet music when working on sections. For singers wanting to do popular music, they will find themselves using backing tracks anyway. Its not just Karaoke!