Hi,
I am a little confused about whether I need an accompanist for Grade 5 Trumpet or not. The pieces I’ve chosen all have piano parts, but I don’t have anyone to accompany me if I do, and the books that the pieces are in, didn’t come with a CD.

Anyone know what the rules are?

Thanks! Tim.

Yes, you'll need a pianist to play the piano parts of accompanied pieces

From the regs (14):


From These Music Exams (available here):

You do have to have an accompanist for any piece that has an accompaniment, I'm afraid! Have you got any musical friends who might oblige? Failing that, you could ask in your local music shop - they might be able to provide you with some contacts. Or you could contact the AB!

Any idea where i can get an accompanist from then, anyone been able to hire one for their exam?

http://www.musicteachers.co.uk/search allows you to do a search for accompanists

http://www.uk-piano.org/piano-accompanists/index.php is another place you can search...

Another option is to Google for 'accompanist [county]' so I would search for 'accompanist hertfordshire'. You might even find someone in your town!

Wow thanks, that is really helpful. If I did find a recording, do you think I could just take that in instead?

Thanks! T.

Not for AB exams. The AB solo jazz allows CD backings, as do Trinity exams up to a certain grade, but for non-jaxx AB exams it must be a live accompanist.

Thanks for confirming that then.

Good luck finding an accompanist Tim, remember you will need to have a good few practice sessions with your accompanist top get a feel of each others playing, and to make sure you can perfect playing at the same speed rythm etc. And to give the accompanist a chance to learn the pieces. Don't assume because somebody is a proffesional accompanist that they will be able to go in blind.

Good luck, again, let us know how it goes

I wish that syllabus lists actually provided a key that said "accompanist needed"! I was surprised to find that son Viohazard's Grade 5 guitar exam syllabus at the time included enough unaccompanied pieces that he didn't need an accompanist that time. Unless you have finished preparations for your exam, perhaps you could take another look at the syllabus and see if there are unaccompanied pieces in list A and B?

This time round (G8 violin), I don't think it's possible, but it would be nice to feel really confident that an accompanist was or wasn't needed BEFORE ordering the sheet music and suddenly seeing the words "piano part" on the front cover!

Learning to play with an accompanist is an integral part of learning to play any solo instrument. Keeping in time, for instance with a CD backing track is only part of the picture. Hence the requirement to play accompanied pieces in most exams. Hopefully you will find it much more enjoyable and rewarding to play with another flesh and blood musician than just making do with a recording. A good accompanist will be supportive and helpful, know where you have to take breaths etc and will enhance your performance. Your teacher should have some accompanist contacts, otherwise follow the suggestions in other posters' replies. Good luck with your exam. If you happen to be in Gloucestershire I'd be happy to help.

The general regs for Woodwind and Brass says:

BUT, I don't think it's possible in any of the recorder exams to select an unaccompanied piece from A, B and C - so you know you'll need a pianist somewhere along the line...I see the strings general regs is even less helpful!

Only the list C piece in the Recorder exams in unaccompanied, Descant and Treble up to grade 5 for certain, fairly sure it applies to the 3 higher grades too.

Yes, that seems to be the general rule, so I was surprised to find unaccompanied pieces in the A and B list for guitar, but I guess it's the concept of "self-accompanying instrument".

Yes, it's fun playing with an accompaniment but it's extremely expensive fun! And if it's so vital to learn to play with other instruments, why don't piano exams include it ? Maybe pianists should be "required" to learn the basic skills involved in accompanying all the rest of the musical world...for a start, it would make it easier to find an accompanist !

You're right, it's because the guitar can play polyphonic music, so there is more unaccompanied music out there for it; similarly harp, and of course piano. I very much doubt you'd be equally lucky for violin; and even less so trumpet, as these are single line instruments. It's not that unaccompanied (or double stopped) violin music doesn't exist; the Bach violin partitas are a good example, but I doubt much of it (and certainly not those ) would be found on the grade syllabus, it's rare, and at a guess generally more difficult. In a way it's good for him not to have to restrict his choice to work around this anyway .

Unaccompanied music does end up on the violin syllabus, but yes, it is relatively rarer, and you'd be unlikely to be able to do 2 or 3 pieces that were unaccompanied. It would be possible sometimes for strings... I believe there's an unaccompanied modern piece and bits from Bach suites on one of the cello grades at the moment. Unlikely to find all three like that though.

Harp similarly is generally unaccompanied, I don't know if there are any accompanied pieces on the higher grades.

I know I played one unaccompanied piece for G4 or 5 violin.

It's quite different for the wind syllabus where the periods are split up differently and the 3rd piece is always (as far as I'm aware) an unaccompanied study of some form (with a loose definition of study - things like Telemann Fantasias, Syrinx, Bach Partita all come under this list), and the first two are accompanied.

I think it's a little inconsistent that CD backing is allowed for jazz exams but not for other exams. I don't think it's any less important for jazz musicians to be able to listen to and respond to a live accompaniment than it is for classical musicians.

It may just be a practical consideration. I get the impression that pianists with the additional skills to provide a good jazz accompaniment (different from doing a good job on fully notated pieces "in a jazz style") are particularly scarce. I'm not one of them!