OK, my little brother is singing in the school talent show next week and needs an accompanist - he was going to use a backing CD but can't because he needs the song transposed down.

He wants to ask a friend, who is 11 like him and a talented musician at I think about G4 on the piano. When the piece (Any Dream will do from Joseph) is in C major it's a very simple arrangement- i.e. I was at grade 2 when I gave up the piano 5 years ago and if I practised it I'd be able to play it. However, it needs transposing into A major, which I suppose makes it more complicated although I don't really know, not being a pianist!

But do you think it's reasonable for my brother to ask his friend to learn it in under a week, or should he ask one of the teachers? (in which case I probably wouldn't have to write out the whole transposition for them which would be nice - if I can transpose the RH at sight it can't be hard )

Thanks,
Rosie.

I don't think under a week is very long to learn a piano accompaniment, but ideally your brother would give his friend a copy of the music tomorrow (so that he has the weekend to study it) and ask him to tell him by Monday whether he is confident to play it. If he isn't, your brother could then ask a teacher on Monday.

I suspect that an 11 year old might find it quite hard to accompany a singing friend, but it just depends on his confidence and talent.

Thanks - I'll get writing out that transposition then!

Now you mention it, I don't think this accompaniment is going to be the easiest job in the world - I feel mean saying this but it's not out of the question that my brother will muck up completely which could throw his friend...for example if he is meant to have 3 beats' rest and only waits for 2 which he's doing a lot at the moment.

Haha

I accompanied a 10yr old singing "the sun will come out tomorrow" from Annie at some music competitions. We'd had a couple of practises and all was fine. Come the competition I played the introducion and nothing happened .. she just didn't start singing

Round I went again and this time put a nice big emphasis on the start and nodded my head

still not a peep from her

Third time round I nodded, emphasised and started singing ... horray off she went and completed the song well.

At the end the adjudicator thanked all the accompanists and said ; looking straight at me " a good accompanist can save your life" !!

If this is an important event for your brother I'd say maybe he should use his teacher but if not then let them have a go - I'm only 14 and I do a lot of accompanying - I really enjoy it. Interestingly I see in some piano competitions next year there is a class for " accompanying" with the accompanist being the competitor.

Accompanying is a very different challenge from solo playing. Whether this exercise is successful depends on more than whether the friend can play the notes: it is the accompanist's responsibility to stay with the soloist no matter how much the latter may vary the speed or distort the rhythm, and this requires that s/he have attention to spare to listen to everything that is happening. This is why the pianist/accompanist normally reads from a score, not just a part.

I agree. The accompianist needs to have a LOT of attention to spare! Ideally I would say they should be able to make a fair go of it sight reading (Thats my test, as an inexperienced occasional accompianist), then once the part is learnt they have attention to spare. They also need to be musical. I'm only about G5 on piano, and I wouldn't even think of accompaying except that it isn't my main instrument, I've had a lot of experience performing so I know I'm not going to fall to pieces just because there is an audience, and I've playing in a lot of ensembles, especially duets where my partner had some erratic timing. By all means have a go, but I wouldn't be confindent trusting my friend as an accompianist just because I know she has never even played in an ensemble before.