I'd like to get my hands on recordings of the piano accompaniments for pieces I'm working on (or will work on in the future).

I know of Music Minus One, and I've found a website called piano-accompaniments.com - this is exactly the sort of thing I'm looking for. Only with more pieces available, or the option to request a new one.

Does anyone know of a service that exists, or a pianist who would be prepared to create recordings? Feel free to PM me if you prefer.

Many thanks!

http://www.youronlinepianist.com/store/ do lots of exam pieces and 'non-syllabus' things too. Their 'about us' page says you can make requests - though it also tells you that these accompaniments are done digitally via a computer rather than being a 'real' piano.

Not used them, just came across them while nosing around once for something similar

Edit: D'oh, just realised they are only woodwind and brass which is probably not what viola-mad is after!! But going to leave the link there in case it is useful for anyone else

I was going to suggest www.mp3accompanist.com but they only do vocal music. As do http://www.pianotracksformusicals.com . However, those might be of use to someone else...

We have one of their accompanyments but I'm not totally convinced by it. It's not something you could use for a performance but may be ok to play along with.

What about this site?

http://www.piano-accompaniments.com/

I haven't used it yet but was thinking of using it to get a movements missing from the ABRSM CDs. Sounded OK but I was thinking more of using it for rehearsing than for performance.

Smart music has quite a lot of accompaniments and is not exhorbitant:
http://www.smartmusic.com/

If the music is out of copyright, the instrumental part comes up on the screen. If it is still in copyright then you have to have your own copy of the instrumental part.

Apologies. What an idiot I am! Should read more carefully... my suggestion was in your very first post.


Interesting... Have you used it?

A bit.
I have taken out a subscription (it was recommended to me by a course tutor) but what I am currently playing is not on there.

I also find the logistics of it a bit complicated to set up. You can only install it on one computer so I put it on my netbook as that will fit on top of the piano which was hand for where I usually practise and the right height to follow music on the screen. But the netbook speakers aren't powerful enough for me to hear the piano part when I'm playing the oboe so then I thought I'd try headphones, and I could hear myself, but I found the lead got in the way when I was playing. I think I really need to buy another set of speakers to plug in (it's too complicated to unplug the ones on the PC) or (if I transfer smartmusic to the PC) work out where I could put music so I could see it (I couldn't play off the PC because it is the wrong height and the computer table is in the way).

I've used Smartmusic. It is quite useful, but I didn't think it was worth the subscription, and I didn't use it that much.

Another oboist has just showed me a site called Weezic:
http://www.weezic.com

This site has orchestras music and allows you to select your instrument and then play along with a whole orchestra accompanying you.

http://wwwpianotracksformusicals.com do have an other genres section, I have had accompaniments for trombone from them and they are excellent - real pianist, expressive too. I'm sure if you email music they will record for you regardless of instrument.