Presentation Script, March 2013

(TOM)Good morning. Thank you all so much for joining us today. I know that I speak for mycolleagues when I say that we are very excited to be here today. Our presentation seeks toshare with you our ideas on “Teaching Accompanying Skills to Piano Students.”

We feel that this is both an interesting and important topic, because as pianists, it is inevitablethat we will participate in some version of collaborative music making at some point in ourcareers. This could be anything from accompanying a choir, to playing with a soloist orensemble.

(OLIVIA)Before we begin, we would like to ask:How many of you are pianists?How many of you have been asked to accompany?How many of you teach accompanying skills in private lessons?

As you can see, accompanying is an experience most of us encounter within our careers, but itis not always experienced during the lesson. While collaborative playing requires a skill setrelated to solo performance, it also creates new demands for the pianist. Our presentation willhighlight some of these essential skills and show you some ways through the piano lesson thatyou can prepare your students to accompany.

(TOM)In order to begin, we felt that we needed a snap­shot of how accompanying is perceived in ourfield. We interviewed 10 graduate piano majors at the University of Oklahoma and asked themthe following questions:

1. Were you encouraged by your private teacher to do collaborative work?

2. How have your collaborative experiences improved your solo playing?

3. Was your first experience with collaborative music a positive experience? Do you currentlywork in collaborative settings?

4. Approximately how old were you when you had your first collaborative musical experience andwhat was the setting?

The graduate students we interviewed shared with us their personal experiences withaccompanying and showed us that while accompanying is a staple of a pianist’s profession,there lacks a common experience in learning how to accompany. To illustrate this point weconstructed three hypothetical scenarios

(OLIVIA)Scenario #1: SLIDE ­ “OLD DOG, NEW TRICKS”Our first scenario, Rachel, didn’t accompany until she was a piano major in college. She startedto take an accompanying seminar and learned how to read ahead and anticipate a soloist. Atfirst, it was hard for her to work with other musicians. In fact, the first time she rehearsed with avocalist, she did not know how to follow rubato and ended the piece two measures before thesinger! After playing with several people, she improved and continued to accompany aftergraduation. She is getting more comfortable with accompanying now but wishes she had beenintroduced to these skills much earlier.

(TOM)Scenario #2: SLIDE ­ “ON THE FAST TRACK”Our second scenario involves Mary, who after 8 years of piano had the opportunity toaccompany her school choir. She was a Freshman in High School and had not played in a groupsetting before. Her teacher had always used duets and other sight reading activities In herlessons. Mary’s sight­reading skills saved her during her first month as an accompanist. Itseemed like the choir director was constantly giving her new music, sometimes at the lastminute.....sound familiar to any of you? By the time Mary went to college, her accompanyingskills continued to improve and she was able to make some extra money through her playing. Inthe end, Mary felt that her collaborative work had enhanced her solo playing by sharpening hersense of phrasing and melodic projection.

(OLIVIA)Our third scenario is John, a pianist who was a competition winner and loved to play solo music.John’s first accompanying experience happened when he was a senior in high school when hewas asked to play for the school musical. At first, John thought that the music would beenjoyable and much easier than the Beethoven sonatas he had memorized. However, at the firstrehearsal, John had a hard time reading the tricky rhythms and keeping up with the quick pace ofthe rehearsals. There were several times when the conductor stopped because of John’smistakes, which made John feel extremely embarrassed. Although John was playing advancedpiano music, he was just not a great sight­reader. He tried practicing the music on his own, buthe didn’t bring it into his piano lessons because it didn’t seem as important as his solo music.After the school musical, John never sought out accompanying opportunities. As a piano majorin college, he was asked to play for several more gigs but turned them all down.

(TOM)The common thread running through these scenarios is the lack of attention to accompanying inthe lesson. Yet collaborative experiences have the potential to enrich a student’s life in manyways. As seen in Scenario #2, Mary’s collaborative work sharpened her sense of phrasing, andenhanced her solo playing. Collaborative activities also serve a non­musical purpose byproviding social interaction at an age when teamwork is crucial.

In her recent article in the American Music Teacher, Kayla Paul states, “Group activities ­ teams­ are very important at this stage of development.” This idea is echoed by Joyce Grill who writes,“Young students respond well to a team environment, but rarely get this experience in piano.”

Another trend in the scenarios shows that those who initially had a positive collaborativeexperience were either guided by a teacher or had developed a strong musical foundation priorto accompanying. The initial success or failure seemed to color the pianist’s future collaborativeexperiences.

(OLIVIA)While accompanying is something that is traditionally pursued outside of the lesson, there aremany opportunities during a lesson for teachers to focus on some essential skills, thuspredisposing students to more positive collaborative experiences early on. Cindy and Rebeccaare going to begin sharing some of these skills with you.

(CINDY)

We have constructed a list of these essential skills organized into four basic components:

rhythmic skills, reading skills, interactive skills, and functional skills.

We have also assigned each skill an optimal time to begin teaching in the lesson. Each skill

is color­coded: green for elementary, blue for intermediate, and red for advanced.

We know there are various ways to introduce and implement these skills, so the materials

we will present today is of course not a prescription but rather a suggestion of how teachers

could implement and sequence these important skills in their lessons.

Rhythmic skills are some of the first and most important skills to introduce to our piano

students. Rhythm activities that strengthen the sense of pulse and reinforce rhythmic

accuracy are crucial to a pianist’s training from the very beginning because these rhythmic

skills are a necessity for all accompanists. A good accompanist must be able to keep a

steady beat in order to support the soloist or ensemble. We actually asked a few

instrumentalists and vocalists to share their experiences with bad accompanists, and

many tell stories of having to follow the accompanists who are not able to keep a steady

beat.

(REBECCA)There are many resources that can supplement early rhythmic training. For instance, thepreschool method, “Music for Little Mozarts,” provides many rhythmic activities for youngerstudents that include CDs and teacher accompaniments. “Put the Beat in your Feet” from theMusic Discovery Book is very popular with young students, even those not using the Music forLittle Mozarts method. Students walk along to the music and stop when they hear “Freeze! 1 ­ 2­ 3.” The second part of the song includes other easy eurythmic activities. Nicole and I will nowput the beat in OUR feet!

[Audio demo: Put the Beat In Your Feet]

(CINDY)Another great resource for teachers is the book “A Galaxy of Games for the Music Class” byMargaret Athey and Gwen Hotchkiss. The first two chapters of this book provide a plethora ofideas for rhythmic games that are appropriate for a large or small groups of students from ageskindergarten through 8th grade.

Another aspect of keeping a steady pulse involves students moving forward even if they

make mistakes or miss notes. In a performance situation, we all know that it is important

to keep playing through mistakes. And when we are playing with other people, it is actually

impossible to stop and restart sections. Another “bad accompanist” story we heard was

about pianists who spend more time critiquing their own playing rather than focusing on the

ensemble. This was seen with John , if you remember from Scenario 3, who had a difficult

time keeping up at rehearsals.

(REBECCA)Of course, a reliable metronome can help with this issue; however, a more attractive optioncomes from the accompaniment CD recordings found in many beginner method books. Theteacher can play with the student during lessons, but the CD allows the student to practice athome with a reliable sound model that keeps a consistent tempo.

If the curriculum you are using does not have CDs readily available, you can record your ownaccompaniments to send home with the students. Many keyboards have MIDI accompanimentsthat students can play along with. Another option is applications like the Home Concert Xtremewhich provides attractive MIDI accompaniments. The more opportunities that students have toplay with live or recorded accompaniments, the more they will become accustomed to sensing aconstant beat while playing.

[Joan, Cindy to piano]

(NICOLE)Another of the four important accompanying skill groups involves reading skills. The ability toread and identify patterns quickly allows accompanists to spend more time focusing oncollaboration rather than spending extra time learning notes.

Sight­reading is a skill teachers can introduce from the very beginning, even before on­staffnotation begins. While working on pre­staff reading, students can learn to identify melodiccontour and simple patterns. Teachers can also begin to reinforce a student’s ability to keep asteady pulse and to keep playing through their mistakes during this early reading stage.One resource useful for developing both rhythmic and reading skills simultaneously is FJH’s “GetReady for Pentascale Duets” by Wynn­Anne Rossi and Victoria McArthur.

Here is an example of “Chopin in F” (Pg. 16­17). [Joan, Cindy]

In this series, students learn major five­finger patterns and have the opportunity to sight­readpieces limited to those patterns. Students can also perform each piece with the teacheraccompaniment provided. The duets not only make the music motivating, but encourage thestudent to keep a steady beat while performing with another musician. Other books in this seriespresent pieces involving full major and minor scales, chords, arpeggios, and more.

(TOM)Sight­reading also involves eye­training. According to research, the eyes of great sight readersare in constant motion. They move ahead in a score but also return to current materials.We have compiled several eye training activities used with our students. A few simpleprocedures can train a student’s eye to perceive much more.

(1) The first is a simple activity that many of you probably already use. Covering up part of thepage as the student reads. This of course forces the student to continue moving forward.

(2) Circling key notes before beginning can help students see patterns and important changes oftextures.

(3) Using duet books where both parts of the duets are stacked on top of each other. You canchallenge your student by having them read as many staves as possible. The Weekly andArganbright duet editions are a great resource for this activity and works best with lateintermediate or advanced students.

(4) Finally, creating a page of music where the treble and bass staves are spread apart. If youdon’t want to go through the trouble of cropping reading examples, music with several versescreates a vertical space. As in this example, My Country Tis of Thee, the eye must move fromtreble to bass rather quickly.

(NICOLE)While rhythmic and reading skills are perhaps the most basic and important skills for buildingexcellent accompanists, the ability to work with other musicians is an entirely different facet ofaccompanying that also requires some training in the lesson. Even at a young age, we can startto train students to interact musically with other performers. For this group of accompanyingskills, which we have labeled ‘Interactive skills,’ listening is the skill of utmost importance. As wehave seen earlier in the presentation, performing duets at the elementary level is an excellentactivity to help students begin to listen to others. In fact, many of you probably beginstudent­teacher duets on Day 1 of piano lessons. Teachers can eventually set upstudent­student duets to encourage social interaction and give students the opportunity to listenand respond to one another, rather than being dependent on the teacher to set the pulse andoccasionally bend to the student’s mistakes.

An effective exercise for duet playing is to have the student learn both the primo and secondopart so that they are familiar with both parts and can take turns being the leader. The studentplaying the primo part can also test his partner’s listening skills by unexpectedly accelerating orcreating a ritardando where there isn’t one indicated in the score.

(TOM)Teaching students to listen to their own sound can also happen away from the piano. Usingvarious video or audio recording technologies gives students an honest perspective.Encouraging a student to listen to themselves while following the score will lead them down thepath of self­discovery and will help fix articulation, dynamic and balance issues. With access tohand­held recording devices such as iPhones, iPads, and smartphones. Teachers can recordperformances in the lesson, giving the student immediate feedback, and even email therecordings to students ford use at home.

Joan, CIndy off piano

(OLIVIA)There is an excellent listening project in Joanne Haroutounian’s book The Fourth Finger onB­Flat. Haroutounian suggests developing a performance portfolio for each student in the studio.Students listen and assess their own performances periodically by recording themselves andthen filling out a “Listening Focus Form.” Students are able to develop critical listening skills andlearn how to monitor and improve their practice sessions by identifying what needs attention.You can easily modify this process with collaborative performances as students begin to playduets and accompany.

[→→→→→]

We understand that it’s sometimes difficult to schedule rehearsals with two young pianists andeven more problematic when trying to find a soloist to accompany your students during pianolessons. While this can be frustrating as teachers, it’s not an impossible scenario. We came upwith a couple of ideas that work well with our piano students and would like to suggest them toyou.

(CINDY) One way a student can practice accompanying in the lesson is through a video recording of

a vocal or instrumental soloist. Recently, I recorded Sara, who is a vocal major at OU,

singing the vocal line to “Dona Nobis Pacem”. I had Lisa, my piano student, learn the

accompaniment part. When Lisa was ready, she practiced accompanying to Sara’s video.

Take a look: VIDEO CLIP Accompany soloist

The following week, Sara and Lisa rehearsed together in person and they found that the

rehearsal did not take as long as expected. Lisa said accompanying Sara’s video recording

allowed her to listen and follow Sara more easily in person ­ because she felt like they had

already rehearsed. This process also forced the soloist and accompanist to be fully

prepared for the actual rehearsal.

(OLIVIA)Here is another video showing 2 of my students playing duets. Corrie and Max were not able tohave back­to­back lessons this semester but were interested in playing some duets together.They each learned their individual parts to “Old Joe Clark” arranged by Carol Matz and recordedthem using an iPad. They emailed the video clips, and I loaded it on the computer in our studio.Each student was then able to watch and play along with the other part.

These students also tried skyping duets live. What we discovered was that while skyping ispossible, you must have a very fast internet connection so there will not be a delay in sound.

While playing with Corrie on his iPad, Max also found that the sound quality required him to useheadphones to adequately hear Corrie’s part.

(2nd CLIP) Olivia’s students Playing Duets with Recordings

(CINDY) Another way to work on collaborative performances in the lesson is to find quality recordings

of instrumental or vocal soloists on YouTube. For example there is a violin teacher who

records herself playing pieces from the Suzuki Violin books and posts them on YouTube for

her students to play along. Each piece is performed in a slow practice tempo and the actual

performance tempo. In most recordings, she will count off or provide a cue before playing.

Here is a short sample clip of the violin teacher performing “Lightly Row.” Notice how she

provides a cue before playing. VIDEO CLIP ­ Violin teacher, “Lightly Row”

With an option such as this, our piano students can begin to practice accompanying a soloist

in the lesson and at home.

(OLIVIA)If you teach group piano or hold group class within your private studio, there are many activitiesyou can use to get students accompanying at any level. In one of my piano classes, the studentsworked in groups and accompanied each other narrating storybooks. Each group chose theirown book and were able to add in pieces they had worked on in class, creative sound effects,and even popular arrangements. They were given some guidelines but were able to decide howthey wanted to illustrate the mood of their chosen story. The goal of this activity was to allowstudents to accompany a narrator and practice listening for specific cues. Here are two clipsfrom a recent class performance.

VIDEO CLIP: OLIVIA’S GROUP CLASS, STORYBOOK PERFORMANCES

(OLIVIA)If you noticed in the video, the student playing the piano had to watch the narrator carefully andlisten to the story to coordinate the background music.

Joan to piano

(NICOLE)Keeping these accessible activities in mind, let’s continue with the sequence of accompanyingskills teachers can begin to develop in the lesson.As students progress to the intermediate phase of learning, which is indicated in blue on ourchart, the complexity of each of the fundamental skills increases while building on the skillsalready established at the elementary level. In the category of Reading, an intermediate level skillthat builds upon the sight reading and eye training skills established in the elementary level is theability to look over the top of the score.

(REBECCA)A good accompanist must be able to watch the music and the soloist at the same time withoutlooking at their hands. This skill builds upon the eye­training skills from the elementary level andcontinues to develop a good sense of keyboard topography. To begin working on this skillsight­reading and rhythm skills should already be at a moderate level.

(NICOLE)When working on reading skills with my own students, I often stand across from them so that Ican watch their eye movement and gently remind them to keep their eyes on the score and tolook ahead. When the students start becoming more secure in their reading skills, I beginteaching them to look over the top of the score. One way I teach this is to play a game bystanding across from them and giving visual cues to which they must respond with a nod so thatI know they have seen the cue. When first beginning to teach this skill, I often give exaggerated,silly cues so that they are easier to see and fun, encouraging the student to briefly look awayfrom the score. As the student progresses, I begin to use smaller, more subtle motions, closerto what would be used in a real collaborative setting. I will now demonstrate this with Joan, andshe will nod when she sees my cues.

[DEMONSTRATE: NICOLE CUES, JOAN PLAYS]

[Joan Off piano... Nicole stay and Olivia join]

(REBECCA)With the ability to look over the top of the score, pianists are able to watch the soloist orconductor more easily, allowing them to be in sync with their breathing and cueing which is ournext skill under the “Interaction” category.

Breathing together for cues is a skill that can be introduced in the early years of piano lessons.Student duets are a great place to learn this skill. Students can practice beginning a duet byusing a visual breath rather than counting off. As a teacher you can do this by sitting beside yourstudent on the piano bench and letting them feel an exaggerated breath as a cue. Olivia andNicole are going to demonstrate this.[Olivia and Nicole DEMONSTRATE on stage]

Let’s have everyone find a partner and pair up. Sit next to each other shoulder to shoulder so youcan experience this too. Let’s have the person on your right cue first........[try]........now switch.(Audience Pair ­ person right cue and then switch)The ability to breath and cue together can facilitate easy ritardandos and other tempo changesthat may occur throughout a performance.

[Tom on piano, Olivia ready to conduct]

(NICOLE)Learning to breathe and cue coupled with the ability to look over the top of the score culminatesin learning another important interactive skill: anticipating the conductor or soloist. Accompanistsmust notice and respond when the soloist takes time or when the conductor changes tempo.One way to help a student develop this skill is to give students opportunities to practice followinga conductor, even if that conductor is you. Taking something as simple as scales, teachers canconduct students to play their scales in a particular tempo or style.

Please watch Olivia and Tom demonstrate how this might work in a lesson setting. (DEMO:TOM plays a 4 octave scale, OLIVIA conducts] Not only does this activity add variety to a part ofthe lesson that students might not always love, but it presents the idea of following a conductorin an accessible way. As the student develops this skill, you could also begin conductingrepertoire performances during the lessons, especially if the student is working on a beginning orintermediate level concerto.

(JOAN)Another way to practice following a soloist or conductor is using an iPhone app called Trailmix.This is not a music app specifically, and was actually created to adjust tempo when the user iswalking while listening to music. Trailmix has a built­in speedometer, so one is able to adjust thetempo between 80 to 180 beats per minute. A unique feature especially useful for musicians isthat it will not change the pitch, like some other apps. It is much more affordable thanmusic­specific slow down apps, and works just as well. It works well for students practicing ontheir own, when learning new accompaniments. Teachers can also use it in their studio to helpstudents develop a flexible tempo while accompanying.

Teachers should make sure that the accompaniment has a clear bass beat in order for the appto decipher to original tempo.

In the following video, I have downloaded a recording of Donizetti’s Flute Sonata to the app. Thestudent will demonstrate how she would practice this piece ­ starting with a slower tempo ­ andworking up gradually, while listening to the flautist’s part. You will see the student start at 80, andonce she was comfortable, move the trailmix app to 85 beats per minute.

Cindy also tried using Trailmix with her student. The video shows Cindy adjusting the tempowhile her student plays “Aura Lee” from Alfred’s Group Piano Book II.

[play video clip]

Students have shared that this App is an affordable and productive approach to help preparestudents to anticipate a soloist or conductor.

[Joan, Cindy to piano]

(REBECCA)Anticipating a soloist also requires a more in­depth interaction between accompanist and score.A well­prepared accompanist should know the soloist’s part just as well as his own. Being ableto sing the soloist’s part, or at the very least vocalize the rhythm while playing, is a good way toaccomplish this goal. When students are learning a score for collaboration, they should befamiliar with the solo part so that they will be able to anticipate the soloist’s interpretations of thepiece. As we have all probably experienced, anything can happen in performance and knowingthe score allows an accompanist to anticipate the soloist.

(NICOLE)In addition to being able to anticipate the soloist, it is also the accompanist’s responsibility tomatch the style of the piece being performed. For example, if a soprano is singing an aria oflamentation, it may be inappropriate to play the accompaniment in an upbeat dance style.Understanding the style of a piece is a mature skill that requires the pianist to know both thepurpose of the piece and the soloist’s own interpretation.

Once the accompanist understands the style of the piece, he will want to change dynamics,articulation, and tempo to match the soloist’s interpretation. An effective activity you can use withyour students to practice making quick adjustments of style comes from the Pattern Play seriesby Akiko and Forrest Kinney. In this series, there are many examples demonstrating contrastingstyles that are accessible at all levels. Listen as Joan plays in a particular style, and Cindyimprovises along in a similar mood.

DEMO PATTERN PLAY Book 2, “Medieval Story” and “Caribbean Dance”, Joan and Cindy

You may also choose to vary this activity so that the student changes the melodic style, requiringthe teacher to match the student’s style.

(REBECCA)In performances involving more than one musician, balance is often an issue. At any timeaccompanists are expected to balance their sound with whatever instrument or voice they areinteracting with. Accompanying a bassoon, for example, is quite different from accompanying atrumpet. Knowing how to adjust the piano’s dynamics accordingly is only one factor.

Pianists can also create a good balance through articulation and by bringing out certain voices ormelodic ideas. This method results from careful score study and will help support rather thanoverpower the soloist. In the aria, Alma Del Core shown here, the pianist has the melody inseveral interludes when the singer is resting. In these places, the pianist should highlight themelodic line, but when the singer comes back in with the melody, the pianist should lower thedynamic level of the melodic line in order to not overpower their entrance.

(NICOLE)The final group of accompanying skills on our chart is what we refer to as functional skills. Thefirst functional skill, which may be introduced at the elementary level and developed throughoutthe student’s training, is ability to quickly and easily transpose. Accompanists are often asked totranspose segments of an instrumental score or to change the key of a vocal piece, particularlywhen the piece does not fit a singer’s range. Even playing for a choir or vocal group sometimesrequires transpositional skills. Transposition can first be taught when learning simple five­fingermelodies. Examples of these melodies can be found in, “Pentascale Pro, Book 1” which workswell with late elementary students. ­­­­­­­>

After learning a piece such as “Classical Dance” written using the G major pentascale, thestudent could then be asked to play the same melody in the key of D major.

Not only does transposition reinforce concepts such as reading by intervals, pattern recognition,and key relationships, but it also allows the student to develop a greater kinesthetic sense ofkeyboard topography.

(OLIVIA)Harmonization is another functional skill useful to future accompanists. Practically speaking,pianists are often asked to play from lead sheets or harmonize melodies that don’t have awritten­out accompaniment.Harmonization can begin with activities for late elementary students. For instance, you can havestudents choose a folk tune that uses basic harmonies and help them discover left­hand chordsto match the melody. This activity also allows students to become familiar with various left­handaccompaniment patterns such as the waltz style, Alberti bass, and broken chords, depending onwhat suit the melody.

(CINDY) Harmonizing a given melody further develops sight­reading skills by letting students work

within a harmonic framework. During our informal interviews, a few pianists mentioned that

their ability to quickly analyze chord progressions and to recognize LH patterns has helped

them get through last­minute rehearsals. So, if students can become familiar with identifying

basic progressions and accompaniment patterns, they will become more efficient when

learning accompanying music.

Here is one example of the many harmonization activities from Alfred’s Group Piano, Bk 1.

Joan will demonstrate how students can vary the accompaniment pattern after they are able to

harmonize the melody. She will be using several different LH patterns to this melody.

Alfred’s Group Piano for Adults Book 1 ­ “Boola Boola” (pg. 155)

(OLIVIA)In Oklahoma, this song is also known as “Boomer Sooner,” the OU fight song and a popularharmonization used in group piano classes.

Choral score reading is another essential skill for accompanists. Group piano teachers may befamiliar with teaching choral score reading, but this skill can also be incorporated into privatelessons with individuals. Many pianists we interviewed said that playing for choral ensembles isactually quite common for accompanists, and the skill should not be ignored until a student getsthe chance to play for a choir.

(CINDY) Choral score reading involves a culmination of skills we discussed earlier, including

eye­training, looking over the top of the score, harmonization, keeping a steady beat,

listening, breathing, and anticipating entrances. It is also a skill that requires preparation

that is different from solo performance. I bet if John, from our 3rd scenario, had worked on

some of these skills in the private lesson prior to playing for his high school musical, he

would’ve had a more positive experience and probably still be accompanying.

(OLIVIA)In addition to playing accompaniments for a choral performance, pianists are asked to play partsin rehearsals to help the choir learn the music. It is important to emphasize to students thatplaying parts for a choir is not just about playing correct notes but about assisting the choir intheir rehearsal.

Here is a list of 8 necessary things to bring out when playing parts:1. Entrances of each voice2. Accidentals or difficult notes3. Awkward leaps4. Tricky rhythms or meter changes5. Clashes between voices6. Examples of cross­voicing7. Important articulations8. Breathing spots

A choir accompanist may not want to play all of the parts the same each time, but rather, theymight highlight certain rhythms, entrances or intervals. For example, let’s take a look at“Sing Me to Heaven” by Daniel E. Gawthrop~On the top system, there are 2 entrances of “touch in me” that can be highlighted.~Also, “grief” in alto part should be brought out.~On the bottom system, there are pairs of 2nds between the voices, which may be difficult.~At the meter change, the pianist should emphasize beats so the choir will count correctly.~Finally, the pianist can take time where the choir breathes, such as in the bottom system.

Here is another example, entitled, “All Works of Love.”~Notice the mixed meter throughout the piece.~In the 2nd measure of this example, look at the clash between the bass 1 and bass 2 sections.~Some of these entrances should be emphasized, such as the Alto entrance on line 2 and theTenor entrance in the next measure.~Lifting at the breath marks will also help clue in the choir.

Choral score reading can seem overwhelming to learn and teach, but once the student and

teacher have several preparation steps, the process is not as intimidating as it appears.

(CINDY) All of these skills are important to learning how to accompany, but the way to really

fuse them all together is through different accompanying experiences. One approach to finding

collaborative experiences with other musicians is to contact public school music directors

or local independent teachers to see if they have students playing pieces with easier piano

accompaniments. For instance, the piano accompaniments for Suzuki Violin book 1 & 2

work well with piano students at the intermediate and early advanced levels.

Let me show you a few examples of the piano accompaniments from Suzuki Violin Book 1

& 2. As you can see, there are various common left hand bass patterns such as, the alberti

bass, jump bass, and blocked chords. Also, the melodic line of the violin is often doubled by the

piano requiring the accompanist to not only maintain a steady pulse but to listen to the soloist

as well.

(OLIVIA)On your handout, we’ve included a list of some easy piano accompaniments for a few commoninstruments as well some vocal selections. “The Music Development Program” Syllabus is aanother useful resource to find common instrumental solos that are leveled according to eachinstrument.

In addition to the sequence of essential accompanying skills and activities teachers can conductin the private lessons, there are a just a few few logistics to consider when preparing studentsfor actual accompanying situations. It’s always a good idea to preview the piano accompanimentbefore saying “yes” to the gig. Although the pieces may be an early intermediate work for thesoloist, the piano part may be more advanced. Also, if students are offered the opportunity toaccompany certain performances, be sure to help them schedule adequate practice andrehearsal time so they can fully prepare the music and have a great experience.

[Conclusion] ­­­­­­­­­>

(REBECCA)Being asked to accompany or play in ensembles is an opportunity for pianists to grow asmusicians. By equipping our students with a few fundamental skills, we can increase thelikelihood for their success which will allow them to enjoy working with other musicians andhopefully find more collaborative experiences. As seen in our three scenarios, an initial positiveexperience with collaborative music increases the desire to seek out more collaborativeopportunities. Collaborative playing allows students to develop musically while also filling a vitalneed for social interaction and teamwork. As a result, it benefits teachers to not only provide afoundation of basic skills, but also to provide students with opportunities to work with othermusicians. While teaching accompanying in the lesson may require careful planning by theteacher, the benefits to both their collaborative and solo playing will be self evident.

(TOM)

Thank you all for coming this morning. My colleagues and I really enjoyed sharing our ideas withyou today, and we hope that we’ve inspired you to use some of these techniques with yourstudents. Our handout will provide you with the presentation materials we have used today if youare interested in more information. Please feel free to come up and as any of us any questionsyou might have or you can always email us at OUMTNA@gmail.com. Thank you.