hi all.. i will be accompanying a grade 4 violin student for her violin exam.. it's my first time doing accompaniment.. any advice??

Welcome to the forums

My advice for any accompanying is to prepare for EVERYTHING!

Make sure you can play it at ridiculously fast and slow paces, stay in time with the student if they decide to go off somewhere, be able to cover up early/late entries. Be prepared for rest skipping. If it all falls apart then its up to you to hold it together. But just follow the student and so long as you end in the same place it should be okay

Following the soloist is probably what I'd consider the most important aspect of accompanying. Not doing so can have disastrous results, and I speak from experience. You need to know your part well enough to be able to play that and look at the soloists line to keep it all in time, and you may well need to skip some beats etc.

When I accompanied someone for their exam I practicsed the piano part and made sure I knew exactly what their part was and when I played my part I sang their part in my head. Also I practiced jumping from say bar 5 to bar 7 just incase the soloist missed something or skipped for somereason and I'd have to catch up

Good luck with it!

Try to have at least 2 rehearsal sessions before the exam date.

Deffinately have some rehersal sessions.
I was lucky. My cello teacher was able to play the piano for my exam. We had at least 5 lessons when we would run through my pieces and she would accompany me.
We were able to agree on the speeds for each piece etc. etc.
I think it would be very difficult to accompany someone that you haven't met or heard play before.

Rehearse. Rehearse. Rehearse. Rehearse.

When you've done that, rehearse.

I'd also say, if in doubt.... don't. I'm sure there'll be no problem for you at that level. I was asked to accompany an oboeist at diploma level last year and pulled out in sufficient time to allow him to find an alternative accompanist. There was no problem with the baroque - Albinoni and one of the others, but the modern stuff simply scared me rigid. I couldn't guarantee on the day that I'd be equal to it, given nerves and the fact that so much rested on it for him. As it turned out, he blamed his actual accompanist for mucking it up, so I'm glad I decided against it.

Best of luck.

LR

Good point.
As a novice accompanist I've turned down some requests to accompany exams because I wasn't sure that I could manage the accomps well enough to support the soloist as I feel I should.

I offered to accompany some children for grade 1 violin, and only got the music about 2 days before. It was a nightmare,as I had only 1 session of practice with each child, and each child played 3 pieces.
Next time, I'll rehearse at least 5 or 6 times with each child and get the music sooner. One of the pieces had a fiendish accompaniment.
Everyone passed, which was a relief, and it has inspired me to consider the trinity accompanists exams, which look like a good idea.
Good luck, get in plenty of rehearsal, accompanying is so satisfying and such a good experience, I hope that you enjoy it .

Hi all, thanks for all ur valuable advice!!

yes ive been meeting up with this student every sunday.. I have to teach her Aural too.. we'd have about 6-7 rehearsals before her exam.. which is 21st sept.. just next friday..

our pieces are fine now.. just that she isn't exactly playing up to speed.. but that's up to her violin teacher rite? i just ensure that i follow her..