Hello,

I have accompanied at forum events, but have now been asked by my tutor to accompany his singing/violin students for their exams this Summer. I would probably only accompany to Gde 5 at this stage.

I have no "official" accompanying exams, so wondered what I would need to do to prepare for this. (Apart from learning my part of course!).

Any tips on accompanying would be welcome, and particularly any books or courses that other accompanists have found useful would help, please.

Thank you.

My few tips as a rubbish pianist..

Learn your part forwards, then learn it backwards and upside down. Make sure you know all the places it is possible for the soloist to slip up and then some... You'll have to support them if they do! Be particularly aware of rests and be prepared to skip bars/do or not do repeats/invent a few more bars while they remember they were supposed to come in half an hour ago

But most of all, have fun

Don't be afraid to simplify if you need to and don't be afraid to say no if it's obvious it's too tricky.
Have you time to be able to offer to accompany occasionally during lessons?
I was hoping to sort this out for myself recently but the teacher concerned has been ill.
Try to ensure that you have at least 2 rehearsals before the exam.

With the higher grades in particular, one thing I do is to play the solo instrumental part into Sibelius, then play it back through my computer while I play the accompaniment with it - this allows me to learn thoroughly what I should be hearing from the soloist at every point in the piece, and I start at a slow speed and gradually work it up to the speed the soloist wants to play it.

That is very good advice JMH. I usually put aside a two week period before exams to spent some time each day working at accomps. I don't play for other teachers any more but I always accompany my own students. Be prepared for all sorts of things to go wrong and whatever you do keep playing something, even if it is only the bass line. Ask a friendly friend to sing or play the pieces through with you making all sorts of slips too. Then you will be able to follow anything. Don't forget that you can edit your parts too. leave out anything that you can't play correctly just as long as the end result is a musical one. Best of luck. Get the syllabus and start learning them now!

The key thing is to know your part well enough that you can listen very closely to your soloist and follow them, whatever happens. NO matter if you miss notes or simplify things, as long as you stick to your soloist like glue, all will be well! It can be difficult with inexperienced youngsters whose tempi are inconsistent - do you follow them or try to provide some stability? - close consultation with the teacher should help here. Hope you enjoy it. I love accompanying because I don't feel that the focus is on me..

Me too. I know that what I'm doing is very important and the way I play can affect the performance of the instrumentalist, but the limelight is not on me and that's the way I like it.

Thanks for your advice so far! I am hoping to accompany during the lessons before the exams. I will ask my tutor to ask his students/parents if it's OK. And I will definitely be rehearsing before the exam too.

Some good advice re Sibelius. I will have to invest in it now

Thank you

Finale Printmusic will do the same job for you at aropund £28.00 I use it for everything and apart from a few small problems which I found my way around eventually it is great.

EDIT. That price may have been a special offer at PC World a couple of years ago but it is much cheaper than Sibelius.

Yes, I only use Sibelius because it happens to be on my computer, but there are other, just as good, cheaper alternatives.

I've just installed Finale for my OU course! I'll see if I can get it upgraded or whatever you have to do.

*Pretending I am computer literate and failing miserably * Thanks anyway