Recorded Accompaniment and the Extinction of Live Musicians

Live musicians and accompanists may be an endangered species.  Why?  Many theater and music programs, due to budget constraints or other reasons, are trading in their live accompanists and musicians for pre-recorded accompaniment tracks.  The increasing availability of recorded musical theater accompaniment tracks makes this a cheap and easy option for a theater director who wants to put more money into a fancy set and costumes.  A local school near me is using recorded tracks instead of an accompanist this year, after several years of using accompanists.  Several local churches are increasingly using recorded tracks with their choirs. Even the Red Hot Chili Peppers admitted to using a pre-recorded track at the Superbowl this year!  It seems that recordings are all the rage.  We have the technology, and the sound equipment, so why not?  We can give everyone a perfect performance and fake it, or lip-sync, although I don't think I could fake it on my piano.  So what's the problem with all this recording madness?

The problem is that it's not real!  

I think our technology has made superficiality comfortable to us.  In our virtual, hyper-edited realities on Facebook, Youtube, and TV, we are ok with fakeness.  We project falsely perfect worlds in our electronic media, making everyone think that perfect is the only way to be.  Does this have anything to do with the fact that depression has reached epidemic levels in our country?  I think so.  Back when I taught piano, my students were so used to hearing perfect, edited recordings on the radio, they couldn't be satisfied with their performance unless it had the same degree of flawlessness.  I had to keep reminding them that all that stuff they hear on the radio is not a real performance, but the result of many, many takes and many hours of studio time.  But that is another rant for another day. 

Back on track.  It's time take the megaphone and give my loud and brazen opinion on the matter:  

LIVE MUSIC IS ALWAYS BETTER!  Canned music always degrades the performance.  It also gives the audience the message that music must be absolutely perfect, or it's not good enough.  And it gives the accompanist who is sometimes replaced with a recorded track that he or she it not good enough. 

In the 13 years I've been a musical theater accompanist, I've been lucky to work with several directors who understand the value of a live accompanist or pit band.  This has helped me to stay gainfully employed as I utilize my piano skills.  Here is why accompanists or a live band are more desirable in performance:

1. Live music is impressive and more exciting.  It has the wow factor that recordings don't.
2. Trained musicians need employment!  Yes, we need to work!  Don't replace us with recordings!
3. A live accompanist or pit band can slow down or speed up with a singer who is not on tempo.
4. A live accompanist can transpose with a transposing keyboard if the key is too high/ low for the singer.
5. A live accompanist or pit band can skip ahead and find the singer when s/he skips a few bars.  This does happen, and a pre-recorded accompaniment can spell disaster in these instances.  
6. There is no substitute for the human factor, and the energy and feeling that a live band or accompanist projects.
7. A singer can decide to spontaneously hold a note extra long for impact/ expression, and the musicians can adjust.  This adds an extra element of freshness that recordings don't have.  Each performance is unique and is not controlled by the timing of the track.
8. In theater, the time it takes to accomplish action or dialogue sometimes varies, and musicians can lengthen or shorten musical underscoring where needed. 

I do invite your comments on the matter.  Chime in!

Crash Course in Accompanying

I am a far better accompanist than I used to be, but I am still learning and fine-tuning my methods.  Through the years, I have learned a lot from my mistakes.  I have dropped a few notes, skipped a few bars when I got lost, and played a major chord instead of minor.  I have had bad page turns, or pages that got stuck, or discovered that the lighting was so poor I could hardly read the notes.  I have jumped the gun because I misinterpreted the downbeat with an unclear conductor, and I have even failed to read my own instructions in the music a few times.  Everyone knows these mistakes are embarassing.  We want to do anything to avoid them.  Fortunately, I wisened up about score preparation and have changed my strategy when it comes to accompanying.  You may be surprised that I don't emphasize physical practice at the piano very much at all.  Here is my crash course in accompanying:

1.  Listen to a recording of the piece.  Scratch that.  Listen to several recordings of it.  Youtube is such a gift to our generation.  Use it!  The first thing I try to do now is listen to the piece before rehearsing it.  But you must listen while reading the score.

2.  Sing the parts along with the recording.    For choir music, pretend you are soprano and sing the whole soprano part.  Then sing the whole alto part.  Do the same with the mens' parts.  Do this while reading the score.  I don't care how badly you sing.  Just hum along while listening if you like.  This way you will be very familiar with the parts and part-reading/ open-score reading won't be so hard when the director/ conductor asks you to do it.

3. Check for difficult page turns.  Locate the repeats, DS al Fines, and DS al Codas.  If they require you to turn backward more than one page, or forward more more than one page at a time, ask for a page turner, or make a copies in reduced size that you can tape together.  You don't want any of your back-turns or multiple page turns to de-rail you in rehearsal or performance. 

4.  If you're turning your own pages, write in all your page turns, at the bottom right of the previous page.  This is so, so important!  I write in the upcoming 2 or 3 chords and the harmonic rhythm (how often the chord changes, like every half note, for instance).  This has saved me from many errors over the years.  If you own an iPad and you do a lot of accompanying, you may want to look into the Air Turn, a foot pedal that turns music pages you have scanned or uploaded to your iPad.  If you do go with the Air Turn, any music purchased on musicnotes.com may be synced to your iPad.  I don't know about you, but I'm excited to try this soon!

5.  Write in all the chords of the accompaniment.  At the very minimum, you will want to do this in sections that are in difficult keys, like 6 flats.  Now do you see why I emphasize mastering music theory?  This practice has also saved me from many botched measures.  Even if I don't get every detail in the rehearsal, I try to play the right chord.

6.  Analyze any open score sections for chord progressions, and write in the chords and inversions.  (Open score is defined as a musical choral or orchestral score in which each part has a staff to itself).  Open score reading is the most difficult form of piano reading.  You are reading four separate staves at one time, and I know very few people who can do this well.  If you write in the chord progressions, it will give you a shorthand of sorts to help you keep things flowing in rehearsal.

7.  Practice the ending first.  Why?  Because it is usually different than the rest of the piece, and has specific timing issues, such as ritardandos or fermatas.  I was once accompanying a piece for a community chorus and I failed to look at the ending.  We I got there during rehearsal, the chords changed very quickly.  I didn't know the rhythm of the chord changes because it was kind of unpredictable, and I botched the ending.  The director was not very undertanding with me, and I learned my lesson!

8.  Then, if you have time, practice.  Honestly, most accompaniment literature is not physically challenging.  Physical practice should truly be the last thing you do.  When you do have time to physically practice, focus your practice on the ending, difficult keys within the piece, and transitions between keys.  These are the parts your conductor will expect you to have down!

I hope that helps you in your accompanying adventures.  Share with your students!  Most students don't realize the importance of mental practice and study!  I would love to hear how you prepare for accompanying.  Maybe you have suggestions I didn't think of.