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.
Showing posts with label mental practice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mental practice. Show all posts
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Playing By Ear
I have a gift. Or maybe not. Maybe it is just the result of decades spent honing my skills. Maybe it is the result of my daily immersion in music-making. But I recently find that I am able to just sit down a play a tune, completely by ear, and with relatively little error. Isn't this what we all want to do? Wouldn't it be wonderful to bypass the dreaded labor of decoding notes on a sheet of paper? What if you didn't even need to read music in order to make music? Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could just sit down and play a popular tune by ear and artfully arrange it on the spot; even improvise around that song?
Whether this is a gift or skill, I have developed this ability in response to needs. On the way to church some mornings, I am not always sure what I will play for my prelude music. This is because I am very busy with three children and a thriving music studio. There is little time for physical practice at the piano. Fortunately, God always plants a song in my heart on the way to church. And, purely through mental preparation on the car ride over, I can be ready to sit down and play, arranging the song on the spot. How does this work?
STEP 1 - SING MELODY IN SCALE DEGREES
First, while in the car, I figure out the scale degrees of a melody by ear and sing the melody in scale degrees (each note of the scale is numbered from 1 to 8). For instance, I sing the first phrase of "Amazing Grace" by singing the numbers 5-1-3-1-3-2-1-6-5. Those are the scale degrees, or notes of the scale that make up Amazing Grace. This is a skill I was first exposed to in a Sight-Singing and Ear-Training class at George Mason University. Since my only training was private piano lessons, this was a completely foreign concept to me! But I began to listen for the tonic (or the "1") when I was listening to music on the radio. It's easy to find, because it really sounds and feels like home. It sounds like the melody note you would end the song on. A good test is, "If I ended this song right now, what note would I sing?" That note is the 1! Another test for finding the 1 of the scale is locating the 5. The 5 has an inevitable sort of pull toward the 1, and often precedes it in a melody. The perfect example is "Amazing Grace." Clearly, you can hear the "A" in "Amazing" is the 5 and the "maz" is the 1 because that sounds like the note you would end the song on.
Once you can hear where the 1 is in the context of your song, you can determine the scale degree of every other melody note in terms of its relationship to the 1. In addition to being able to sing scales, it's pretty essential to know what your different intervals sound like (an interval is the distance between 2 pitches). Your trained ear can identify an interval by matching its sound to the beginning notes of certain familiar songs. Here is the most comprehensive list I've ever seen of songs that help you recognize intervals:
http://www.people.vcu.edu/~bhammel/theory/resources/macgamut_theory/songs_interval_recognize.html
PICK A SONG YOU KNOW FOR EVERY INTERVAL! AND KNOW WHICH SONG GOES WITH WHICH INTERVAL!
STEP 2 - DETERMINE CHORD PROGRESSION
Once you can sing the whole melody in scale degrees, you need to figure out the chord progression that goes underneath that melody. These are the chords the band/ pianist/ guitarist plays with the singer/s. This takes experience and practice playing by ear. Yes, you have to practice figuring out tunes by ear, not just reading notes! You can start by listening to songs on the radio or on your iPod and seeing if you can guess the chord progression. Then, when you sit down with your guitar or piano, see if you guessed correctly. The melody notes will also suggest a chord. For instance, if the melody note is E and you are playing in the key of C, it is highly probable that you have a C chord (the I chord) underneath that melody note since E (the melody note) occurs in the C major chord (C-E-G). Of course, your other possibilities will be the iii (E minor...E-G-B) or the vi (A minor...A-C-E), but the probability is higher for a I chord since it is the most popular in all of music. Remember, most songs consist of what I call the "holy trinity of chords" -- the I, IV, and V. If you don't know what that means then come to my studio for lessons and I'll teach you! Chord progressions do not occur in completely random order. There is some logic involved, and you can use logic and probability to boost your chances of figuring out a progression by ear. For instance,
STEP 3 - EMBELLISH, IMPROVISE, ARPEGGIATE, AND HAVE FUN!
This will be a topic for another post. But if you want to learn how to get to step 3, just come to my studio for lessons and I'll teach you how! We're at www.madmusiclab.com and our e-mail is info@madmusiclab.com. Our phone number is 540-338-SONG (540-338-7664).
Whether this is a gift or skill, I have developed this ability in response to needs. On the way to church some mornings, I am not always sure what I will play for my prelude music. This is because I am very busy with three children and a thriving music studio. There is little time for physical practice at the piano. Fortunately, God always plants a song in my heart on the way to church. And, purely through mental preparation on the car ride over, I can be ready to sit down and play, arranging the song on the spot. How does this work?
STEP 1 - SING MELODY IN SCALE DEGREES
First, while in the car, I figure out the scale degrees of a melody by ear and sing the melody in scale degrees (each note of the scale is numbered from 1 to 8). For instance, I sing the first phrase of "Amazing Grace" by singing the numbers 5-1-3-1-3-2-1-6-5. Those are the scale degrees, or notes of the scale that make up Amazing Grace. This is a skill I was first exposed to in a Sight-Singing and Ear-Training class at George Mason University. Since my only training was private piano lessons, this was a completely foreign concept to me! But I began to listen for the tonic (or the "1") when I was listening to music on the radio. It's easy to find, because it really sounds and feels like home. It sounds like the melody note you would end the song on. A good test is, "If I ended this song right now, what note would I sing?" That note is the 1! Another test for finding the 1 of the scale is locating the 5. The 5 has an inevitable sort of pull toward the 1, and often precedes it in a melody. The perfect example is "Amazing Grace." Clearly, you can hear the "A" in "Amazing" is the 5 and the "maz" is the 1 because that sounds like the note you would end the song on.
Once you can hear where the 1 is in the context of your song, you can determine the scale degree of every other melody note in terms of its relationship to the 1. In addition to being able to sing scales, it's pretty essential to know what your different intervals sound like (an interval is the distance between 2 pitches). Your trained ear can identify an interval by matching its sound to the beginning notes of certain familiar songs. Here is the most comprehensive list I've ever seen of songs that help you recognize intervals:
http://www.people.vcu.edu/~bhammel/theory/resources/macgamut_theory/songs_interval_recognize.html
PICK A SONG YOU KNOW FOR EVERY INTERVAL! AND KNOW WHICH SONG GOES WITH WHICH INTERVAL!
STEP 2 - DETERMINE CHORD PROGRESSION
Once you can sing the whole melody in scale degrees, you need to figure out the chord progression that goes underneath that melody. These are the chords the band/ pianist/ guitarist plays with the singer/s. This takes experience and practice playing by ear. Yes, you have to practice figuring out tunes by ear, not just reading notes! You can start by listening to songs on the radio or on your iPod and seeing if you can guess the chord progression. Then, when you sit down with your guitar or piano, see if you guessed correctly. The melody notes will also suggest a chord. For instance, if the melody note is E and you are playing in the key of C, it is highly probable that you have a C chord (the I chord) underneath that melody note since E (the melody note) occurs in the C major chord (C-E-G). Of course, your other possibilities will be the iii (E minor...E-G-B) or the vi (A minor...A-C-E), but the probability is higher for a I chord since it is the most popular in all of music. Remember, most songs consist of what I call the "holy trinity of chords" -- the I, IV, and V. If you don't know what that means then come to my studio for lessons and I'll teach you! Chord progressions do not occur in completely random order. There is some logic involved, and you can use logic and probability to boost your chances of figuring out a progression by ear. For instance,
- I = HOME
- V or V7 = LEADS TO HOME (I)
- IV = TYPICALLY FOLLOWS I
- I-IV-I-V (or V7)-I is a very predictable, common progression, but also rather boring to harmony nerds like me.
- If it doesn't sound like a I, IV, or V, it's probably a ii, iii, or vi chord. The sad sound of the minor chords will clearly indicate this, and the melody notes should give you a clue about which chord you're dealing with.
STEP 3 - EMBELLISH, IMPROVISE, ARPEGGIATE, AND HAVE FUN!
This will be a topic for another post. But if you want to learn how to get to step 3, just come to my studio for lessons and I'll teach you how! We're at www.madmusiclab.com and our e-mail is info@madmusiclab.com. Our phone number is 540-338-SONG (540-338-7664).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)