Joyce Grill is on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse teaching piano and accompanying. She accompanies area faculty recitals as well as recitals for touring professionals besides doing solo work. She is active as a clinician giving many clinics and workshops to piano teacher groups as well as high school and college students. She is active in MTNA and holds the Master Teacher Certificate. Publications include Accompanying Basics and Character Pieces, Preludes. She holds degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with advanced work at the School of Fine Arts, Fontainebleau, France.
Joyce Grill
School of Music
University of Wisconsin at La Crosse
La Crosse, WI 54601
grill@mail.uwlax.edu
608.785.6728
What is so appealing about sports? Why do our piano students eagerly forego piano practice or lessons or quit piano study because of soccer or baseball or some other sport? Young students like the idea of "team", of camaraderie. But except for the occasional duet, piano students practice alone and go to their lesson alone. The vocalist or the instrumentalist gets to sing in a choir or play in a band or orchestra, but the piano student goes on alone, never getting to know the joy of making music with others.
Many students do start accompanying in junior high school. Their teachers often complain that it detracts from solo work and so the pianists learn by trial and error, often quitting lessons so they can just accompany. Yet accompanying is the one lifelong skill that a pianist is most called upon to use. How many calls do pianists get to accompany a soloist, a church choir, a community chorus, a musical, or to play chamber music, or be the pianist in a jazz band versus "we need a piano soloist?"
Accompanying skills need to be taught from the beginning, after all, it is the same instrument, the same notes and rhythms, dynamics, phrasing, musicianship. It simply requires an additional thought process to provide another positive, meaningful musical experience. It doesn't diminish the quality or expectations of the level of learning achievement. Some students will become proficient more easily, but every student should be taught the skills.
College students are often asked to accompany but refuse claiming they are too busy. Often it is because they don't know how. When do pianists get the experience to play chamber music or a concerto with orchestra often required for a degree? It is too late to start learning in college. (However, college piano pedagogy students should be taught how to teach accompanying skills.)
Band and choral directors should work closely with piano teachers. If a choral director can find a 5th grader who knows the 5 finger patterns in all keys with a grasp of tonic and dominant chords, you have the basis of vocal warm-up exercises. When piano students realize there is a way to use those skills, they are more apt to practice them. (Often, aren't technical skills the hardest ones to get students to practice?) Then too, choirs at that age mostly sing two-part harmony, an easy way to get started score reading. Later, the choir adds a third voice working up to 4 or more part harmony. Score reading takes practice like anything else and needs to start at an early, easy level.
Every band and string method book has a piano accompaniment book. When an instrumentalist starts lessons in 4th or 5th grade, the pianist has already been studying for several years. The accompaniments are very easy, and what a wonderful experience for a young instrumentalist to hear the harmony with their part . The young pianist gets to learn about tuning and can be a mentor. It would make both students practice more and I'm certain any band or orchestra director would be delighted to have their young students working with a pianist. By the time they get to solo and ensemble contest, they have been playing together for several years and can work on playing musically instead of just getting the notes and rhythms together.
Listening to another part can open a pianist's ears. We tell young pianist's to listen, but why? Tuning is not an issue. But after hearing a singer's or an instrumentalist's part, texture and voicing become more apparent. This can transfer to solo literature, finding and bringing out inner voices which otherwise could be lost.
Teachers often have their students play duets. Why not skip a beat or a measure to see if the student can make the adjustment. (This requires the student knowing both parts of the duet.) Have the primo speed up or slow down----can the secondo adjust? If the students learn these skills at an early age, it prepares them for the performance when a soloist does something unusual.
Young pianists need to play so many thousand notes to develop the skills needed to play the piano, whether it is classical or popular music, accompaniments or solos. If studying accompaniments would keep students practicing and taking lessons, isn't that important? Above all, we are giving students a "team" opportunity with the rewards and joys of making music together.
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