I am accompanying a few undergraduate students for their end-of-semester “performance assessments” (aka juries.)
I’ve noticed a pattern, but I’m curious how widespread this problem is. So, if you are an accompanist, or an applied teacher, share your thoughts!
Students know that they need to send me scores so I can practice the piano part, but three out of four students sent me the wrong music.
One student sent me a score that was clearly “home-engraved” with only block chords in half notes, so that the piano was doing nothing except supporting the harmony.
Being well-familiar with the work of Vivaldi, I knew it wasn’t right.
“Where did you get this?” I asked.
“IMSLP” was the answer.
Two other students sent me complete scores, not piano reductions. They were string orchestra pieces, and I could have hacked my way through reading an open score, but I couldn’t do it in principle.
Again, they had been found on IMSLP. (This is not a cut on IMSLP. I love IMSLP and find it to be an invaluable resource.)
The problem is that students think that IMSLP is where they are going to find scores to give to pianists.
After telling them all they needed to provide real piano parts, they went back to their teachers for help.
It seems they are not being taught 1) what the proper music is to give to pianists or 2) where to find the music, such as in the school music library. It appears that what was sent to me did not first pass inspection with the applied teacher.
Most of all, it is obvious the students have not looked at the piano part or studied the score.
They are unfamiliar about how the parts fit together, when they are playing in parallel motion or in counterpoint. They are surprised by changes in harmony or mood. They don’t know when the piano has the melody and is acting as the orchestra in a concerto.
This is something that the applied teacher should be teaching during lessons. The applied teacher should provide or direct the student to the piano score from the beginning. The applied teacher should guide the student through a basic analysis of the piece. discussing harmony, key, mood, secondary dominances, form, and the lines of each part. The applied teacher should prepare the student for how to work with a pianist.
As it has turned out, in addition to accompanying, I am also teaching some theory, form & analysis, and doing chamber music coaching.
Now, as a composer, I can geek out on that all day.
But I shouldn’t have to in a rehearsal, because it does not reflect real life. In real life, rehearsals should be strictly about performance details, like making sure everyone is breathing together, coming in at the right time and agreeing on how to navigate tempo changes.
In a school setting, the students may get four rehearsals with me, but in the real world, they might get one rehearsal with their pianist. Maybe two. Especially in a chamber music situation, musicians need to come to the first rehearsal knowing not just their own part, but how it fits in with the other parts. They need to know what to expect the music to sound like.
There’s no time for guessing, there’s no time for figuring it out on the spot.
Sure, music students learn score analysis in theory class, but there is still a gap in understanding when the applied teachers do not show how these theory skills apply directly to preparing pieces for performance.
Playing an instrument involves far more than technique. Applied teachers, please teach your students to study scores.