Looking for piano accompanist for violinist

[sleepy]

Dreamaurora:

an accompanist who cannot 'take breath' or 'follow' will in turn cause the soloist to not be able to do this as it will cause the piece to sound out of sync.


Some accompanists may also play their accompaniments as if they are playing their solo pieces and drown out the soloists' playing; someone I know actually found out this the hard way after auditioning for an orchestra (the music director told her the accompanist was too loud and he could not hear her playing clearly).

Yes, I observed these undesirable traits in dd's piano teacher after a few sessions that's why I suspected she has no experience in accompaniment despites what music school claimed and asked her directly. And she admitted this is her first time :scared:

Piano teacher also insisted to keep to tempo but we all know strings needs to have phrasing and some 'breath' is intentional, not because soloist is slow to catch up on tempo. Yet she kept harping on some quarver note. She also asked my dd to play louder but dd's string teacher said piano teacher is the one who is too loud. So these numerous practice sessions are essential to iron out all these different interpretations.

Then on exam day, accompanist can't even play her notes dutifully without making mistakes :slapshead:

Fortunately, my dd played beautifully. I think exam board should just scrap the accompaniment requirement for strings.

[buds]

Aiyoh sleepy... your poor DD... :hugs: That accompanist just doesn't have chemistry with her lar... hope she wasn't too depressed over the comments made during the practice sessions. Btw, your DD doing which Grade now?


Ya, we never had to pay for any exam accompaniment package n wat nots... tts why I asked. DD1's violin teacher can play both piano and violin. She's so good that while playing the accompaniment during lessons, she can use one hand to on and off adjust my DD's bowing lar.. posture lar.. or just press down DD's finger on a particular string for more pressure while DD is playing her piece. DD plays beautifully thanks to her... she's been a great inspiration n role model for DD1. :please: We enjoy listening to her playing at home. Even the baby loves it. He'll quiet down, sit up wide-eyed and really just listen. Now a bit older, he also knows how to clap for his jie.

Eh babe, if scrap accompaniment requirement then play alongside the CD arh? Lagi stress leh. The CD only one tempo n must follow leh.. some a bit fast too but hor good thing is this kind of accompaniment won't make mistakes or be a nervous wreck on exam day.

[sleepy]

buds, PM you

buds:

if scrap accompaniment requirement then play alongside the CD arh? Lagi stress leh. The CD only one tempo n must follow leh.. some a bit fast too but hor good thing is this kind of accompaniment won't make mistakes or be a nervous wreck on exam day.

I meant just play solo without any accompaniment.
Show real kungfu without side kick

[buds]

Kungfu without sidekick? Hehee! Lol!


PM replied.

[Dreamaurora]

buds:

Aiyoh sleepy... your poor DD... :hugs: That accompanist just doesn't have chemistry with her lar... hope she wasn't too depressed over the comments made during the practice sessions. Btw, your DD doing which Grade now?


Ya, we never had to pay for any exam accompaniment package n wat nots... tts why I asked. DD1's violin teacher can play both piano and violin. She's so good that while playing the accompaniment during lessons, she can use one hand to on and off adjust my DD's bowing lar.. posture lar.. or just press down DD's finger on a particular string for more pressure while DD is playing her piece. DD plays beautifully thanks to her... she's been a great inspiration n role model for DD1. :please: We enjoy listening to her playing at home. Even the baby loves it. He'll quiet down, sit up wide-eyed and really just listen. Now a bit older, he also knows how to clap for his jie.

Eh babe, if scrap accompaniment requirement then play alongside the CD arh? Lagi stress leh. The CD only one tempo n must follow leh.. some a bit fast too but hor good thing is this kind of accompaniment won't make mistakes or be a nervous wreck on exam day.

I dint think its the chemistry issue lar. Good accompanists can adapt to all.sort of playing, whether good or bad. Anyway not possible to scrap accompaniment as many of string standard repertoire has equal weightage on the piano part, especially the higher grades. Those advanced repertoire like violin sonatas are almost like practically piano sonatas with violin accompaniment.

[buds]

I still think there must be some chemistry nevertheless cos there are some who can just click at first accompaniment n others just don’t. The other thing to marry chemistry is experience. Which in sleepy’s case, there was none since it’s the teacher’s 1st time! And the school didn’t even mention it.

[phankao]

sleepy:

I think exam board should just scrap the accompaniment requirement for strings.

Like for Chinese instrumental exams, huh? ;D

[phankao]

Dreamaurora:

luckystar:

Any one knows the nafa piano accopanist ? Do you think he/she will like to accompany non-nafa ?

NAFA does not have a full time accompanist, unlike Yong Siew Toh. Student accompanists are assigned to each individual instrumentalits, but the accompanists are not obligated to accompany them because it is not compulsory for pianists to accompany and there is no mark involved. :

For NAFA's School of Young Talents, they do have a list of regular accompanists for their instrumental students, if I'm not mistaken (not talking about the Dip/BA programmes, Dreamaurora). And the students have to pay for the accompanists whether they like it or not. No option, it seems. One of my friends who is a piano teacher, said she was not allowed to accompany her girl even though she had done so for others for those same pieces many times before for their exams. But yes, in YST, all-in. No need to pay for practice/performance accompanist fees.

So far, my boy has worked best with his fellow school student accompanists. But now all say too busy. *sigh*. He asked me to get him an accompanist for his school exam. I look at the score - not too difficult. I could play, but I cannot coordinate too well. So I think best to get a professional. The last time I accompanied him was for his Grade 4 violin exams! I'm too lazy to practice for his pieces now. Too difficult.

[elesoo]

Hello all,


Please do not hesitate to contact me for piano accompaniment :))
I'm a graduate from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music of the Bachelor of Music Studies majoring in Piano, and I have experiences playing piano accompaniment for various instrumentalist as well as vocalists and choirs.
Feel free to contact me at [email protected] or mobile at 9178 2971. My website is http://elesoopiano.wix.com/home for more info please visit!

Thanks for reading!

Warm Regards,

Eleanor Soo

[peanut_butter]

The worse a student plays, the more editing the accompanist has to do to cover up the mistakes.

The better the student play, the more detailed the accompanist has to be.
Because much of the musical details are with the piano, you cannot remove the accompanist lah.

Chemistry is important for very young kids and candidates with learning disorder. There is a violin teacher with a very sensitive kid. The student played with four accompanists before selecting her own pianist to help with her exam preparation.