So this past Saturday I had a 2-hour rehearsal with a friend, former high school classmate, and fellow musician. She's a vocalist, and she and I are performing for a "Coming Home" Concert with 2 other musicians in October at our alma mater. Leading up to this, we all knew WELL in advance that it was coming up, and I already was preparing for my instrumental pieces, most of which I had already performed. The other 3 vocalists had requested for me to accompany them on the piano in some way, which was totally fine. They all had promised to try to get in the sheet music for their songs as soon as they could, but you know, life gets crazy, and....well I didn't get the music for the first vocalist about 5-6 weeks before our rehearsal (the one other vocalist got his only song into me pretty early; the other had sent it the same day as this rehearsal). Anyways, I was practicing like a madman in preparation for meet up with the first vocalist, because I wanted it to go as smoothly as possible and be professional, however there were a couple piano arrangements that were....JAZZY, and therefore very difficult to learn in that short time frame. I made this aware to my vocalist friend, I apologized profusely, but since she is such a positive and forgiving soul, she said it was more than ok, that she understood she wasn't giving me enough time, and told me I could simplify it as much as I deemed fit. She even said we could always cut one of those songs out, or she could use a track recording as a last resort. I tried my best of course, muddled my way through those 2 super jazzy accompanist with the crazy poly-tonal 5-finger chords, every-changing key signatures, syncopated rhythms between hands, etc.....and it went well! There was a point when she said that what I played sounded great, and I responded, "Really?!? I sort of made up things and just tried to keep up with you!" So my fellow accompanists, the point is: don't feel bad if you're not quite ready for rehearsal with a soloist, especially if they haven't given you a realistic time frame to practice up. If they're a decent person and professional musician, they'll understand and be forgiving, like my friend here. If not, that's on them, not you! How much time is enough? Well that depends on the difficulty of the piano arrangement, how much time you have, and your musical experience. But like any performance, have fun and enjoy the music!!!
P.S.---If anybody would like more info on the "Coming Home" Concert I mentioned in this blog, follow this link:https://www.communitiesfortheartsclyde.org/events-1
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About this blogHello world, this is your friendly musician friend and teacher, Joseph! This is where I share my thoughts and feelings about anything and everything music-related. Enjoy! Archives
September 2022
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