Getting the most from your time with a pianist.
This post is for all of the students I’ve worked with over the years (and those to come) – to help YOU better understand how to effectively rehearse with a pianist. Let’s be honest – good pianists cost money, and the more time you need with them, the more money you spend. For young players who aren’t very accustomed to rehearsing and performing with a pianist, there are some valuable tools you can learn to make the most of that coveted time.
You might be shocked that a freelance collaborative pianist is trying to help students spend LESS time and LESS money on their rehearsals. Twenty years ago, I would have had the same reaction! But here’s a truth for most successful collaborative pianists – our time is limited. Very very limited. We don’t physically HAVE 6 hours of rehearsal time to give you on one piece for one performance – even if we want to. And to that end – I’m pretty certain you’d prefer not to pay for 6 hours of rehearsal time either!
So students - this little blog is about what YOU can do to get the most out of your rehearsal time with a pianist.
First and foremost, be prepared for your rehearsal. Many talented young players show up to their first piano rehearsals expecting everything to magically fall into place simply because they learned to play their own part well, and when the rehearsal goes disastrously they can’t understand why. The best remedy to counteract this classic rehearsal scenario is to increase your awareness of the music’s bigger picture so that you can manage your time in rehearsals with maximum efficiency.
Keep in mind that any performance is a collaboration. It’s the responsibility of the soloist, not just the pianist, to understand the music as a whole. If the piece is new to your pianist, you don’t want to be reliant on them to fix all of the issues in the rehearsal - like you, they are still learning their own part, and with a new piece they may not be as quick to point out where different problems occur.
HOW TO PREPARE FOR A REHEARSAL
1. Listen to recordings.
a. An important part of learning a piece of music is developing an aural understanding of all its elements. In the same way that you can walk down the street singing today’s hit pop song (guitar riffs, drum fills, and all), you should be able to hum the entirety of your piece including what the piano plays during the 8, 16, or 20 measures of rest before your next important entrance. (Note: If you are trying to count 20 measures of rest before that important entrance – you are going about things the wrong way.) It is risky to rely solely on your ability to count 20 measures of rest. What if you miscount or if the composers’ rhythmic games throw you off the beat? Nothing is more reliable than understanding and internalizing the bigger picture of the music.
*** One of the best ways to develop your aural conception of a piece is by listening to reference recordings.
b. When you listen to recordings, don’t just listen to the music in the background (which can serve its own purpose) – actually listen to the recordings while studying the full score–not just YOUR PART–so that you can see all the parts of the piece and how they fit together. When you do this, you are in essence, “studying” the score. Bringing us to the next element of preparation.
2. Study scores.
a. Students spend 90% of their time looking at their own parts, learning notes and rhythms, and possibly even thinking about more advanced concepts like phrasing, tone color, breathing, etc. They often forget that their part is only 50% of the equation. Unless you know the other 50% of the piece – you do not know the music.
b. In order to really KNOW a piece of music, you need to understand all of its components. If there are 5 parts, you must have an awareness of how they all fit together and what you will hear at all times. If there is a piano part, you need to have a solid awareness of what is happening in that part. At all times. And while this may sound daunting, just be glad you aren’t a conductor that needs to know 40 - 50 parts!!
c. As your understanding of the whole piece of music develops, you will be more equipped to make informed musical decisions about how to play your own part – including when to slow down, speed up, dynamic choices, etc. These decisions should never be made in a vacuum. If you are adding a crescendo in your part because you think it sounds good, but you haven’t actually looked at the score to see what the pianist is doing at that moment, you may find yourself with some serious musical confusion in rehearsal.
d. You may ask “How do I study a score?”
There are a few simple steps you can take to transform all the black ink on a score into a piece of music in your head!
i. Listen to a recording while watching the score, taking notes on spots that seem rhythmically challenging for ensemble or entrances that might be particularly tricky after many measures of rest.
ii. Write cues into your own part to help you aurally process what you and the piano play simultaneously.
(Stay tuned for a future post coming on how to write in cues!)
iii. Listen to multiple recordings of the piece, making note of consistencies in performance practice to prepare yourself for how a pianist might perform the piece. If the musicians in every recording you listen to play a ritardando in the same place - even though it’s not marked in the score – make a note of this for your own awareness. If your pianist has played the piece before, it’s likely they’ll do this too. If they haven’t played the piece, you will need to kindly inform them of this practice. Conversely, if you don’t want to perform the piece that way, you would also need to kindly inform your pianist of your choice.
iv. If there are no measure numbers or rehearsal letters, notice that and take this opportunity to write them into both the part and score. This will help facilitate faster communication and aid in overall efficiency during your rehearsal. Ideally, you should write the measure numbers in the score BEFORE you send the score to your pianist.
e. Score Study Checklist
i. Interludes/Entrances
ii. Basic rhythms in piano part
iii. Expressive markings in the piano part that may not be in your own part
iv. Performance practices of the piece
v. Any potential discrepancies of notation - you’d be surprised how often tempo markings between a score and a part may be different
f. Testing your score knowledge.
Test the fruit of your score study labor by listening to a recording without any music. Can you anticipate all of your entrances with 100% accuracy? If not, go back and revisit those places with the score until you can. If you want to take your mastery to the next level, see if you can hear the entire piece in your head from start to finish–without looking at the score. If there are any places where you draw a blank or the road map of the piece is a little fuzzy, revisit the score until you know 100% of the piece.
3. Plan your rehearsal
a. Time management is an important part of your rehearsal with a pianist. Especially if you are doing more than 1 piece or preparing for a recital, you need to know what pieces require more time and you need to plan your rehearsal time to be as effective as possible.
b. Do not walk into a rehearsal planning to just play a piece over and over for an hour. If you’ve properly studied the score, you should know where the difficult ensemble spots and tricky entrances are. Know that you may need 10-15 minutes on one spot just to get in several reps to make it feel more comfortable. You do not need to keep repeating the parts that already sound good and are easy to put together (though yes, that’s always more fun and makes us feel good about ourselves!).
c. Go into your rehearsal with a plan of the spots you hope to cover in your music, or pieces/movements/sections you’d like to get a full run of with piano – if you don’t get to everything in your plan, that’s completely fine. You will still have accomplished more than if you walked in blind waiting for the pianist to tell you what to do.
4. Practice your cues
a. Cueing is the most important means of communication between you and your collaborators during a performance. You would feel silly if you needed to stop in the middle of your performance to talk about the upcoming ritardando! So you need to think about both 1) WHERE to cue and 2) HOW to cue. And while that sounds simple – I’ve worked with talented graduate students my whole life who sometimes forget to plan these out prior to rehearsal. This is a pleasant reminder to EVERYONE.
b. When you study the score, or watch a video, think about where you need to cue. Tell-tale signs that a cue might be needed are moments where you start together, end together, fermatas, tempo changes at key transitions, and complex ensemble passages. Watch both where and how others cue and work it into your practice. Every single time you practice on your own, pretend your pianist is there and cue them. It’s the only way you’ll ever become effective and natural with your cues.
*** A great goal for your first rehearsal with piano is to be able to play a piece (or movement) from top to bottom on the first try without having to stop - even if under tempo. If you are able to do this it means you’ve probably studied the score sufficiently, prepared your part adequately, and thought through where and how you need to cue. This is a great starting point for a rehearsal - if things are already in line then you have the freedom (and fun!) to work on musical details and nuance of ensemble.
WHAT CAN YOU ASK OF YOUR PIANIST?
Many students get nervous about interacting with their collaborative pianist–especially when that pianist is a lot more experienced than they are. The purpose of this section is to help you navigate the social dynamic of your piano rehearsals so that you not only learn HOW to rehearse but also learn to do so in a way that is respectful of your collaborators.
1. Ask questions.
A good collaborative pianist wants to help you, and their own experiences with a piece of music may give them some added insight into how to rehearse that piece. Asking a pianist how much time they think might be needed to put something together can assuage many of your own concerns if you feel uncertain. They can also tell you how difficult a piece is to put together. Of course, it helps if you have worked with this pianist before, as they will have a better understanding of your level and abilities.
2. Ask for recordings
It never hurts to ask a pianist if they have any recorded performances of themselves playing your piece. Hearing your specific pianist perform the piece can be immensely helpful. You can also ask a pianist to make a recording of the piano part for you so you can start to learn how the piano part will sound behind you. This is particularly helpful when you are preparing a premiere of a new work and there is simply no reference to be heard. Be prepared to pay for this recording, as it may take the pianist time in their own schedule to both learn a new piece and to create this recording for you. And don’t share these recordings with other players without permission. They are for your ears only. They are solely for the sake of score study – and often won’t be a perfect rendition of the piano part – as the pianist will still be working on improving their own accuracy and perfection of the piece.
If there is an 8-10 measure section of a piece that seems particularly challenging for the ensemble, it is also okay to ask a pianist to record that one section for you so you can rehearse with it regularly. You may even want to ask for it at 3 different tempi, or if it’s highly syncopated ask for a metronome to be ticking in the background, so you can fit your part together slowly before speeding it up. Again, be prepared to pay something for this request. The small amount you pay will be worth the time and frustration it saves you. No one wants to spend an entire hour of rehearsal trying to figure out how to line up their own syncopations with simple rhythms in the piano part. (It will also save your pianist a lot of headache.)
CREATE PRACTICE TRACKS
Similar to asking a pianist to create recorded tracks for you, another option for students is to create their own practice tracks. This can be done by entering the piano part into a music notation software program, such as MuseScore, a free program that benefits musicians greatly. Here is a link for easy access. https://musescore.org/en
You can do this for an entire piece or with just a small section of the music as well, perhaps an 8-12 measure segment that is particularly difficult for ensemble. You can then use this track during your own practice time. A wonderful element to this is that these programs often offer a built-in metronome that will allow you to easily change the tempi for your own practice purposes. You can hear the “piano part” as many times and at as many speeds as you like! Some instrumentalists have told me that this is the #1 time saver for them in preparing for a rehearsal.
RECORD YOUR REHEARSALS
1. Always ask a pianist if it is okay for you to record the rehearsal. Of course, there is an unwritten rule that you will not share or post any of that recording. It’s for your personal study ONLY. If recording a rehearsal is an issue, my suggestion is that you find another pianist.
2. If you have a one-hour rehearsal with a pianist, and you listen to it 2 times in the week after – you’ve essentially paid one hour of time for 3 hours of product. Listening back to your rehearsals is one of the most invaluable tools you can utilize. As a collaborative pianist, I can speak to the fact that we go through things quickly in a rehearsal – trying to address the most major issues we hear students having, the things that affect our own part directly, or the cues that you aren’t giving. In the moment, it may seem to you like you will remember all of these things after you walk out of the rehearsal. Yet, people usually don’t – and I end up saying the same things at the next rehearsal, which is not an effective use of time. Listen back to the rehearsal, listen to where the pianist asked you for a cue, or any advice they may give you on how to execute that cue. Listen to the overall ensemble – the pianist may only address major issues or counting mistakes, but that doesn’t mean you won’t hear other small things that you can make better on your own through your own critical listening. Listen to the nuance of the piano part – it may better help you make decisions about your own part. And just listen, period!! Listen to how the full piece fits together. Listen to your intonation. Listen to your time. Listen to your pulse. Listen to your phrasing. Listen to your accents, articulations, dynamics to see if they are coming across the way you hoped. Listen to where your breaths don’t make sense. There are so many things that are difficult to process in the moment when your attention is divided between playing, breathing, counting, and hearing the piano part for the first time – these things will quickly and clearly become apparent to you when you listen back with 100% of your attention to your rehearsal.
3. Take notes on things you might like differently – and ask your pianist if it’s okay for you to share these notes with them in an email. It can save you time in your next rehearsal. Granted, the pianist may not be able to fully make these changes PRIOR to meeting with you again, but they can jot a few notes in their score so they are even more prepared to work with you in the next rehearsal. As a funny side note, I have a very close friend who would email me after every rehearsal with notes from our rehearsal – the first time he did this I frankly wasn’t sure if I should be offended or not. I thought “Wow, he must not think I played his piece very well!” – I soon learned this was one of the most organized and talented musicians I knew. His notes were not a criticism of my playing, as much as they were an opportunity he was taking to share his musical ideas on the piece in a format that would not use up our limited rehearsal time. This is particularly important when the pianist has not performed your piece before. Your guidance and communication with regards to musical intention can help the pianist with learning their part as much as it helps you learn yours.
QUICK Take-Aways
This article may seem daunting to a young player – perhaps you never knew there was so much you could (and should!) do to prepare for playing with a pianist and getting the most out of your rehearsal time. But take heart, once you start implementing some of the simplest techniques on this list into your preparation, they will get easier and become part of your natural routine over time. Before you know it, you’ll be noticing and thinking about all the advanced details every time you listen to or watch someone perform the piece. For now, I would encourage all young players to start with these 4 steps:
1. Listen to a recording - watch a video if available
2. Study a score
3. Write in a few essential cues during interludes
4. Record your first rehearsal and listen back to it at least once after the fact.
If you practice and develop your own skills with regards to preparation, score study, rehearsal and time management, you’ll have a much more positive experience each and every time you walk into your rehearsal with a pianist. And hopefully you can save some time, frustration, and money in the process!!