Simpedia

Janita P., Nebraska

The accompaniment events are fantastic for everyone involved! I highly encourage everyone to do them in their studio as it adds so much life and energy to the public performance.

We have done it twice with a live band. A few years ago I hired my student’s “garage band” and it went well, but not quite as well as the church band I hired in the spring that had been playing publically for years. Those guys would improv on the 12 bar blues during breaks, etc; it pays to have an experienced band which can “go with the flow”. The first band experience I had my student carry the melody line with another keyboard and supplied him with all the music prior to the event so he could practice. The second time I supplied the melody (if there wasn’t a vocalist) as it was easier since we practiced together weekly in class. I found it took more prep time on everyone’ part, organization on my part, and money, but well worth it! I framed it as “Five Minutes of Fame” where the students chose an ACC song from SM, or not, to play with the band and then their second piece was without the band, generally. If it was a blues piece the band couldn’t refrain from hopping in and joining the student, which I fully encouraged. If you have a large studio the gig may last four hours, so I called it a “Come and Go” recital so the parents didn’t feel like they had to stay the whole time. Ironically, family clans ended up staying longer to listen to the music because it was so great!

Robin Keehn, Washington

Carry and I have done Accompaniment Workshops for 4 years now. We schedule them each May on two Saturdays. Students prepare 2-4 pieces ahead of the workshop and we ask them for copies of their music so we can share it with the other musicians. We really encourage using music outside of the SM Accompaniment Clues. We help them pick music that appeals to them and we’ve encountered it all (hard rock, country, Hawaiian, Christian, lots of worship music, etc).

We schedule our students in 10 minute blocks. Since we have other musicians at our studio, we try to group students together–drummer, guitar players, singers & pianists. If we can arrange it ahead of time, they all know some of the same music. If not, we always have a drummer, vocalist & keyboard player there to play with the student. At times we’ve had families that come and play as a group and that is great, too.

Parents absolutely love the Accompaniment Workshops. They get to see results–and they are so proud of their student’s accomplishments and ability to play with a band.

For some students, it is eye opening & changes their thinking about what it means to play the piano. We’ve had students, as a result of their participation, join or form worship bands. We had an adult find three other musicians and form her own “Country-Hawaiian” band! We’ve had family bands form and sign up for lessons from one of our music teachers.

This is a free event. We do pay our other music instructors to be present if possible when their students play and so we book them together (drummers, guitarists, etc).

I hope that gives you some ideas! It is always a busy weekend for us but well worth every minute.