Creating Introductions for Accompaniment Pieces
Found in: Accompaniment
Ramona H, Alaska
I’m just beginning to teach the accompaniment track to some of my students. I am wondering if I should deal at all with having the student work out an introduction to lead the singers into an accompaniment piece. As a long-time church accompanist, I know this is a key point in getting the singers and the accompanist to begin together (with the singers able to find their starting pitch), so that the start of the song is strong. I am very comfortable with working out introductions myself, but the Accompaniment teaching video does not address this. How do others handle this, or do you ignore it in the early stages of teaching accompaniment?
From Samali D., Australia
I usually ask students to play the last couple of bars of an accompaniment as the intro to the piece. I usually introduce this concept after they are comfortable playing through the piece from beginning to end. I don’t not make a big issue of it at all. Once I have demonstrated how to do it and explained why we do it the student seems to understand it right away – in fact I have never ever had a student not ‘get it’ straight away. Some students need some help with Amazing Grace to work out which beat to commence singing the piece. Again with some clear explanation I have found there is often little difficulty with this process.
From Patty D., California
I actually introduce introductions in the Level 1 book, using the last line of the song. I have had a couple of my students play for a solo or for church, using Amazing Grace, so they needed an introduction.