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Piano classes |
Introduction
I got an e mail from someone who wanted to know how to play accompaniment parts on the piano. Here's my attempt to reply.Back to top
Notated accompaniments
If you have a written out piano accompaniment part - and you know how to read sheet music - it's rather simple, of course. Just play what the score says.Some of the pieces at Musica Viva have alternative piano parts with different difficulty levels. Have a look at What shall we do with the drunken sailor. If you click on the link called "Parts", you'll find two piano accompaniment parts listed, one easy and one intermediate. (I usually add an advanced piano accompaniment too, ut in this particular case there was no point.) Use the one you like the best. If there are two pianos, you might even want to use them both at the same time.
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Piano extractions
You can play a piano accompaniment to a multi-part arrangement simply by playing two or more of the parts. Have a look at the ensemble arrangement of Bach's famous Air. You can accompany a soloist simply by playing all the three lower parts on the piano. The problem is of course that you might have to read from three or more staves at the same time. In this particualr case it's not a problem, since you can just leave out part three, but usually you'd want to write down a piano reduction with all the parts condensed down to two staves. The written out "advanced" piano accompaniment of this piece is such a piano reduction.Back to top
Playing from chord symbols
Those funny letters can find above a notated melody is often called "guitar chords", but there's no reason why a piano or other keyboard instrument can use them as well.When you play from chords, you basically create your own arrangement on the spot. This can be as easy or difficult as you want it to be. Some tunes require a rather advanced accompaniment to work, but something like the Musica Viva arrangement of What shall we do with the drunken sailor can be done very easily. There are just two chords there, Am (includes the notes a, c and e) and G (g, b and d). As long as you stick to the notes belonging to the relevant chord, you can't do much wrong. The two written out piano accompaniments are both examples of how this could be done, but you can do it much simpler if you like. Just play the notes a, c and e with your right hand at the start of each bar with the chord symbol Am and g, b and d at the start of each bar with the chord symbol G. Then you can add a simple bass by playing the root of the chord with your left hand at the same time.
The root of the chord is simply the note the chord is named after, A for Am and G for G.
So which notes does a chord include then?
There are a number of very good chord finder sites on the web, such as:
- Mike Whitaker's Chord Parser - very basic, but really effective.
- Chord House - a more fancy/advanced chord finder.
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Playing the melody
You can often hear a piano accompanist play the melody along with the soloist. Is that a good idea?Hard to say for sure. It's certainly not the most important thing for an accompanist to do (unless the soloist is really unsure about his or her playing). But if you think it sound good, and it doesn't interfere with whatever else you are playing, why not?
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Chords and more
Of course it's tempting to play more than just the chord. Some rhythmical nuances here, some short melodic phrases there - you soon end up with a really advanced (and hopefully god sounding) accompaniment. I'm won't go into details (this is supposed to be just a brief introduction after all), just remember two basic rules:- Keep it simple!
The accompaniment is supposed to support, not compete against the soloist. - All rules are just guidelines!
If it sounds good, it is good, even if it goes against everything you've ever learned about music.
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Bass
The bass is the lowest part of an arrangement, or the lowest note of the chord. One of the most fundamental rules to play a good accompaniment is to play a good bass part. Let's have one more look at What shall we do with the drunken sailor. Thos is written out with the melody and a bass line. You can actually get a really good accompaniment simply by playing that bass line. If you want to, you can add whatever chord and melody notes you like with your right hand, but that's not really necessary.Back to top
Basso continuo
Basso continuo sound really dangerous, doesn't it? In fact it's just another way to notate chord symbols. Instead of the symbols above the tune, you have a bass line notated on a staff below. Just as it was with chord symbols, basso continuo can be very easy or really difficult, depending on the music and how much you want to make out of it.I've started to make a simple introduction to basso continuo at http/www.musicaviva.com/tm/8-21a.html. I've written it for guitarists, rather than pianists, but there's no real difference.
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