[Perform-Talk] Blind Collaborative Pianists

[Sandra Gayer]

Well said, Melissa!

On 05/02/2024 21:37, Melissa Riccobono via Perform-Talk wrote:
> Hello.
> I think there are a lot of things you could do, though I am not a pianist,
> so take what I say for what it's worth, which might not be too much!
> If you are providing a service, you can set your own working conditions.
> Therefore, you can say, "I only want to accompany three or four people" and
> those hiring can take it or leave it. Also, you can look for opportunities
> where you will have enough time to learn the music, and also for
> opportunities where you have learned music in the past, and might just need
> to have a refresher in order to be ready. I would probably record all of the
> pieces I learned, and have them available so I could revisit them if I
> needed to learn them again. And, of course, keeping any braille music, if
> you read braille music, would be helpful as well. Then you will not have to
> hunt if you need it again. Even if you are accompanying only three or four
> people, that is still taking those pieces away from someone else who may
> really appreciate not having to do as much work. So you would be providing a
> valuable service.
> Also, I know when I was in school, I participated in a contest each year
> called Solo Ensemble. We could choose a piece of music to sing, and we would
> need a piano player to accompany us. There was a list of only so many pieces
> we could choose from however, and this list stayed fairly similar throughout
> the years. Because of this, many of my friends ended up performing the same
> pieces, so we often had the same piano player. This way, the piano player
> only needed to learn a piece or two for the contest, but he or she was still
> providing an extremely valuable service. I'm not sure if this contest is
> offered where you live, but it might be worth checking with music
> departments at local high schools and even middle schools to see if it is,
> and if you could begin to learn some of the music so you could play for the
> next upcoming contest. We always had a couple of months, at least, to
> practice and polish our pieces. So you would have at least a month to learn
> the pieces, and, if many are used year after year, you could play them again
> when needed.
>   The same might be true for high school, middle school, and maybe even
> elementary school concerts in your area. I know my choir directors always
> hired a different piano player to play for us during our concerts so he or
> she could conduct instead of having to conduct and play. Again, the piano
> player had time to learn the music because he or she usually didn't come in
> to rehearse with us until perhaps a week or so before the concert. Often our
> directors knew what pieces they wanted to do during the entire year as well,
> so you could possibly start practicing pieces for an upcoming spring concert
> in the fall.
> And, I would think at least some churches would be similar. Sometimes choirs
> learn music from week to week, but sometimes, particularly around the
> holidays, they work on a few pieces for weeks before performing them. This
> would give you the chance to learn them as well.
> I really hope some of these thoughts are helpful! Just because there are
> some people who learn and/or sight read 40 pieces at a time in two days does
> not mean you have to! In fact, as a singer, I would much rather have someone
> who has spent more time learning and perfecting the music, and some time
> with me to cement a good rapport, so I would definitely love to use your
> services! I am quite sure I am not alone. I imagine great opportunities
> exist for you.
> The best of luck,
> Melissa
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Perform-Talk <perform-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Ella Yu
> via Perform-Talk
> Sent: Sunday, February 4, 2024 2:57 AM
> To: NFB Performing Arts Mailing List <perform-talk at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: Ella Yu <ellaxyu at gmail.com>
> Subject: [Perform-Talk] Blind Collaborative Pianists
>
> Hi everyone,
>
> I am a dedicated blind amateur musician who has a fairly wide range of
> musical interests, one of them being collaborative piano and accompanying.
> I grew up taking both piano and violin lessons for years, so I am acutely
> aware of the need for piano accompanists. I am not pursuing music as my main
> career, though I'd certainly like to do it as a side career.
>
> My question is, to those of you pros who must learn large volumes of music
> at a time, what do you do? I have accompanied my younger sibling and a few
> friends on and off since age 9, and in all those situations, I have only
> needed to learn a small number of pieces at a time, which is not a big deal.
> However, as you all know, blind musicians can't sight read and play, even
> with braille music. I've done a lot of reading and have heard about the long
> line of blind church organists in France, for instance. How do those types
> of musicians deal with, say, learning 40 pieces on 2 days notice? The only
> solution I see is to practice for hours on end, which is just mentally
> exhausting. I have spoken to my piano teacher about doing
> accompanying/collaborative piano as a side gig, and I mentioned that my
> inability to sight read would make it difficult to learn the required volume
> of music quickly enough. He basically told me that a lot of people suck at
> sight reading, that I'll always have time to prepare my music ahead of time,
> but in reality, I see the accompanists for my violin recitals having to know
> 40 pieces at a time, and they likely had to learn them on short notice. What
> would a blind musician do? I guess this is just something that is very
> difficult to work around as a blind instrumentalist, so we just can't take
> on anything that requires learning 40 pieces in 2 days. Any thoughts? By the
> way, yes, I do have lots of experience learning ensemble music for
> orchestra/chamber music as a violinist, but in those cases, I always have at
> least a few weeks to learn all the music for a concert, so it's not an
> issue.
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