Accompany on the Piano – A Different Ball Game Than Playing a Solo!

This video demonstrates  how to accompany on the piano without “running over” the singer or musician who is singing or playing the melody of the song.

Good morning. This is Duane and we’ve been doing a series of videos called “Good Stuff You Really Ought to Know About Music.” It all has to do with various aspects of music theory, particularly though as it applies to piano playing. Once thing you really ought to know about music is there’s a huge difference between soloing and accompanying. If you’re playing for somebody, it’s a different ballgame than when you’re playing a solo.

Listen to this song. See if you know what it is, okay? Did you know what that was? Maybe some of you did. Now I’m going to play it … that was accompaniment. That was the way I might accompany a singer if they were singing this song. Now, I’ll play it as a solo.

You could name the song right off there, can’t you, but I was also playing “Misty” the first time around. Now what’s the difference? Well, when you’re playing for a singer or any kind of soloist, sax or violin or whatever, you don’t want to play the melody because the chances of you playing the melody at exactly the same time and the same pitch as that soloist is fairly unlikely. What you want to do is wraparound the soloist and when he or she is not real busy, then you do something.

For example, the first phrase is, “On my own.” Right there, the soloist is holding that note. That’s when you would do something more significant on the piano. You probably wouldn’t do anything until you got to “own” and then you could do a run or you could … or (singing “Misty”). You see that, so it’s a big difference between soloing and accompanying. Just remember, don’t play the melody. Just play the chords in the background and fill them out and wrap yourself around the soloist, and when he or she is holding the notes, then you can do things. You can add a counter-melody, for example. In other words, if they just sang, you could echo that. That part I just played was during the break while they were holding that note.

Okay, so there’s one of the things you really ought to know about piano playing, the difference between accompanying and soloing. We’ll see you tomorrow with another little tip like that. If you enjoy these tips, come on over to Play Piano and sign up for our free series of tips. Thanks. See you tomorrow. Bye-bye for now.

***For lots more good stuff on piano playing come on over to my website at https://www.playpiano.com and sign up for our free piano tips – “Exciting Piano Chords & Sizzling Chord Progressions!”

Here’s a great little book on chords and chord progressions on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Piano-Chords-Chord-Progressions-Exciting-ebook/dp/B0076OUGDE/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1404158669&sr=1-1&keywords=piano+chords+duane+shinn

Here is the video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQ5yvYXyLfg&feature=youtu.be

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