How to accompany a choir

School choirs, community choirs, church choirs—it seems wherever humans gather together, a choir will eventually be among them. In addition to providing communal music making opportunities for singers, most choirs share one more thing: they need rehearsal pianists. Given that accompanying choirs improves sight reading, teaches part and open score reading, and trains pianists to follow conductors, it’s difficult to overstate how much this work enhances a pianist’s playing abilities. This is why I (along with numerous other piano instructors) always encouraged my students to do this sort of work if they had the interest and the ability.

Most players who perform at a late intermediate or early advanced level possess the chops to play much of the choir music they’re likely to encounter, which is why so many of us are thrown into the job while still teenagers. But playing well isn’t enough—something I learned quickly when handed my first score. Accompanying a choir asks pianists to play vocal parts, to follow a conductor, and to read open score—usually 4 staves of single-line music. Learning to do these things in rehearsal can be frustrating and (at times) embarrassing. This is why I offer these guidelines to anyone considering accepting a choir accompanist job. They won’t turn anyone into a polished accompanist—that happens with time and experience—but they will allow pianists to navigate their first rehearsals competently.

Keep excellent time

The choir pianist has two important jobs—performing with the choir and teaching the singers their notes. If the pianist has a fuzzy sense of time and is insecure in their understanding of the division of the beat, the choir will suffer and the conductor will become frustrated. If possible, ask for the music in advance and learn the music with impeccable timing. No one wants to be corrected by the conductor in front of the singers.

Know your scales and 5-finger patterns

The most common vocal warm-ups utilize either scales or 5-finger patterns and move chromatically up or down the keyboard. Have these in your hands before your first rehearsal and you’ll be ready to play almost any warm-up pattern the conductor chooses. Be advised that most warm-ups exercises are played by ear. If you’re unfamiliar with a pattern, have the conductor sing or play it for you.

Be prepared to play vocal parts

Most rehearsal time will be spent playing vocal lines for the singers. Learn each part individually, and be prepared to combine them in a variety of different ways. The most common combinations are playing the soprano and alto lines together and the tenor and bass lines together.

A word about parts: sopranos carry most of the melody notes, the basses carry the root notes of the chords, and altos and tenors sing most of the harmony notes. Due to the function of each voice, the sopranos and basses have it the easiest when it comes to learning the notes. Alto and tenor lines are much harder to hear and to learn so be prepared to spend much of your time playing those parts.

Learn to read open score

As mentioned above, open score means each part is written on its own stave rather than in the traditional form of treble and bass clef that all pianists know and love. This means choir pianists will be reading 4-6 lines of notes simultaneously. To further complicate things, tenor lines are written in the treble clef (an octave above where the tenors sing them), which means the pianist must transpose that line down an octave while simultaneously reading and playing all the other lines.

(No, I’m not making this up).

I’ve yet to meet a pianist who plays open score well the first time they encounter it. In my experience, repeated exposure to and practice of open score is the only way to train the eyes and the brain to take in notes this way. It’s best to start small. Train yourself to read the soprano and alto lines together. When this feels easier, play the tenor and bass lines. Eventually, put all voices together, one phrase at a time.

Get copies of the choir music in advance of your first rehearsal. This allows you to practice all the vocal parts and the accompaniment before you work with the choir. For additional practice material, free choir scores can be found at the Choral Public Domain Library. Daily practice is the best way to become comfortable reading open score.

For more detailed instruction on reading open score, this YouTube video offers excellent advice.

Learn to follow a conductor

In choir hierarchy, the conductor is always right, but be aware that not all conductors are created equal. Some possess excellent conducting abilities; their beat patterns are clear and concise and they clue singers where needed. Others are not so gifted. I once worked for a choral conductor who waved his hands around so much I couldn’t see where his downbeats were. Either way, it’s the pianist’s job to decipher the conductors’s motions and follow them closely. If the conductor in question is particularly difficult to follow, this may mean that the pianist needs to partially memorize anything they’re asked to play (parts, open score, accompaniment) so that they can keep their eyes on the conductor as much as possible.

Develop patience

Unless you have had the luck of stumbling into playing for a professional choir, you’ll find that most choirs contain singers with varying degrees of musical training and understanding. In some instances, you and the conductor may be the only two people in the room who know how to read notes. This means repetition. A lot of repetition. Singers are always encouraged to work on their parts at home but most of them rarely choose to do so.

Personalities also play into a pianist’s need for patience. Most singers are gracious, but a malignant few can get snarky when a pianist drops or misplays a note. Likewise, most conductors are hard-working, dedicated, friendly musicians, but there are some who let their egos run rehearsals. Much of the negative behavior stems from insecurity. As the pianist, plan to do your job competently and professionally and to ignore any negativity you may encounter.

The reward for all of this hard work shows up in those magical moments when the music clicks into place and you find yourself swept along by the elation of a group of singers blending their voices and energies to the creation of something beautiful.

Photo by John Onaeko, courtesy of UpSplash