Help! The accompanist's deaf!

It happened to me in my first college audition as an oboist.

You may not know that back in the 19th century I played the oboe, and applied to the Conservatoires in London, Birmingham and Manchester as a first-study oboist.

This was my first audition in Manchester. I had gone through the speeds with the accompanist (andante and allegro for the Bellini oboe concerto). The first movement is long, long phrases, and the second is a chirpy staccato frivol. In the audition I nearly died. And I think I mean that literally.

The opening movement was soooooo slooowwwwww I was on the floor. And I was determined to play all the phrases in one breath. I know more now. The second movement was so fast that my fingers and tongue were a blur. At just 17 I didn't know how to deal with that, but it has to be said that I rise to a challenge, and I managed to get in all the notes, all the articulation, and all the breaths. I was offered one of only three places at the college.

Now if that situation arises for my clients, I take time to help them deal with it.

It came up today with one of my clients. She has been working away from London for several weeks, and came for a 'wash and brush-up' session. The first ten minutes of the session was spent talking through some of the auditions she's done between the end of the last job and the session. Although talking in a lesson might feel like a waste of time (and money), it was vital that I heard what had been happening for her out in the real world.

In fact, I learned a very interesting piece of information about one of her songs. She does "I'm a Woman (W.O.M.A.N)" as one of her character uptempo songs, and had had a problem at the last audition. The pianist had not played the accompaniment in rhythm, and it had completely thrown her.

The thing about this particular piano part is that there are very few notes at all in it. Most of it is silence. All it really consists of is rock "stabs" at the end of every two bars. The singer has a fast string of words (not necessarily even sung) between the stabs. Now the whole thing is actually in tempo, but if as a pianist you are used to playing Handel recitatives, you'll see the written rests and ignore them. Because in Handel recitative the rests are not there to be counted or played, they are there to make up the proper time of the bar between notes and can safely be ignored. (Before all the opera singers start writing to me - again - yes, I know that accompanied recitative with orchestra is played in tempo.)

But in rock music or Motown, that simply isn't the case. It's as if there's a drum beat going throughout. So the 'down and dirty' pulse is there all the time. Think of the Diet Coke ad on television at the moment with the song "I just want to make love to you" and you will know what I mean.

So back to the client. What I discovered is that she didn't know what to do if the pianist got her music wrong in an audition. This is a situation that happens a lot. After all as an actor or singer you are "duetting with a stranger" whenever you do a singing audition. There's a whole section on duetting with a stranger in the Successful Singing Auditions book.

So being the good, supportive teacher that I am, I made her go through the piece again, and I played as badly as I could.

We decided that the problem was that the pianist did not know the piece or the style, and just needed guidance. In this particular piece the 'down and dirty rhythm' is so strong that there is an easy solution. Click your fingers to the beat. If you hear the pianist doing something strange with the rhythm while you are singing, just start clicking and swinging and he should pick it up. Be sure to make it part of your character's persona; don't just glare at him and stamp your foot in time.

We experimented with me playing faster, slower or arhythmically so that she could experience how each one felt, and how easy or difficult it was to take control and alter what was happening. As it happens, she was so secure on the speed and feel of the piece that it was really easy to follow her clicking and swinging, and all was well.

I also suggested that in her 15 seconds of talking to the pianist beforehand (speed, feel, map-reading advice) she added "This piece is absolutely in tempo". We thought that would probably do the trick.

Incidentally, in the audition she was describing, she actually got the job. Sometimes you just can't tell how it's gone.

One word of caution: if you do come across a pianist who puts his head down and closes his ears, and nothing has changed within about 5 seconds of you starting to click, there's only one thing you can do...

Abandon hope.

A three-ton truck in the small of the back wouldn't shift him. Just grit your teeth and do your own thing. At least everyone else will have him too.


Jeremy is the co-author of Successful Singing Auditions

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