Weighing in on the problem of playing for voice lessons: these days many singers and teachers don’t want to engage and pay the pianist for an entire hour. Smaller schools don’t have programs requiring pianists to play for lessons (as they sometimes did in the days before collaborative piano degrees!), nor the budget to have a pianist on staff to play for those lessons. So here in Central Ohio, where there is no culture of coaching, I get frequent requests to play for a singer’s lessons once a week until the end of the semester. (They contact me at the advice of their teacher or know me from my other work.) That makes no economic sense: why would I drive for 50 minutes round trip and pay to park at the school for the pleasure of playing for a 30-minute lesson to make $20? Why do the voice teachers even encourage this thinking in their students? (Even beside the issue that as an experienced coach I would not play for lessons…) The teachers complain that they can’t get pianists to play for lessons, so they are forced to accompany themselves or use Appcompanist. Why would an experienced pianist with a brain or self-respect do this? And yet enough of them do it that it creates an expectation that this is acceptable to expect it from someone with an MM, DMA, and/or decades of experience.
Yes, as a young pianist at IU back in the glory days, I accompanied in all 18 studios over 6 years and learned most of my craft as Kathy described. I sat in while singers vocalized (instead of sitting out in the hall) to learn what was happening. I made notes in my scores, and I treasure the ones with markings from the the great teachers like Virginia Zeani who took an interest in me. These young singers paid me $10/hr to be present for that hour, whether I played 55 or 10 minutes. I learned more in those studios than I did in any classroom. BTW female pianists who were in any MM program could play for lessons as an ensemble requirement, so that helped staff many lesson slots. Male pianists had to be in a chorus because they needed the men.
If schools are not encouraging *all* of their pianists to play for voice lessons or in instrumental studios, then how will they learn? They’re not all going to famous soloists. Because admins see the “collabs” as free labor to be exploited, while the “piano majors” just concentrate on their “art.”
Thank you for this discussion, Kathy, even though it gets me worked up every time. I feel that the people who are insulated in their work in academia have very little idea how rough it is outside their sheltered tenure-track positions. I’m doing my part to encourage my Central Ohio colleagues to ask for more from their employers. I am able to speak out now because my husband makes good money, and I have the luxury of choosing what I want to do. I used to have to keep my mouth shut like everybody else. And yes, I have been fired and disciplined before for asking for equity!
Weighing in on the problem of playing for voice lessons: these days many singers and teachers don’t want to engage and pay the pianist for an entire hour. Smaller schools don’t have programs requiring pianists to play for lessons (as they sometimes did in the days before collaborative piano degrees!), nor the budget to have a pianist on staff to play for those lessons. So here in Central Ohio, where there is no culture of coaching, I get frequent requests to play for a singer’s lessons once a week until the end of the semester. (They contact me at the advice of their teacher or know me from my other work.) That makes no economic sense: why would I drive for 50 minutes round trip and pay to park at the school for the pleasure of playing for a 30-minute lesson to make $20? Why do the voice teachers even encourage this thinking in their students? (Even beside the issue that as an experienced coach I would not play for lessons…) The teachers complain that they can’t get pianists to play for lessons, so they are forced to accompany themselves or use Appcompanist. Why would an experienced pianist with a brain or self-respect do this? And yet enough of them do it that it creates an expectation that this is acceptable to expect it from someone with an MM, DMA, and/or decades of experience.
Yes, as a young pianist at IU back in the glory days, I accompanied in all 18 studios over 6 years and learned most of my craft as Kathy described. I sat in while singers vocalized (instead of sitting out in the hall) to learn what was happening. I made notes in my scores, and I treasure the ones with markings from the the great teachers like Virginia Zeani who took an interest in me. These young singers paid me $10/hr to be present for that hour, whether I played 55 or 10 minutes. I learned more in those studios than I did in any classroom. BTW female pianists who were in any MM program could play for lessons as an ensemble requirement, so that helped staff many lesson slots. Male pianists had to be in a chorus because they needed the men.
If schools are not encouraging *all* of their pianists to play for voice lessons or in instrumental studios, then how will they learn? They’re not all going to famous soloists. Because admins see the “collabs” as free labor to be exploited, while the “piano majors” just concentrate on their “art.”
Thank you for this discussion, Kathy, even though it gets me worked up every time. I feel that the people who are insulated in their work in academia have very little idea how rough it is outside their sheltered tenure-track positions. I’m doing my part to encourage my Central Ohio colleagues to ask for more from their employers. I am able to speak out now because my husband makes good money, and I have the luxury of choosing what I want to do. I used to have to keep my mouth shut like everybody else. And yes, I have been fired and disciplined before for asking for equity!