Playing for ballet class tips #20: Let dancers make the beat
In the last tip, I said that it was a good rule of thumb to divide by half (in your melody line) whatever pulse rate you can detect in a…
Playing for ballet class tips day 19: read the feet, divide the beat
In petit allegro, it’s a useful rule of thumb to listen to the rhythm of the exercise as the teacher sets it, and look very carefully at the feet as…
Playing for ballet class tips #18: take a lesson in 18th century composition
A lot of pianists are frightened of ‘improvisation’ because the term is widely (mis)understood to mean that you play a chord with your left hand and wait for God to…
Playing for ballet class tips #17: Composing and improvising
Today I’m delighted to have a guest blog by Andy Higgs, friend, composer and musician who’s currently company pianist at Ballett am Rhein in Düsseldorf. This all came about because…
Playing for ballet class tips #16: Talk to teachers
Playing for class has a game-like quality: teacher, dancers and musician come together and enact a ritual according to dozens of complex rules and expectations. If you had to keep…
Playing for ballet class tips #15: Talk to dancers
I owe pretty much everything I know about playing for class to dancers, something I’ve already blogged about in my 2005 ‘Dance Inspirations’ Advent calendar. Even with teachers, it’s when…