100 tips for working with ballet pianists #18: Ask your pianist for help
Pianists are music specialists, that’s why you hired them, so use this to your advantage (why buy a dog and bark yourself?). e.g. “I want something like this…how do I…
100 tips for working with ballet pianists #17: Finish on time
If you want the pianist to stay on for a bit at the end of class as a favour, the diplomatic way is to say to the students “We’ll do…
100 tips for working with ballet pianists #16: Know your pianist’s limits
Find out what your pianist does best, and work with it, because there may be things they simply can’t do well – like improvisation, jazz, reading complex music at sight,…
100 tips for working with pianists #15: Don’t make faces!
Trying to control a class and music that is suddenly too fast or too slow can make you anxious. An anxious facial expression can often be misread, and understood as…
100 tips for working with pianists #14: Let pianists go if you don’t need them
If you won’t need your pianist for more than five minutes, let them know. Sitting in one position for a long time is uncomfortable, and they may be glad of…
100 tips for working with pianists #13: Give pianists time to practise
It is good manners and good professional practice to give a musician the option of having time to prepare a piece of music if they need or want it. If…