I started playing the piano when I was 10 years old, and added various band instruments later. In junior high and high school, there were the school talent shows, and also Solo and Ensemble Festival. As one of a handful of people who played the piano, I was often asked to accompany both singers and instrumentalists. I loved doing that. I had the freedom to "be the orchestra" and pretty much do whatever I wanted, because everyone's attention was on the soloist. In fact, if I did my job well, no one really noticed me, but the soloist did better because they could count on me to follow them and be there for them. For classical stuff, it was more structured and I couldn't vary from the script much, but even then, I knew that as long as I was playing something in the right key with the right chords, we'd be fine. And with popular music, the challenge was filling in all the stuff that they don't write out in the sheet music. Adding rhythm and motion, dynamics, giving the soloist everything they need to give a great "unplugged" rendition of the song, or maybe even more than that. Once in a while, someone might mention that I did a good job, but really, it wasn't about me, and I was probably enjoying myself more than anyone else in the room.
Last Sunday, our Youth Director Shannon sang a song in church that I'd never heard before (not unusual) and she'd asked me to accompany her. She didn't have any sheet music; she'd written down some chords that she'd worked out but half of them turned out to be wrong. All I had to go on was a YouTube video of a band doing the song, three days to come up with something, and one rehearsal. Whoa.
Fortunately, the song wasn't that hard, and while a lot of the chords were wrong, I had the key and an idea of the basic tonality to work with. It was a starting point. Typical Christian Rock song. Starts mellow, then the drums and electric guitars come in, it rocks a bit harder than you might think, then a bridge, repeat the chorus, and out. I actually like taking something like that and finding a way to "be the band" on just the 88 keys. We rehearsed it, we did it in church last Sunday (nine days ago), and it was cool. She's a great singer and I love playing for her.
This past Sunday (two days ago), someone came up to me to tell me how much she enjoyed my piano playing last week. She said that Shannon is a great singer (which is true), but it was almost more interesting hearing what I'd done to accompany her. The dynamics, the changes, everything. I don't remember her exact words, but whoa. She had tried to find me after the service, but I disappeared before she could catch me, but she had to tell me how great it was.
So that's always nice to hear, but also a quandry. I really do put a lot of thought into my arrangements, and I give it everything I have. But I'm also used to not being recognized for it, so it caught me off guard to get complimented on it, especially so emphatically. I thanked her for the comments, of course, and told her that Shannon had picked the song, and I was happy to play for her. And it's fun to "be the band" and all the stuff I've just said here, so I'm glad she liked it. She wasn't satisfied with that. She wanted to make sure I knew that she was really, really impressed by what I'd done. Um... okay, thanks. There was nothing weird going on; I know her and her husband, and they're good people. As a musician, she could tell what I'd done, and wanted to make sure I knew that the effort was appreciated.
Okay, I guess this turned into a brag thread. But I think I like accompanying people, playing second fiddle, more than soloing. There's freedom in not having the spotlight on you, but doing something that still makes a difference and is noticed and, sometimes, even recognized.