How to accompany someone with the piano?

[HarryJS]

It is for me a difficult task but not impossible as I want to think.

I understand that first of all I need to study the piece, but then the issues come when we are not synchronizing in playing.

Please tell me which tips I can follow.

[Gill the Piano]

Firstly you both need to listen to eachother - and pianists in particular are not used to that! Also, practise with a metronome for a little while (not too much or your music can sound mechanical) that you both need to listen to while playing. Any tricky bars need to be taken out and practised carefully note by note then put back into the whole piece. Don't always start at the beginning of the piece but perhaps begin with a tricky part and use that tempo as your reference for the whole piece to avoid that obvious slowing down when difficult bits are reached. You don't mention which instrument you are accompanying, but take their volume and tone into account and adjust your playing accordingly. If accompanying, you should never overwhelm the sound of the solo instrument.
Good luck!

[chrisw]

I have some experience accompanying a solo violin, either with my piano teacher who also plays violin, or with an acquaintance who attends the same piano meeting. I am still a piano learner,admittedly upper intermediate level, and I still find it difficult to fully listen to the solo violin. In addition when I play at the piano meeting we are able to rehearse the piece only once, immediately before the meeting, as we live too far apart. I learn the piece by counting time as well as I can but don't normally use a metronome. In performance I play quietly to let the solo violin take the lead unless of course there is a significant phrase for piano. My violin partners can compensate for the slip ups I make and so long as the piece keeps going nobody notices that much. It helps if the solo instrument player can also read the piano part with his/her part. I enjoy being less exposed when playing violin duets and therefore slightly less nervous. It is great fun.