Using Two Pianos for Rehearsals

My college and seminary choirs both utilized two grand pianos for rehearsals. One pianist might play the accompaniment while another pianist played choral parts. Sometimes the pianists divided parts so that one played the Soprano and Alto parts and the other played Tenor and Bass parts. This was especially helpful if we were reading from divided scores which included parts for Soprano, Mezzo Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Baritone and Bass.

Most church choir rooms do not have the luxury of two pianos, much less grans pianos. Our church was using a used Yamaha console piano when I arrived. We had trouble keeping it in tune, so we purchased a digital baby grand. The pianist has never been happy with the response of the digital piano. Her comment was, "It is a good thing we do not do anything really classical or I would not be able to use this thing." However, much of the accompaniments to our anthems are just as difficult as classical piano music and it has been very frustrating for her.

Regardless of the slight tuning issue, we have utilized both pianos for rehearsals-especially as we prepared for this past year's Living Christmas Tree. While most pianists are capable of reading and playing open scores, it is much easier for them to have somebody else help so that they are not stressed with mentally combining four staffs (or more) into two. But we still have not used the two pianos as my college choir did.

We were recently given another used piano, a Kimball. This one seems to be in better shape. We will know better after it has been tuned a couple times. Now I am wondering why we have not been using two pianists during our weekly rehearsals. Looking back at college and seminary, I can see how useful it was to have one pianist play parts while the other played accompaniment. Sometimes we spend so much time working on parts that the choir never fully learns to listen to the accompaniment. Then they have trouble fitting their part into the sometimes unusual harmonies written into the accompaniment. I think it is time to change that. I will need to speak to our pianists tonight about using two from now on each week.