Clay:  1.  Have a good sit-down with your pianist and make sure he understands the problem.  2.  Replace him if he lacks the musicianship to follow your beat.

 

It could be any number of things, including vision problems or hearing problems, which should be discussed.  Both can be aleviated by a good doctor.  But in the meantime a choir can only have one director and one tempo-setter.

 

You don't say whether he's also an organist.  Sometimes organists get in the habit of pushing the tempo on hymns because the congregation falls into the habit of falling behind on every phrase.  But obviously that shouldn't carry over into anthems!

All the best,

John

Thanks John. The only reason I haven't had a sit-down with him yet is that he's kind of an emotional type, so any time the staff committee chair or I have tried to talk with him about any kind of professional concern it's been met with immediate tears before we can even get three words out and then he usually just shuts down or leaves before we're halfway through addressing the problem.

Is he also a member of the church - as in this is "his church," and now he is also the organist/pianist?

I always think it is a mistake for a professional musician to be a member of the church, because it creates all sorts of conflicts.

This sounds like obviously a much bigger conflict than tempos.

He simply cannot do the job, it sounds like.

How about you and the minister (no more than two of you) sit with him and have a chat.

You'll have to lay it on the line, as kindly as possible.

If he gets up to leave?

I think it's a stay and work with us or leave and leave the job.

I am not sure you want him to stay and try to work things out?

I wish you all the best.

Danica

I recently had a simular issue with a accompnist  and  ended with my resignation owing to thwe  lack of backbone the the choir  management to address the problem.

 Some times it's  also the "Ive played it this way for years so I know the tempo teh choir klike to sing it.

 My answer is sack him and get a better musician.

     Your problem, Clay, is a common one among directors.  The underlying cause of speeding in ANY musician is generally tension; add fear and insecurity into the mix and it's not surprising you're having difficulty with your church accompanist!  You don't mention if your church pianist is a paid staff member or a volunteer from the congregation.  If the former, then John's advice is the tack to follow; but if your church pianist is a volunteer from the congregation, and if replacing him would cause negative ripples in the congregation and/or the choir, then a different approach is needed.

     If your accompanist's tension at the keyboard, and his over-sensitivity to criticism in meetings, is due to insecurity, then your best approach would entail creating an environment within which he feels valued and secure - definitely NOT a quick fix!  Start by saying Thank You on every occasion you feel comfortable doing so. Period.  No "buts."  Find something - anything! - in his playing about which you can sincerely compliment him.  Period.  No "buts." If there's a difficult spot in an upcoming anthem, advise him in advance of the difficulty and enlist his help in keeping everyone on track.  If there's a difficult accompaniment section in an upcoming anthem, advise him in advance and suggest specific notes/chords/octaves that can be left out to clarify the musical line and avoid competing with the choir.  Suggest to him that piano parts are printed on paper, not carved in stone, and notes can be left out here and there without compromising the overall sound of the anthem.  Make him a partner, however "junior," in your music-making.

     Creating a safe and secure environment for your congregational volunteers is not easy, but it is the surest way to get the best musical performances out of everyone regardless of skill level.  Good Luck!  Drea  

 

A similar problem came with a new accompanist for my community choir.  Part of the reason she pushed the tempos is because she likes to "improvise" as she plays.  Another reason was simply her anxiety to "rise to the expectation" of her position.  Another reason was the fact that she had to "watch the conductor," which she was not accustomed to having to do.  The way we fixed this problem was for her to practice the accompaniments with the metronome.  It worked!  Of course, at the outset she was desirous of being able to keep the steady tempo, and voluntarily purchased a metronome, and, more importantly, she practiced with it!  Now, with our first performance with her at the keyboard behind us, I sense, from her, a new found confidence.  The difference in this situation and the one subject of this exchange is that she realized the problem and was willing to work to fix it.  In a church choir setting there are many things to consider.  I wish you wisdom in dealing with your situation.

I had this problem with an organist and solved it by insisting the choir stay with me. If you permit them and, as a result, the congregation to follow him instead of you, you are relinquishing leadership to him.

 

While you are confident in your ability to conduct, he's confident in his ability to run the entire show from the piano and lacks the sensitivity, musical or otherwise, to acfept your direction.  Prove your leadership by imposing your tempo on the singing.  At first there's going to be some slight train wreck effect, but he will drop back then.

 

If you prefer a more genteel approach:

 

You may want to have a meeting to go over tempos in advance...there is a good chance that he is totally unaware of waht he is doing.  Get out a metronome.  Explain to him that you are confused about tempos and explain that you are going to: 1. Let the metronome beat a measure. 2. Conduct one measure 3.  Then he joins in.

 

With his exciteable character he might walk out over any of this.  If so, let him go.  Musical maturity takes a long time for some to grow into and letting them get away with issues like this does not prepare him for his future at the keyboard....or at McDonalds, saying "Do you want fries with that?"

Clay, totally agree with Andrea. The fight-or-flight response speeds up our heartrate, leading us to talk faster, perform our music faster, etc. As a professional accompanist (and choral director) I had to deal with this early-on, myself. If your pianist isn't sometimes taking a slower tempo, but is consistently taking a faster tempo, then most likely Andrea is correct about nerves being the root of the issue.

 

If you don't choose to dismiss your accompanist, the only way to fix this is to help him feel secure and safe. Does he seem otherwise like a nervous person? What does his body language and eye contact say, or his tone of voice? What is the focus of your work with the choir? Are you encouraging them to do the best they can, but above all, to enjoy the process of learning music and singing, and to reflect God's joy on their faces as they sing? Or is it all about how well we can sing? If there is the unspoken feeling of "we have to do well to please the director," then there may be tension in the air or tension in the pianist as he feels the weight of his huge individual responsibility to make sure the performance goes well. Indeed, in church a choral anthem isn't a performance: it's a ministry, to God first and then to others, in a context of loving acceptance as we offer our gifts to one another for mutual edification.

 

If the focus is upon making sure the choir sings everything perfectly, this focus isn't what leads to joyous relaxation as we offer our songs together, and can produce tension in the accompanist that leads to faster tempi than desired. God cares much more about what is in our hearts and how we are worshiping as we offer the choral anthem than about how each musical detail goes. All of us who direct church choirs must be careful that our pride and our ego don't get in the way of God by making it all about how well we are singing. I work hard with my church choir on matters of sound production, vowel-space shaping, diction, balance, blend, dynamics, etc. in the thick of rehearsal...But everything is kept fun, and as we approach much more closely the time of the actual Sunday service (in our last times of going through the anthem), I often tell them that while we need to try and remember all that we talked about, really try to enjoy God with our anthem and worship Him with our whole hearts, because that's what it's really all about. (Not that the choir song is always joyful...Penitential songs of course require a different attitude...Everything in proper context! But it's still not about how well the choir sings.) At the heart of it, we long for the Spirit of God to be present in our song as we sing and to touch hearts and lives...And for this to be what we pursue as we sing. Many times I will find a turn of phrase in the text of the song that teaches a spiritual truth, and will stop our "working on things" part of the rehearsal just for a moment to exclaim about the truth in the text and what a meaningful, beautiful truth this is for us to be focusing upon and singing about, and will express gratitude that God share Himself with us, or whatever the truth happens to be in that phrase...Trying to keep the focus upon God.

 

It may not be your leadership at all, however...It may be his having had an overly critical piano teacher during childhood or a critical former choral director!

 

I agree with Andrea about working with him to help him feel "safe" and relaxed. Church is, or should be, the ideal place for an individual to have the freedom to grow, flourish, and become all that he was created to be. Think how very sad it is for the accompanist to be this disconnected from the joy part of music-making - for a musician, it's being partially disconnected from one's own soul. While directing this choir is your professional responsibility, and you deserve your own artistic reward and happiness, and yes, the congregation is paying you to produce good choral music, and you as we all do feel the responsibility of "delivering good music"...You have the opportunity to both achieve this, and to help another individual find his best musical and creative self and become more whole through taking the time to help them relax in the process and find musical fulfillment and joy.

 

Above all, the church exists not to provide good music - it exists for ministry and to have an impact upon the lives, one-by-one, that it touches. Ultimately, every dollar that the church spends, whether on salaries, choir music, VBS, etc., should be for the purpose of transformation and helping people become their best selves with God's help and support. If you can through a loving and affirming environment help your pianist to capture the ability to make music with a relaxed kind of joy (which will lead to better tempo-taking), the ripple effect from this personal growth will spread to others in his own life and in the congregation. This sounds like a great opportunity to make a difference in God's Kingdom. I'm sure that, ultimately, this is what your congregation would love to see even more than gorgeous, skilled music.

 

What you might consider doing in the meantime, if you choose to take on such a project of helping your pianist to relax while making music, might be to give him a tempo that is just a hair slower than what you want...Admittedly, this isn't scientifically precise and can still lead to inadequate tempi...But it might yield, in the short-term, better tempi to make the situation liveable until his tempo-taking gradually becomes more accurate.

 

Just my own thoughts...I realize they may sound unsophisticated for our group of amazing choral conductors who are capable of directing university-level choirs, and who (like me) derive pleasure from producing artistic excellence...You may ironically obtain more artistic excellence from your pianist by taking this route, and even, if your singers have any vocal tension, more artistic sound from them, by going "the long route" and working on creating an environment that doesn't demand artistic excellence. Professional singers have usually acquired excellent vocal habits which, even if they're nervous, will allow them to sing full-throated even when nervous and under demanding conductors. But volunteer singers and accompanists need an entirely different approach to reach their best potential in music-making. They don't yet usually have the excellent technical habits built into their singing/accompanying that help them perform beautifully even when nervous. They can clam up or muscles can seize up, and lead to so many problems. They need a special and different approach from the conductor in order to give their best sound and even tempo-taking.

 

Please just disregard ALL of this note if your accompanist isn't nervous, but is simply just unable to take a tempo, in which case, none of the above may be relevant for your situation at all, Clay! And, I don't mean to lay this all on you...As I said, you yourself may be perfectly relaxed, fun to work with, joyful, etc...And your accompanist may have baggage from earlier musical authorities in his life who still to this day make him cringe inside and by extension are causing these troubles for you, even now. If you reach your limit, you can dismiss him and find someone else (but good accompanists can be tough to find!). But you also may find that helping this person become relaxed in his music-making may be your own personal sacred and holy assignment from God at this time! Pray about these various options, and see where God leads you, if you are a person of faith...If you aren't, then you still need to consider within yourself what the congregation would prefer you to do, to try and help this accompanist, or to dismiss him and pursue artistic excellence the short/easy way. It sounds as though you all have a history of poor performance from this pianist, as you have already held meetings with him (with others helping) to share with him your concerns. He certainly does sound extremely insecure and it must be very difficult. I'm sure no one here will judge you if you dismiss him and find someone else. Especially if you are already a relaxed church choir director with a focus on God, and have been working with this pianist for years and seen no progress at all!

 

Sorry so long-winded here!

 

Cherwyn

Hello Clay:

All responders have some good advice...at least to my way of thinking.  But mostly I agree with Andrea. Gotta handle this situation with kid gloves and a big heart.  Praise you pianist, in front of the choir, when he plays something well...and surely that must happen every once in a while??  This fellow seems quite nervous, insecure, and maybe feels under-appreciated.  Do you have rehearsals with just you and he?  Our pianist and I do this a lot...we try for at least once a week.  Does a world of good! The music is all the better for it.  Has he heard any performance models...online publishers sites where you(he) can hear the music?  Bless your heart for hanging in there for so long...but, in the spirit of Christmas as I write this, hang in  some more. After all, a church music staff needs to function as a team.   If this fellow is immovable then another course of action will be necessary.  Good luck...and Merry Christmas!

                         t

 

Clay and colleagues:  I can't disagree with ANY of the responses so far, even when they disagree with each other!  Everything is indeed situational, and it isn't simply a matter of opposing "perfect performances" against "God accepts all offerings equally."  (A point well made in "Amahl and the Night Visitors," which also makes the point that what is in the heart partly determines the suitabllity of the gift.)  We simply don't have enough information to say what is proper in this situatin.

 

And WE cannot psychoanalyze this pianist at a distance, tempting though it might be.  Nerves?  Perhaps or perhaps not.  One of the star professors at Indiana when I was there--a world-class concert artist with whom students came to study even though he was gone on tour at least half the time--told his students that as a young man he had stage fright so bad that he had to decide whether to get out of performing or to become so perfect in his technique that he could not play anything wrong.  Fortunately for the musical world he chose the latter path!  But not everyone with nerves or stage fright is capable of doing that, not everyone who cannot perform without losing control should be encouraged to continue performing, and your average choral director is NOT a trained counselor. 

 

Have compassion, of course.  But also have reasonable standards for what will best support the worship function of your services, and what will disrupt them.  To whom is your primary responsibility?  Do the needs of the many (primarily your congregation) outweigh the needs of the few (your pianist)?  Never an easy question.

All the best,

John