It was a usual morning when I got a long message from a friend of mine Lucy (follow her on Instagram, she sings and creates a beautiful project about working out) that asked me if I would take part in her singing project as a piano player. My answer was a YES almost immediately. I would like to share with you our answer to the question: How to approach practicing for duo music performance?
If there is more than 1 member of (a band) we need to communicate effectively
Agreed. I just do not want to spend time looking for the very important information about which songs we play, at which key etc., especially from the beginning when we do not remember all the songs yet. Knowing from the experience, it is always good to have one place where we could align on some crucial things even before we have not met yet. I know that practicing session is something very important here, but one should devote that time to playing and singing – actually practicing TOGETHER. BUT! Once we have all the information aligned everybody can practice on their own at home and then spend very effective time with each other in the common practice session.
Which tools do we use to communicate?
We are in touch via DMs on Instagram. The main part of the communication – the list of which songs to play, YouTube videos, links to chords, comments from both of the members etc., for all this I set up a page in Notion where I have created a table for all the mentioned information. (I created also a template of such a page and you can copy it for FREE.)
The songs that were agreed by both of us were marked and added to the Spotify playlist so we can easily listen to them and learn the vibe from them also from the original songs. I also found some cover versions inspiration on YouTube and looked up the chords on Ultimate Guitar which we used as a base for later transposing of songs to our keys.
How do we approach practicing?
Maybe I have already mentioned it but I currently do not own a piano. As this will be a duo – piano and singing, I need a place for practicing. Fortunately, the singer owns one so we can practice together at her place. The question is where I would be practicing my parts. We come up with a solution for this. There is a possibility to play the piano in the city library. After becoming a member and paying some membership fee there is a piano available for playing. What a great idea 🙂
I need to admit that I visited the library an only couple of times from the beginning. The need was primarily in learning all the chords from the songs. After finding out all the chords we have been practicing almost every week 2 times per roughly 2 hours.
Which songs do we play?
This is the current list of the songs that we are playing (and expanding):
- Stevie Wonder – Signed, Sealed, Delivered
- Bill Withers – Just The Two Of Us
- Earth, Wind and Fire – September
- Gloria Gaynor – I Will Survive
- Gnarls Barkley – Crazy
- Dua Lipa – Levitating
- Ray Charles – Hit The Road Jack
- Camila Cabello – Havana
You can listen to the songs in the following playlist on Spotify.
Practicing of songs in particular steps:
- Creation of a page in Notion (see the template here)
- Choosing the list of songs for practicing
- Agreeing and choosing the narrower list of songs for the show
- Meetup and define all the keys in which we will play the songs
- (Watching several YouTube piano and non-piano videos of the songs we have chosen for isnpiration how to play it)
- Transposing all the songs into defined keys
- Finding the voicings for the chords and learning them on piano
- Practicing sessions (together) – 2 times a week per roughly 2 hours
- (Some piano practicing sessions with myself and sharpen the songs on the piano)
What is next?
We have already had the chance to play and sing in a practice session in a club and right now we are waiting for the dates for a performance.
You can see short parts of the songs in videos below. Let us know how you like it! You can write me or Lucy (the singer) on Instagram. Here is my profile and here you can find Lucy’s profile. Special thanks to Cabaret Des Peches for having us for the first practicing session.
I hope it is clearer for you How to approach practicing for duo music performance. Stay updated for the next article about music, and music related topics.
Thank you for reading this.
Sorry for any mistakes. If you find any please let me know. You can find my contact info down below.
I am just a beginner. Do not take this as final and the only approach or solution. I am just sharing my journey. If there are any advices related to the topics of this article shoot me an email.
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