I’ve worked with my vocal group, The Prince Consort, for over a decade and I’ve learned a few things about the secret world of the piano accompanist.

Tom Service wrote an excellent piece in the Guardian on this topic a few weeks ago, and as a piano accompanist myself - or collaborative pianist as they are known in the US - it was great to read an article from our perspective.

I’ve been having some jazz piano lessons recently in preparation for a project I’m working on in 2013 with The Prince Consort and British jazz pianist Jason Rebello…

When I had my first session, I was quite obsessed with which notes I should play on which chords and how I could create melodic figures out of nowhere. But one of the main things that Jason talked about was jazz ‘feel’, and he said that this is often the crucial element missing from many…

A few weeks ago there was an article in The New Yorker about the French pianist Hélène Grimaud. In the interview she talks about how she practises in her head away from the piano, and that for a recent recording she had to play the pieces through just a few times at the instrument, and she was ready to go. The journalist, evidently dazzled by this, reported that her preparation for the recording session ‘only took about twenty minutes’ with Grimaud leaving for dinner saying nonchalantly, ‘Let’s keep it fresh for tomorrow.’