Accompanying piano

[camCARV03]

My friend is playing a piano solo and would like me to accompany him on my upright. On his sheet music, the chords are listed above each measure. Now what do i do.....if it helps, hes playing pieces such as "Thousand Miles" and "if i aint got you".

[Damon Rondeau]

Now what do you do? Now you get to play some music. Jump in!

Try playing the root notes of the chords as they go by. Do you know how chords work? You can figure out some other notes to play by learning about chords. Maybe your piano pal can show you some other notes that might work nicely. Don't be shy to ask -- that's how you learn.

That's just going to give you a little bit of a feel for what it's like to play music with another person. You can go as deep as you want into that ocean. It takes practice and learning. Most of us here recommend a teacher. There's no need to spend a lot of time confusing yourself for a long time -- decades, maybe -- over really basic issues.

Best of luck to you and I hope you enjoy yourself. It was ages ago, but I remember being in your shoes.

Oh yeah: somewhere here in TB Chris Fitzgerald has got some material on how to get started with walking bass lines. That might help...