卒業式でピアノ伴奏

年度末の卒業式シーズン。先日、小学6年生のピアノの生徒さんが、小学校の卒業式でピアノ伴奏を任されたのでレッスンして下さいと、レッスンに伴奏譜面を持って来ました。自力でほぼ完璧に仕上げていたのに本当に感心しました。レッスンでは、仕上げとして実践的なポイントをいくつか伝えました。

本番では、きっと多くの方の心に残る素敵な卒業式になったことと思います。

これまで私は、小学校・中学校・高校と、さまざまな学校行事や市の音楽会でのピアノ伴奏に生徒さんを通じて間接的に触れる中で、小2小3の子が、オーディション3日前等に、年齢的体格的にどう頑張っても弾けない難しい伴奏譜面を渡され「オーディションに通りたければピアノの先生に習ってきなさい」と担任から言われたケース、音楽に理解がないPTA保護者の言動に驚かされたり。

It’s the end-of-year graduation season. The other day, one of my Year 6 piano pupils brought her accompaniment sheet to a lesson, asking me to help her prepare as she had been entrusted with playing the piano at her primary school’s graduation ceremony. I was truly impressed that she had managed to practise it to near perfection all by herself. During the lesson, I gave her a few practical tips to polish it off. I’m sure the actual ceremony was a wonderful graduation event that will remain in the hearts of many. Over the years, through my students, I have been indirectly involved in piano accompaniment for various school events and municipal music concerts at primary, junior high and senior high schools. I have encountered cases where children in Years 2 or 3 were handed difficult accompaniment scores just three days before an audition—scores that, given their age and physical stature, they simply could not play no matter how hard they tried—and were told by their form teacher, ‘If you want to pass the audition, go and take lessons with a piano teacher.’ I have also been taken aback by the behaviour of PTA parents who lack an understanding of music.