Thanks for the ideas, opus119. I have found another piano student who wants to work on duet and duo-piano literature. We actually have a goal for our Senior Recital, or maybe even Junior Recital: Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, duo-piano. It will be quite a challenge, I think, but a fun one, even if we don't have it ready for a recital. I'm sure I'll find someone to accompany soon, since I need it for credit!

Yeah, i was going to ask if you didn't have a mandatory duets class for a year or two.. we have two here, and they're great! This semester, six pairs of us are going to do a few each of the 21 hungarian dances by Brahms, and then perform them in order. Should be fun!

Indeed, you should find the Brahms fun to play. I performed a few of them with a duet partner at Summer School a couple of summers ago and enjoyed them very much.

Regards,

Maybe I've forgotten what it's like to be young, full of stamina. All I know is it's usually impossible for me to practice more than 2 or 3 hours daily, even generously broken up over the course of the day. (There are the rare times I'm up all night in a fevered trance playing until the sun comes up; but I'm in an altered state then, sort of my way of speaking in tongues...) What usually happens is I get mentally exhausted and actually bored; the longer I play the less focus I have, and thus each additional minute spent at the keyboard becomes less productive. Instead of trying to fill a time quota, I make very clear goals for myself each time I sit at the piano. I can't imagine 6 hours of focused practice every day.

Weighing in as a singer...

Voice majors generally practice solo exercises and/or lit for an hour or less a day. Undergrads will be required to do 1-2 hrs additional ensemble singing a day and grads will be doing considerably more solo/ensemble singing in rehearsal for opera workshops, main stage opera productions etc. Almost all will be singing elsewhere as well...church jobs, community opera. Bear in mind, with singers, they're putting additional miles on an instrument we all use (and mis-use) every day, in speaking. It's also an instrument that gets sick and tired along with the musician, so the singer has to be smart and not use it too much when it is in poor condition. I learned to do a lot of music learning and "practicing" in my head. Sitting by myself, thinking through the notes, rhythms and words. Saves wear and tear. If I had been learning piano lit, I would have been playing during that process of learning...the beginning stages, the memorization stage...but in singing, it was neither necessary nor desirable to do that part of it out loud. For a singer, writing the words (in many languages)of their songs and roles over and over again to hammer them into the brain is one form of "practice" that you will never hear, but takes hours, and is just as much a part of being an accomplished performer as practicing scales and arpeggios.

On the other hand...it's tempting to answer the question, "Why don't singers practice more?" with this, "because we don't need to."

yes, we do have a mandatory duet class, duo-piano class, and accompanying class, all a semester long. I haven't had the chance to take any of them yet. Right now I'm taking Piano Literature. It's really fun!

I do understand that diction is VERY important. Perhaps singers don't practice as much because it doesn't take them as long to learn their music? I am currently working on three - four pieces, whereas some vocalists are working on up to six. I mean, one staff with one note at a time compared to two staves with up to 10 notes at a time...

"one staff with one note at a time compared to two staves with up to 10 notes at a time..."

Nah...it's not that at all. Singersdon't just learn the line they sing. They have to hear the harmonies and know them, know the accompaniment well, even in a solo song with piano accompaniment. If they're learning a role in an opera, they learn everyone's part, not just their own, in addition to learning where to go on stage and what to do when they get there. There really isn't a direct comparison between the "difficulty" involved in the tasks. They're both hard. Most singers can't play the piano to solo performance standards, most non-singers can't do what singers do and don't want to. They require totally different sets of skills.

Of course they do. I admire singers and their talent. Wow. I never thought about the accompaniment. A slightly non-related question: Why do singers often work on the same songs at the same time? A lot of my friends who are vocal majors are working on EXACTLY the same stuff. Why?

I don't know! :-)

If they are undergrads (are they?) there may be some required repertoire that they have to learn in your school's program. I tend to assign very varied rep for my students, as that is what I was used to in school. We were always working hard to find some unique cycles for recitals because we all ended up going to each other's performances. I would imagine if everyone's doing the same stuff it's a "teacher thing". Where do you go to school? Are all those singers in the same studio? Maybe somebody needs to buy their teacher some new books

haha. I go to Longwood University, a small school, with a very small music department. There are three voice studios here, and, come to think of it, all of them are in the same studio. Odd. It must be a teacher thing. I think it also depends on what they are working on in diction.