One more benefit of playing with others: having other musicians playing with me means that I don’t have to panic so much at page turns. Yes, page turns. The bane of a church pianist’s existence. Pianists already use both hands pretty continuously – how are we supposed to turn the page between one measure and the next? It’s even worse for cellists, as we have to hold the bow in one hand and the cello in the other. We can’t just drop one when we have to turn a page. But pianists usually have many more pages per piece than cellists. Pianists have a lot more notes to play, after all.
I lived in Hawaii for six months, and played the piano at a wonderful Baptist church there. The weather is so perfect in Hawaii much of the time that we didn’t have air conditioning and just kept all the windows open. The breezes felt pleasant, and it was much too hot with them all closed.
But the breezes liked to turn my pages for me. At the wrong time. Sometimes the wind would turn all my pages at once, and they would flutter down to the floor. Sometimes the breeze would catch a page and it would fly up, up, and then tumble end over end all the way to the pews. Even in air conditioned churches, the air vents sometimes do the same thing. You can tell when the air handlers kick on, as the pianist thrusts her hand out to quickly keep the pages from flapping.
I was told a secret when I was in Hawaii. When the music you’re playing only has one or two pages, you can use a chip clip to hold it in place. It works great! Might make you hungry, but it keeps your pages open.
When I have other musicians playing with me, I don’t have to worry about dead silence while I try to turn or control flyaway pages. When I have problems, others can cover for me and help me out. Similarly, I can cover for them when they have problems. We musicians look after each other. Just like Christians are to look after their fellow believers. Cain asked God if he was his brother’s keeper. God’s answer is yes. We are keepers for our brothers and sisters. We need to encourage each other, and we need to support each other.
A friend loves at all times,
and a brother is born for a time of adversity.
Proverbs 17:17