Sometimes other people should be leading

I’ve played nine different musicals and one lesson I’ve learned from doing that is that music often switches who the “leader” is. Even if you’re the music “director” of the show you won’t be leading the entire time. And you shouldn’t be leading the entire time. Sometimes other people should be leading.

Some songs you’ll need to lead, especially if you’re playing a rhythmic song with a constant tempo. You’ll be keeping everyone in time and keeping a steady and constant pulse.

But if the song is a lyrical solo, you’ll want to follow the singer some of the time, if not almost all of the time. They’ll hold out notes slightly longer than the written duration. They might speed up or slow down at certain times. You should follow them.

Many of these things change depending on the song or even depending on what’s happening in a specific song.

I’ve played some songs where I’m following most of the time, but during one section I’m leading. It’s one of the things that makes playing musicals so exciting to me, but this skill of knowing when to follow and when to lead takes some practice.

ISJ