Songs that require a piano accompaniment are not good enough songs for children. Every song for children should stand on its own as a worthy piece of music without piano accompaniment, and ought to be taught without the piano. Movement is the best accompaniment to a song. A piano accompaniment adds greater complexity for fledgling audiation to process, as it is a layer on top of rhythm, tonal, and text, requiring more of audiation to balance the whole. Children who require a piano accompaniment to stay on pitch or in rhythm are not secure in tonal or rhythm audiation.
A piano accompaniment can be added in rehearsal for performance, once the children sing the song beautifully. A piano introduction and an interlude between a couple repetitions of the song can make a lovely little 8-bar song appropriate for performance, providing a showcase for children’s artistry.
Any accompaniment should support, rather than dominate audiation and children’s voices. Introductions should clearly define the meter, tonality, keyality and tempo. The accompaniments themselves should support the meter throughout with macro and micro beats, and support the tonality through characteristic tones and harmonic functions, without accidentals, and without ambiguity. Accompaniments should support the energy of the line, and it is important that accompaniments support children’s voices without overwhelming them. The least experienced children’s voices require transparency in accompaniments. The piano should be the “accompaniment” to children’s voices, rather than the voices being the accompaniment to a rousing piano display.
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