Interpersonal Aspects of Musical Collaboration for Collaborative Pianists

Collaborative piano education tends to discuss techniques of collaboration as primarily a musical skill. However, common understanding within the field regarding a collaborative pianist’s ability to work with others offers another aspect to this assumption. It goes without saying that pianists’ interpersonal skills largely affect with whom they will work, and how efficaciously pianists and their partners will work together. Correspondingly, how pianists work with others can directly affect the success or failure of the musical collaboration.

The first intention of this paper is to explain why interpersonal skills are integral to the creation of quality musical outcomes and so-called musical togetherness; it specifies interpersonal aspects innate and unique to a pianist’s experience. Next, this paper defines two crucial components of collaboration – empathy and active listening – and discusses how pianists can build these skills into their personal practice and rehearsal. It continues with an examination of the interpersonal implications of studio arrangement, body language, and verbal language from a pianist’s perspective. This paper concludes with ideas for how to test for these skills during the collaborative piano audition process, a class syllabus showing how these skills can be incorporated into the collaborative piano curriculum, and suggestions for further research about interpersonal aspects of collaboration.