Greetings to all of my Music World out there! This post is about the preferred etiquette for piano accompanists from soloists who hire them for accompaniment purposes. Of course, this is all from my point of view, but being that I've had over ten years of experience in accompanying at universities, churches, weddings, dinner gigs, etc., and after listening to loads of complaints from both accompanists and solo musicians alike, I thought it would be a good idea to at least get some of these issues aired out. So here goes! First and foremost, it is preferred to contact your accompanist at least TWO WEEKS before your event. It also is very helpful to have the music on hand or nearby so that the accompanist can take a peek at it and decide if they are comfortable with the time allotted to learn it based on the difficulty level of the assignment. If you are contacting the accompanist by email to potentially hire them, be sure to ask for their rates at the beginning. A collegiate acc...