My wife sometimes asks me to play a song so that she can sing along, but she wants me to play the melody line!! I say no, no, no. Accompaniment should rarely play the melody line. This allows the singer more flexibility, the singer can start before, on, or after the beat. She can sing grace notes and other notes, not necessarily in the orignal melody line, etc.
Obviously, she might want me to play the melody line, if she is unsure of the melody, but after that no. If a singer wants the melody line to be played while they are singing, isn't this a crutch?
Starkeeper

Well, yes and no. I oft times play the melody to lead in a singer and on parts I know the singer will have difficulty with. If they tend to stretch to certain notes or sing off-key, I play the melody OR I incorporate the melody into my block chords to help the minds eye of the listeners resolve the singer to "On key". There are instances where I do play along with the singer for songs like, Spanish Harlem, which begs for a sort of "Duet" sort of sound.

I don't think it hurts to help singers along once in a while! :-)

Al

Al,
Yes I know what you mean. Use a chord inversion where the top note is part of the melody or a predominant note of the melodic phrase.
Starkeeper

I would think most, if not all, of us at one time or another had to 'lead' a vocalist (sit-in or otherwise) by playing the melody line of a song ... One problem I see is that I seldom play a melody line EXACTLY as it is written ... often adding my own grace notes or 'trills', so playing the melody line can become a problem for me as well as the vocalist....
t.

As a piano accompaninest myself, I learned early on, that the singer is always right. The job of the accompanist is to support the singer, and to cover their as* at all costs, and believe me, I've had to do this on many occasions.

Starkeeper: If your wife needs to hear you play the melody while she's learning the song, fine, but typically a pro vocal performance requires that the vocalist carry the melodic line on her own while the keyboard accompanist provides comping chords, fills & 'counter' melodies, and a possible brief instrumental solo. It's is the job of the vocalist to provide the melody. What creates the magic is the musical interplay between singer & accompanist. Accompanying a singer is truly an ART and requires uniqiue keyboard playing skills and senstivity, as your playing must never upstage the Star of the show: the Singer! - Scott

I work with a few sax players on occasion, and I have to insist that they NEVER play the melody when I'm singing. It's a useless, redundancy that really chokes my style. It seems like a natural thing to do, if you're a melody instrument, but the important thing to remember is the comfort of the "lead" voice....whatever it is. Vocals always take priority in a case like this, so if the singer likes to be shadowed ...... so be it. Just don't try it behind me. Grrrrr....

Instead of playing a melody line, you can play the melody in a more discrete way, like use a "smooth voice" or "ooh/aah" type of voicing (in vocal/string section) or pad...(this is assuming you play it over your sequenced song)...so you'll function also as the "back up singer section"...

UD is right on the money. I would be pretty upset if someone began playing the lead over my vocals. I've only had a couple vocalist with me over the years, and most were very good. I'm sure they would have felt exactly the same way. Nah! They would have put a bullet in me and I wouldn't be answering this post.

Cheers,

Gary

GARY!!! ... GET BACK TO WORK ON GIG DISC #6..

t.

I was singing send in the clowns in a concert some years ago,and a guy from another band backstage started playing the melody line on an out of tune banjo.We had words to say the least. I was not amused.