Piano–vocal score

In a piano–vocal score, the vocal parts are written out in full, but the accompaniment is reduced and adapted for keyboard (usually piano).

The second category includes scores that are arrangements or transcriptions made after the completion of the work, usually by someone other than the composer.

The cost of rehearsing with a professional orchestra is so high that choirs typically hold a number of rehearsals with piano accompaniment to prepare the choir, as the cost of hiring a single piano accompanist is much lower than hiring 50–100 orchestral musicians.

While piano-vocal scores tend to consist of the vocal lines and a piano reduction of the whole orchestra onto two staves, piano-conductor scores tend to consist of the vocal lines and one of the orchestral piano parts that already exists, coupled with another staff containing the rest of the orchestral reduction (in contrast to a piano-vocal score, where the piano and other orchestral parts cannot be easily separated at sight).

In a piano-conductor score, orchestral part entries are usually visibly tagged in the third staff.