God spell

[davey_one_visits]

I've been asked to play in the musical god spell by a local theatre group. All I've been given is a set of MP3s to listen to and transcribe.

I just wondered if anyone has played in this before and had any sheet music for it? or if not just any tips?

Thanks.

[Mike]

That's a heck of a job! If you have free time and are getting handsomely paid, then fair enough. If I'm booked to play a show I expect both payment and the bass pad!

[Doddy]

Exactly.
For any show I would expect to be given the pad...usually at the first rehearsal. After all,it's not like a regular pop or rock
gig.

[PTB]

I did this show many years ago for zero pay. I was probably not their first choice but I was young & up for a challenge.

When I got there, there was a big problem. I don't read & the bass pad was all notation. I noticed the guitar pad had chords above the notation so introduced myself to the guitarist & sat down next to him very close, much to his surprise.
I then did the rehearsals & a weeks shows reading the chords from the guitar pad and looking at the bass pad to see if the notes ascended, descended, etc.
I got away with it but I'm sure you'll do a far better job of it than I did.

[lowdown]

I did a touring production through Europe with Godspell, some great tunes in the show.
Not a real hard sight read, but an awful lot of transcribing. [getting paid i hope]



Garry

[davey_one_visits]

I'm really doing it for the experience as I'd like to get into musical theatre so it'll be great for the cv. I was hoping for a reading gig as its something I've never done before but it looks like I'll be transcribing which should take me a couple of weeks. It's a bit unorganised to say the least. I'm liking some of the music but I can't say the same for the subject matter, it's not the most enjoyable musical for an atheist however I'm thinking that taking a job I'm not into is also good practise.

Thanks for the comments.

[AndyBob09]

You could ask the MD for some MIDI recordings or seek out MIDI recordings?

If you or anyone you know has access to Logic (and POSSIBLY Sibelius - I'm not well versed with that though!), you can put the MIDIs in to Logic and it'll give you a full score of it at the click of a button.

That's the best I can come up with if it's a possibility for you.

[Gareth Hughes]

To be honest - that's bogus that you're being asked to transcribe this. I've done my share of professional and amateur theatre gigs - probably around 40-50 shows - and not once have I been asked to transcribe the parts. It's the production company's responsibility to get you the parts or else get the MD to transcribe the parts. At the very least the MD should have the piano reduction of the show and should copy you the piano parts which you could then write a passable chart of either the notated left hand parts (adapted when necessary) or a chord chart. Either way you'd be able to chart out a workable arrangement.

[JakeBrownBass]

[quote name='Gareth Hughes' timestamp='1330017295' post='1551539'] To be honest - that's bogus that you're being asked to transcribe this. I've done my share of professional and amateur theatre gigs - probably around 40-50 shows - and not once have I been asked to transcribe the parts. It's the production company's responsibility to get you the parts or else get the MD to transcribe the parts. At the very least the MD should have the piano reduction of the show and should copy you the piano parts which you could then write a passable chart of either the notated left hand parts (adapted when necessary) or a chord chart. Either way you'd be able to chart out a workable arrangement. [/quote]

+1 to this.

[JakeBrownBass]

[list]
[*]Original poster, pm me.
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Edited February 23, 2012 by JakeBrownBass

[JakeBrownBass]

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[*]
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Edited February 23, 2012 by JakeBrownBass

[visog]

The 'elephant in the room' in this thread is the musical copyright. This costs a lot of money and that's where you get the proper music when you've paid for it. Clearly you've been asked to do a production which probably isn't paying for that copyright. Likewise the poster previously with the piano scores is breaching copyright.

I'm not the copyright police so my take would be to buy the record and transcribe. Typically in a show there's a basic 10 or so songs with the rest of the parts variations on those themes. Shouldn't take you too long. You can scuff by with roots for the background parts and just transcribe the prominent bass lines. Timings, queues and stops are the things that probably matter most.

P.S. Good luck with the poster who suggested asking for a midi version of the score from the director!? Why not ask for a bass tab version too while you're at it. It'll be just as likely to be forthcoming.

[davey_one_visits]

Just wanted to say thanks again to everyone who commented and PM'd me about this. You've really made my life a lot easier.