Auditioning for Pit Band - Rent!

[Gareth Hughes]

Good thing with RENT is that it doesn't need a large band to make it sound authentic. I did it with bass, drums, guitar, keys and MD on keys - so amateur or professional it should still work.

The written bass part for 'Seasons Of Love A' get a bit stupid at 54 and 56. It's a nice line but it drops the groove immediately. Sometimes it's ok to deviate from the written part as long as it sounds authentic and it makes the tune sound better.

Oh, one big thing to look out for is the end of the show, 'FINALE B'. That might seem like an obvious thing to say - but do pay heed. The music keeps repeating while the vocals start layering up and interchanging, which lead to a disastrous consequence one night when a dep drummer was 8 bars behind, which meant he would plough thru the humungous downbeat of an ending. He didn't notice, and neither did the MD - and I should have stayed out of it and just played my part.

Anyway - just keep counting. That's probably the best advice here - because a lot of the charts become very repetitive while the vocals become very intricate - a popular musical device, combining the main melodies of each character and overlapping them into a fiery climax. 'West Side Story' is great for that. Something I learnt a little too late is that it's ok to mark your chart with reminders, vocal or musical cues - especially if you have a long rest section or have played the same pattern for 62 bars in a row. I used to think it was very un-professional to mark a chart like that - which is nonsense, and far less unprofessional than playing completely the wrong thing or getting wildly lost.

Waffle over.



[quote name='faceman' post='839922' date='May 17 2010, 05:11 PM']Thanks very much, I'll let you know how I get on. Apart from Santa Fe, the only other ones that need watching out for are La Vie Boheme seems to have some interesting scales and Finale, which has Santa Fe again! Anything else to look for particularly?

This is an amateur production but the pianist was telling me how many harmonies and singers there are![/quote]

[moonbass]

[quote name='Gareth Hughes' post='840046' date='May 17 2010, 07:17 PM']Something I learnt a little too late is that it's ok to mark your chart with reminders, vocal or musical cues - especially if you have a long rest section or have played the same pattern for 62 bars in a row. I used to think it was very un-professional to mark a chart like that - which is nonsense, and far less unprofessional than playing completely the wrong thing or getting wildly lost.[/quote]

+1, BUT do it in soft pencil if you're playing from rented scores and rub out at the end of the run!
Good luck!
Andy

[faceman]

So we've had two rehearsals but I've been so busy applying for jobs (eek!) and revising that I haven't had time so here's the summary of the first practise...

I wasn't told in advance of what songs we were going to do so decided to practise the biggest ones. Not knowing the musical, I took a guess. I took a long look at La Vie Boheme (it has a nice bass part that doesn't alternate much and is in-sync with the piano), the title track and a few others. We did do title track which is thankfully quite simple and although I hadn't made it all the way through the song, I picked up the rest quickly from the band and reading. So far I've gone gone through and written the relevant chord or first note in the bar to make sure what I play is right. 'Light My Candle' was also a single four-chord song that has some interesting fills. I managed to get this mostly straight off. An observation was that the MD tended to do much referral to pauses and bar numbers, whereas my other band we work in 'rounds' or riffs

In terms of sight reading, I had to completely do one track without practise - 'Out Tonight'. Thankfully pretty easy, as the bass only comes in during the choruses. At first I read an F# 8ths as an F and it sounded wrong and the MD asked if I was ok after it obviously sounded wrong. Taking a longer glance I noticed and got it the next time. During a break, he sat we down and we talked about Santa Fe riff and the associated apearances and said we'd give it a break till after exams so I had time to practise it. He showed me some shortcuts from playing it. I had mistakingly found a tab and was using this prior to the music arriving and shocking, it was wrong.

So all went well! The drummer is top quality and I think between us we have a pretty good rhythm section. The keyboardist I already know very well, as he's from all my other bands. The two guitarists I've both worked with before and they are both excellent! His Strat matches my StingRay very nicely

Onto week two now and this is where the fun starts...

[faceman]

So the second rehearsal and we were told in advance to look at Another Day, I'll Cover You and You'll See. Then we got an email the night before changing it to Tango Maureen, Santa Fe and Another Day. Not that any of them are massively hard but I only had a few hours. I got my mate around and we almost worked out Santa Fe so hopefully we can give it a go sometime soon in practise. The riff itself (as pointed out) appears several times so it needs to be nailed.

So in the rehearsal we started off with Another Day. Mostly this seemed straight forward but there is a lot of fills and scales done in the song. I wasn't able to sight read where the root notes were so I really did struggle. The MD had to stop several times to ask say I was wrong but we got through the song. I'm going to have to sit down and work out properly. I felt very embarrassed because I kept getting lost. I dislike this number I will say now!

Tango Maureen was easy with various chords alternating to its third (e.g. C -> G). We didn't do the whole song because it was easy but I managed to nail most of it. Then we took a look at I Should Tell You which sits in between the two parts of La Vie Boheme and has a beautiful Rhodes/EP sound. I managed to sight read all of this pretty much straight off and was very impressed. In my mind, I'm still using F-A-C-E for the spaces in the bass clef and then working out, I also know the top line is A and the bottom is G and things like that so it's getting much better. I still can't do a song straight off but it's getting much better. There's loads of 'little' songs that I doubt we will cover much as they are just filler so I think this is where the sight reading will come into play.

So although I wasn't great in places, another successful rehearsal. We ran through the title track and Light My Candle from last week without trouble. And next week we are taking a look at two big numbers - Seasons of Love, La Vie Boheme and Christmas Bells. At least I'll have a bit more time to give them a practise!

[velvetkevorkian]

Glad its going well- there's nothing like being thrown in at the deep end to make you get your proverbial sh*t together!

[Gareth Hughes]

Keep it up Faceman - sounds like it's going well. I know it's a gut-wrenching feeling for an MD to stop a song midway and look at you, asking if you're alright - lordy knows I've been there too many times. Best thing is to just own it - hand up, that was my fault. I've found that in reading gigs, it's best to acknowledge your own mistakes before someone points them out.

With 'Santa Fe' - I found it was best to learn a hand shape that involved minimal movement, and then to recognize the change in the written patterns to keep moving along. It's all based around an alternating 10th and 9th pattern, so I played that across four strings for both patterns - middle finger on the B, third on the D#, fourth on the F# for the 10th pattern and then middle finger on the B, first finger on the C#, third on the F# for the 9th pattern. Bit of stretch but it eliminates looking at the neck while trying to follow the page. Then when it changes chords for the chorus you just move the 10th pattern up to the D, then the E, and down to the A when relevant. The bugger is fingering the G 10th pattern and the F# 10th pattern at the end of the chorus. After that it's just the same thing over and over (with those very cool fills thrown in)

[Hector]

Great work!

Funnily enough, I'm playing in a production of Rent at the moment as well. Santa Fe had me tripping up a bit the first time, and it's got some daft page turns, so I decided just to learn the patterns (which is all the song is) and just play them by ear off the vocals. Congrats on diving in at the deep end, it's how I first learnt to read too. Most important things to do would be to keep and eye out for key changes (there' a couple of tunes with sections in Gb major, so don't forget to play a Cb!) and count your bars. There's a lot of gaps, so you might find it useful to pencil in vocal cues (or drum cues etc.).

Have fun, it's quite a groovy part to play!

p.s. No way are there 525,600 minutes in a year - bloody bohemians.

[faceman]

So since the last time I posted it has all picked up at a furious rate! From Friday-Monday, we put in 21 hours of practising to get through the first and second halves on a day each. The first half is defiantly longer and harder, while the second is mostly acoustic stuff and reprises of the first half. There are a few areas of tunes that I need to look over but on the whole, I'm there! A mixture of hours of learning and dodging in rehearsals have got me through. Tonight we've had a run through of the second half as a band with the cast and it's defiantly sound awesome. I had to do four songs I've never played before and managed to get them without failing or any stops from the MD, all by sight reading! I'm amazed as I can now read most tunes, it's just those quick runs that get me out, so I often just do something of my own.

Massive thanks has to go to Gareth Hughes for his help with Santa Fe. I managed to adapt his finger positioning to something I could actually do and can now play the riff in time with the bongos. I sent him how I was playing it and he pointed out some small changes that have helped me nail it. It's just the movements up to D, then down to A, then up to D, then E, then A, G, F* and on and on.....great fun It's also been announced that we are (just very possibly) going to perform Seasons of Love with the entire cast at a music festival in Durham. My band happens to be playing with my keyboardist so half of the pit band's gear is on stage so this could be excellent fun. It's more working out do we have enough microphones or not?! There's two soloists that defiantly need them!

Tomorrow is the first full run through with the cast. Just a reminder from a mate that tomorrow is Thursday and the show opens Tuesday, fun times! This week we're running it as many as times as possible with the band on Friday and a tech run through on Sunday, dress rehearsal on Monday and maybe a run through Tuesday again. Apparently, this is normal in musical theatre (or at least student productions).

Now that I've moved on from the shitting myself oh-my-god-I-can't-play-I'm-going-to-get-kicked-out phase, I'm loving it. The show has some great lines that have improved my playing and some beautiful eight part harmonies. And for giggles, here's cheeky me in posed-concentration mode at tonight's run through...

Edited June 9, 2010 by faceman

[Stylon Pilson]

Very satisfying to read all this. It sounds like you have risen to the challenge nicely.

S.P.

[Gareth Hughes]

Onwards and upwards!!!! Next week - WEST SIDE STORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (with no rehearsal, of course )

Edited June 10, 2010 by Gareth Hughes

[faceman]

Thanks S.P. and Gareth. West Side Story, now that sounds like a challenge I'm just running through my score privately to sort out a few niggly areas.

This has actually become so enjoyable I defiantly want to keep doing this when I leave university. Would be great for amateur stuff probably, how does one find these things in the real world?

[Ou7shined]

Great stuff faceman.

Wow what a tune that Santa Fe is! I'd never heard it 'til this morning. To start with I couldn't keep up but it's just basically bar chords and widdely bits (can you tell I have no musical theory? ) but now I'm bopping along nicely. I'm loving the "Sorry" groove - older readers will remember the Ronnie Corbet sitcom.

[Doddy]

[quote name='faceman' post='863003' date='Jun 10 2010, 10:11 AM']Thanks S.P. and Gareth. West Side Story, now that sounds like a challenge I'm just running through my score privately to sort out a few niggly areas.

This has actually become so enjoyable I defiantly want to keep doing this when I leave university. Would be great for amateur stuff probably, how does one find these things in the real world?[/quote]

Glad it's working out well for you.

Getting the shows in the 'real world' is the same as any other gig. Get recommended by
someone that's already doing them,do a good job,get asked back. I started of by depping
one night of 'Little Shop of Horrors' for my old teacher. The MD liked what I did and
offered me more work,so it all went from there.

It's great that you want to persue some more of this work-it's great fun. Be aware though,
that there won't be anywhere near the amount of rehearsal time that you've had for this
one. Pretty much every am-dram I've done has had just a band call on the Sunday where you
first see the charts,tech run and dress rehearsal on Monday,doors open on Tuesday.

[faceman]

[quote name='Doddy' post='863083' date='Jun 10 2010, 11:21 AM']Glad it's working out well for you.

Getting the shows in the 'real world' is the same as any other gig. Get recommended by
someone that's already doing them,do a good job,get asked back. I started of by depping
one night of 'Little Shop of Horrors' for my old teacher. The MD liked what I did and
offered me more work,so it all went from there.

It's great that you want to persue some more of this work-it's great fun. Be aware though,
that there won't be anywhere near the amount of rehearsal time that you've had for this
one. Pretty much every am-dram I've done has had just a band call on the Sunday where you
first see the charts,tech run and dress rehearsal on Monday,doors open on Tuesday.[/quote]

Fun times, now that really seems like a challenge! I think its all practise and I'm sure once you get on with it that you could go straight into it, knowing the tunes is a massive help

From my initial uncertainties I'm so glad it's all come together. Off to the cast and band rehearsal now!

[Gust0o]

Everyone has AIDS? AIDS, AIDS, AIDS?

Ah, Team America. You've ruined so much for me

Congratulations on the gig, definitely sounds like a real interesting challenge.

[algmusic]

[quote name='thepurpleblob' post='801492' date='Apr 10 2010, 07:26 AM']I used to play the drums in pit bands hundreds of years ago. Sight reading is everything. I doubt the music will be all that difficult but they'll expect you to turn up at the dress rehearsal, have the dots put in front of you and play it first time. I wish I could do that with the bass (I'm a lapsed classically trained percussionist). You haven't to fall asleep either - the conductor will be looking for his cues and might not give you much warning of the next song.

Other than that minor difficulty, I used to really enjoy it.[/quote]

Ditto.. I'm exactly the same .. I can read drums but not pitch.. I have to use my ears