Possible Solo Performances
Drum Pieces
- Maroon 5 - One more night (Confirmed)
- Trinity Guildhall Grade 8 Piece
- Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Around the World (Confirmed)
- The Strokes - Under Cover of Darkness (Confirmed)
- Michael Jackson - Heartbreaker (Confirmed)
- Foo Fighters - Rope (Confirmed)
Guitar Pieces
- Will Howell - Guitar Composition (Confirmed)
- Mexicana (Confirmed)
- Romance
For my guitar composition, I know it due to writing it myself, though I do have sheet music written out in case I forget it. I will learn Mexicana from sheet music, however I will play it with my own dynamics/tempo/feel - i.e. I will inject my own musicality into it.
Drum pieces aren't as critical when it comes to sheet music. I often prefer to learn them by ear. However, in order to get a few parts spot on for the Foo Fighters song, I got hold of the sheet music to check a few things. In all of the drum pieces however, I add my own fills and feel. I learnt Maroon 5, Red Hot Chili Peppers and The Strokes by ear, and then came up with my own parts for example in Maroon 5 where no drums are even playing in the original. For michael jackson, I just improvise to the song and try to feel the music and play appropriately. I obviously 'over-play' a lot more though as it is meant to be a solo with the focus on the drumming, whereas if I was playing it in a band, I would not do nearly so many fills etc.
Planning
I found an event/venue that is suitable for drumming. Music On The Meadows is an outdoor festival with a big open field for people to watch from. This means that the drums won't be too loud! I am only allowed a 10 minute set though, meaning I can do just two of my drum pieces.
In order to make my performance work well, I've decided that I want to listen to the backing tracks through isolation headphones with a click. In order to do this, I will use Cubase. I have made two versions of the song - one with a click and one with out. I have put them on different tracks. In order to make the version with no click come out of the PA system, but the version with the click in my headphones, I will use my audio interface as it has two stereo outputs. I set the track with the click to come out of stereo output 1 (Straight into my headphones), and set the version with no click to come out of stereo output 2 which I will output to the main mixing desk/PA system.
To make sure that everything goes smoothly on the day, I have made a list of all the equipment I need to take, and have been in contact with the sound engineer to check if he is happy with my plan. I also made sure to get a good sound check where we tested levels etc.
Update: The sound engineer is happy with my setup and has given me a sound check time.
My Audition CD:
Although I know it is not possible for me to play all of the planned pieces in one go, I have tried to balance the programme nevertheless - by including music of different genres. Foo Fighters are heavy rock, Red Hot Chili Peppers are funk rock, The Strokes are indie rock, Maroon 5 are pop, and Michael Jackson is more funky, ghospely pop. Also, while I am playing a set drum part for Foo Fighters for example, the Michael Jackson song is improvised. In order to break the drumming up and give people's ears a rest, I have the two guitar pieces I will do.
Here is an order I think would be appropriate:
Maroon 5 - One More Night (Because it was in the charts so a lot of people will know it)
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Around the World (Because a lot of people also like them, and it contrasts in genre to Maroon 5)
My Guitar Composition (To break up the drumming)
The Strokes - Under Cover Of Darkness
Foo Fighters - Rope (Energetic and quite well known)
Mexicana (Relaxing, to break up the drumming)
Michael Jackson - Heartbreaker (The most impressive to finish off)
No comments:
Post a Comment