Posterous theme by Cory Watilo

red cloth scene - day 10.

on thursday we started off by watching a run-through of the red-cloth scene, which despite having played music for last year, we had never seen before, which was pretty helpful.

i found that watching it, the music we had played before was really wrong for the moment, as we hadn't built it up as big as the red-cloth scene itself, so it didn't fit.

but today we all sat down and discussed how we should make it fit, and a few things we came up with were to think of it alot less like an actual song, but more of a piece of classical music, and so we started to each use different time signatures and paterns on different instruments, and we created a sound where everyone kind of just overlapped each others pattern when playing.

i think it sounded alot more appropriate for the scene itself, however it didn't have anywhere near enough of a build as i think it should have for the scene.

a run through and a notes session - day 9

today we done a whole run-through of the first half of the show in an hour and a half.

it was pretty sloppy when coming in on ques and knowing exaclty what we were supposed to be playing, however i felt that for a first run with the new musicians that it went quite well.

 

the notes we got from robbie were - don't move on stage, and don't fiddle hair etc.

- don't talk/cough/play guitar when not doing scene changes/songs.

-come in dead on ques/leave no gaps.

-when performing feel free to move about etc.

hey diddle diddle, some help from a fiddle - day 7

today we met with mike the fiddle player.

to start off with we played him foggy dew, irish rover, derry child, and dropkick murpheys, and then we played through each of the songs a couple of times with the fiddle added in.

i think that the fiddle made the songs sound a lot fuller than they did and if we could get a fiddle player for the actual show, that would be really great.

one of the notes that mike gave us was that on the build up into the heavier part of derry child, it should be a gradual build up, and that we are rushing into it too quickly which doesn't make it sound as good as it could, which i agree with.

much ado about an unplugged wire - day 6

today during our time using the actors space, we ran through the set list from the songs foggy dew to teenage kicks with minimal problems, other than remembering lyrics.

then after we had moved all of our stuff back into our own space we ran through derry child and irish rover.

i am feeling alot more confident and comfortable singing both foggy dew and derry child now.

also in irish rover we decided that we needed to put alot more energy into it, and so we tried playing while adding yee-ha's and woo-hoo's and even the odd chicken noise, which i think perked everyone up a bit more because it made it more enjoyable to play, and therefore added a bit more energy to the song.

after that we looked at some hornpipe, jig and reel pieces, and theneveryone got into pairs and learned their own choice of hornpipe/jog/reel - excluding me, because i have the gaelic song to learn still, and most of it i have done, there are just a few parts that i struggle to understand, but i'll work on it. :)

crowd surfing and bad dancing- day 5

this morning we prepared to show the actors the music we have been working on so far - we ran the entire set list in rehearsals and fixed up any little mistakes we had, and then in the afternoon we set up downstairs and ran most of the songs.

i enjoyed showing the actors the music so far, and their high energy levels really gave me some extra confidence to really try and go for it.

i think the only song we really messed up on was suspect device, where the structure wasn't really memorised, and neither were the lyrics.

also when we played derry child the keys didn't start early enough so i started off a little out of key, but i think other than that everything ran fairly smoothly.

I'M THE LAST OF THE IRISH ROVERR!! - day 4.

today we looked at derry child again, and we went over it and over it until we all knew the structure and alex learnt a solo for it.

then we looked at ride on which alex is now singing, and i am singing the harmonies on the chorus, and george is now playing the main melody, and tom is playing the bassline, and adam is using the bhodran to keep a steady beat,.

after that we spent about two hours going over irish rover, which i think everyone is fine with now, i think if there is anything that needs to be practiced it's the 'and the ship struck a rock, oh lord what a shock' to the ending part for the drums, and the lyrics and timing etc.

i am now learning a new song by julia fowlis called aoidh na dean cadal idir, which is gaelic.

we're shippin up to boston! - day 3.

today we went over most of the set list

with the dropkick murphey's song we added in the harmony that i sing in the chorus, in chidren of the revolution, alex learnt the guitar solo, we ran through the whole of teenage kicks with pretty much no problems at all.

in let's stay together, callum started learning the chords on guitar, i went over bogside man, which i need to practice more to get the accent and the key right.

and we started to look at derry child, and go through the structure of it, adam started to learn the pennywhistle parts, and i think callum is doing the guitar solo, also i really need to practice this song to ensure that i'm hitting the right notes, and am in the right key.