I have decided to analyse three of the performance pieces we did through the year. I will focus entirely on my part of the performance, rather than the performance as a whole.
The three songs I have decided to do are 'Underdog' from the Funk month, 'Lullaby of Birdland' from one of our Jazz months, and 'Tu Voz' from the Salsa week.
Underdog
In underdog, I played the brass parts on the keyboards. There is no piano, and the brass part is such a huge part that someone needed to do it. The song starts with a brass melody, very similar to the french children's song 'Frere Jaque'. The keyboard I played it on made the brass parts go quiet very quickly after I'd pressed the key down, so I had to play very hard and quick to make sure the sound for as long as it should have.
The rest of the song me doing brass stabs. The challenge here was trying not to interfere with the off beat stabs the guitarist was playing. For the pre chorus, I provided backing vocals, singing 'Underdog' with the two other singers. Upon listening to the recording of us, I am very pleased at how effective our group vocals were. For this part, I played the brass parts to go in unison with what I was singing.
The chorus was the part where I noticed how strong the diminishing brass sounds were. I had to play with the volumes during the chorus, to make sure that the brass parts sang out as I left the notes hanging. The brass part is the lead melodic motif during the chorus, so it was very important that I made the notes ring out. You can tell I got the hang of playing with the volume effectively in the second chorus, because the brass doesn't go quiet nearly as fast as it does in the first.
The second verse was exactly the same as the first, but we changed the dynamics. I was very pleased, again, to hear how effective this proved in the playback. There is definitely a change in dynamics, especially during our group 'Yeah, yeah' vocal line.
All in all, I was very, very pleased with this performance, and must give credit to Chris Anderson, the drummer who led us. His skills at leading the band (very nitpicky (in a good way) and analytical) was nothing but professional, and the work we did throughout the rest of the year (Music for Scotland first audition) helped make him one of my preferred drummers to work with.
Lullaby of Birdland
I was surprised when I heard the recording for this. At the time, I thought it to be disastrous. Though upon hearing it back, I found that my piano playing was very effective. A lot of this has to do with the fact that I played on the grand piano, meaning I didn't have to worry about an electrical 'bleed' of sound which one can sometimes find on an electric keyboard, nor could i worry about sound levels.
Again, credit goes to the HN2s (Andy McDowell and Ryan Sandison). For the first couple of weeks, the two of them and myself went through the chords and voicings we should each play (the chords in that song were unlike anything I'd ever played before. The first time I'd played flattened 13ths, etc, and they were all a chord a beat...) Andy even compared this song to his final performance piece, saying it was more difficult. We worked hard together and at home to make sure our voices didn't clash (there are so many notes in every chord, it being jazz). I provided a jumpy chord based melody, while playing a vamp in my left hand for the chorus, with my right playing the vocal melody. There were no solos in that song, but I threw the odd modal scale/arpeggio around for effect. Though upon hearing the playback, I don't feel I played them as clean on the grand piano as I had practiced, but it doesn't really effect the song in any way.
All in all, I thought it sounded good, with my keys complementing the song well. If I had done any more, I felt, it would have sounded too muddy. That's something I've learned this year: too many players try to dive in and play complex solos in songs where they aren't needed. As a keyboard player, it's important for me to know how to hang back, as in many songs, the keyboard is just there for (required) background. Unless I have a lead part, or the song allows it, soloing or playing overly complex lines just because one can, is a bad idea, that often does more to hinder the song than help it.
Tu Voz
Unfortunately, there is no recording of the salsa month online, so I will have to write entirely from memory.
We had a large band for this. A very large band. John Cashman, the HN2 of the group, played the piano part. Myself and Jake played the brass parts. The song is almost a salsa big band piece.
The brass parts I played were simple - like Underdog, the main motifs were played with brass instruments, so it was very important that we played them correctly, which we did. Apart from that, all we did was the odd chord stab when appropriate, and the melody played through the chorus. There were many people in the band, so we all decided to play as little as possible each, as when everyone tried to play lead in practice, it sounded very, very messy.
I don't feel I played enough in Tu Voz to be analysed properly. Had I played the piano part, it would have been a different matter, but Josh was more experienced so the band decided that he should do it. Perhaps next year I will be brought out of my comfort zone and made to play 'different' genres like Salsa for experience. After all, playing things outside of your comfort zone is what makes you a better performer.
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