Todays rehearsal was fantastic. I am very, very confident about the performance now.
We whizzed through Candy with ease. I gave Kelvin the nods when to build up, and it sounded terrific. Dave sang the end brilliantly, and it is obvious we have all put the work in for this song. This song needs very little work done on it, rather than brushing up rough edges.
Sunshine on Leith was also fantastic. It was the first time playing it with Oliver and he had learned it off by heart - I am used to working with him due to Music for Scotland and am very comfortable playing with him. I think this shows. Today I added in harmonies to the 'Sorrow' part, and it sounded amazing. We don't have anyone to play the solos, so I will alternate between playing octaves and thirds for it. The solo will be reduced dramatically, but the idea is still there. My only worry about this is forgetting chord sequences if I am not concentrating, as they are all very similar but different. Also, I need to nod at Aimee for when she's to come in. Two bars of 3 should be enough, but it shouldn't be a worry...
Mountains was fantastic, too. I walked in late today (it's taken me two semesters to realise that leaving at normal times during peak time doesn't always insure I'll make it in for 9AM) to the band playing mountains, and I was incredibly pleased. Everyone had learnt it. There were no qualms over structure (minus the end, we had to go over it with Dave and myself because the vocals are different) and it went very smoothly. I joined in, and while it was rough around some of the verses (people getting chord sequences wrong) it worked very, very well. We just need to practice that at home individually and it will work really well. Though I do wish we had another guitarist, it sounds slightly empty with only one. I can fill it out on the piano, but it can sound dirty sometimes, and I really don't want to do that during the prechorus/chorus. There's a fun and simple instrumental piano part in there which I am glad to have - something to play, alone, in a rock song!
The highlight of the day, though, was Lulu. My Music For Scotland band don't play that live yet because it's easy to mess up due to the stops, but I instructed Aimee (and Aimee alone) to move her hands or something when the stops come - she knows the song inside out, and if everyone follows her, it can't go wrong. We were right. By watching Aimee, we played through the song perfectly, several times. I requested a bigger gap at the end after the 'And I feel...' part, and after that, the song just gelled. I am very much looking forward to playing this. I get to vamp over two chords and sing at the same time, which is...easier than it sounds, actually. Now that we've practiced it, anyways...
Half way through our rehearsal, I went down to rehearse with Charlie's band. The performance is in two days and we were yet to have a full band practice. We only managed to get through Caledonia before Annette and Dot came through. They gave Charlie advice on how to sing it without worrying about the timing, and then I had to go. I am slightly concerned about this (also due to the fact that I just found out about key changes to the songs I'd learned the night before) but we have a practice tomorrow. Hopefully it will go okay...
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