AIDA Keyboard and Percussion Pit Notes

An email received with questions about performing the music for AIDA by Elton John.

EMAIL:

I am the pit orchestra director for an upcoming High School prodcution of
Aida. This is my first experience working with a more contemporary style
pit. I noticed that you have experience with conductn the show. I’d
appreciate any help or advice you might have for working with instrumentation -particularly with regard to the keyboards and percussion.

We will need to rent 2 keyboards. What might you recommend? Seeing as I
have never worked with keyboards in a pit before, are there any tips or
tricks to programing the various voicings and patches in the keyboards?

Did you have to make any accomodations with the drum and percussion books?
Did you use the elctronic drums or was it all played on the drum set? Were
you able to locate all the unique ethnic drums used?

I realize it’s been a while since you worked on the show, but any guidance
from someone who’s “been there” would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks so much for your time.

*************

Happy to help out. First of all at the beginning of this post you’ll see a pit photo from the production of AIDA I did in 2006 at McIntyre Hall in Mount Vernon, WA. I did the conducting and keyboard 1 part so you see the keyboard array around the conductor’s platform.

I’d appreciate any help or advice you might have for working with
instrumentation -particularly with regard to the keyboards and percussion.

In front of me (conductor position) is a weighted 88-key keyboard which I used for just piano and electric piano. If I play piano then I like to have a real piano touch. To my right is a Hammond B3 clone on bottom and a general synth on top for a few synth patches. To my memory I didn’t have to use that top keyboard very much, but I enjoyed very much having a good B3 organ sound for the uptempo rock sections. To my left is a single keyboard triggering Kontakt software on a laptop. I regularly use Kontakt to program a virtual synth for sound effects and specialized patches. Very useful for custom sounds that are not available on synthesizers. I think the sound techs also appreciated not having to run any sound effects for the shows since it can all be done from the pit in Kontakt. As a musical director/conductor it gives me peace of mind to know that the sound effects won’t get messed up, which as you probably know can really make your blood boil if you’re in the middle of a show.

I also used a dedicated keyboard 2 and keyboard 3 player. Really I think any of the modern synthesizers will work fine for this show. Most of the score calls for pretty straight ahead patches. Any contemporary synth by Roland, Yamaha or Korg will work fine.

My first recommendation is to make sure you approve all the patches the keyboard players use and to hear them in combination with each other. Some player choose a patch that sounds good in their living room but they don’t really have a feel for how the patch lays in with the orchestration and mood. There are lots of great moments in AIDA where a synth pad with percussion effects can create a perfect underscoring to the dialogue without being invasive or distracting. Make sure the frequency ranges are well represented so that a synth pad is not taking up all the low end or interfering with any high frequency cymbal work the percussionist is doing.

Did you have to make any accomodations with the drum and percussion books?

I like to give the percussionist a lot of room to experiment and “be free” with the score. Our percussionist did a lot of underscoring effects with scraping cymbals during the water scenes. If you give a percussionist a long leash they will usually surprise you; in my experience.

Did you use the elctronic drums or was it all played on the drum set?

For our production we used all live drums. I may have had some drum effects that I triggered on Kontakt – but I don’t remember that detail now. AIDA has that whole Egyptian and Nubian theme going on so I think the acoustic percussion works well.

Were you able to locate all the unique ethnic drums used?

No. I let the percussionist cover as many of the parts as possible and let them substitute with what they didn’t have.

Here are links to other articles on my blog that may help you with AIDA. You can also search “AIDA” on my blog to find more.

Enhancing AIDA transition music:
https://www.conradaskland.com/blog/2008/12/enhancing-aida-transition-music/

AIDA band and pit photos:
https://www.conradaskland.com/blog/2006/05/aida-band-and-pit-photos/

7 thoughts on “AIDA Keyboard and Percussion Pit Notes”

This guy Askland did a dam nice job too! The band was awesome. The whole show was awesome. Trust he still plays some musice from it once and awhile. Roger

Thanks Roger! That’s very kind of you. Elton John’s AIDA holds a special place in my heart because it’s the show that brought me back into musical theater performance and also back to the Pacific Northwest for a spell. It woke me back up to my musical roots.

Conrad-

I’m a first time musical director for a semi-pro toupe, and my first show is AIDA. Pretty adventurous, but I’m very excited. Was wondering what songs you think would be best to ask for auditions for the parts of AIDA and RADAMES. Also, haven’t received my budget yet, but I’m expecting a very small one. What instruments do feel are essential and can not be left out in the pit? Thanks for your help!
Dan

Hi Dan,
Well it’s been four years since I did Elton John and Tim Rice’s AIDA – but this is my memory of it: For Radames I would want to hear “Like Father Like Son” – to my memory that has the highest range in it for his part, and also the most in-your-face rock sound. I think he goes up to a G.

For AIDA I would want to hear an excerpt of “The Gods Love Nubia” for the soul and conviction, and “Dance of the Robe” for intensity and passion.

You CANNOT leave out drums, bass, percussion, keyboard one. I would strongly suggest the Oboe and Flute. For my production we skipped the French Horn which I regret. I guess if you had to you could cut the Keyboard 3 (we had 3 keyboard players, was one of the keyboards covering strings? I don’t recall). AIDA has some very nice textures which you can get from the combination of percussion, keyboard 3 and woodwinds. It’s what gives it that “Nubia” and ancient type feel – especially the percussion and woodwinds.

I’ll tell you my current status on orchestration – I will not do a show unless it is full orchestration any more. It’s just no fun. I’ll even take a severe pay cut in order to have full orchestration. Maybe that’s something you’ll want to shoot for after you get some shows under your belt.

I don’t make nearly what I’m accustomed to when I do semi-pro musicals, so for me it has to be a rewarding experience to make up for all the long hours and low pay. A full orchestration makes me completely satisfied, I always learn new orchestration techniques (which improves my ear) and makes the long hours invested more than worth it. Just my personal experience.

I often also work as a rehearsal pianist before the orchestra kicks in – so by the time we do orchestra rehearsals I know the music very well and have worked with the vocalists quite a bit. The experience of unravelling the music from piano rehearsals to gearing up the orchestra is a very unique one – it’s actually one I would pay for, which is why the full orchestration is so important to me. It’s like a private college course – and every production with full orchestration I come away so much richer in my knowledge of sound textures, working with various ensemble temperaments, what semi-pro players can and cannot perform, and of course orchestration techniques. To me, this experience is the best thing on earth. Worth more than gold.

I went ballistic on our production because the kick and snare were not compressed, eq’d and gated (which I was told in pre-production would be part of the sound design). The rock/pop sound to the drums is important in my opinion. You might be better off going with a sound engineer who does live rock concerts, rather than someone who just does theater sound reinforcement.

PS – Our oboe player was very savvy and transposed some of the oboe parts for English Horn – it was a really great sound for some of the more intimate passages.