{"id":4767,"date":"2009-12-28T03:27:42","date_gmt":"2009-12-28T09:27:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.conradaskland.com\/blog\/?p=4767"},"modified":"2009-12-28T03:27:42","modified_gmt":"2009-12-28T09:27:42","slug":"aida-keyboard-and-percussion-pit-notes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/aida-keyboard-and-percussion-pit-notes\/","title":{"rendered":"AIDA Keyboard and Percussion Pit Notes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

An email received with questions about performing the music for AIDA by Elton John.<\/p>\n

EMAIL:<\/strong>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

I am the pit orchestra director for an upcoming High School prodcution of
\nAida. \u00a0This is my first experience working with a more contemporary style
\npit. \u00a0I noticed that you have experience with conductn the show. \u00a0I’d
\nappreciate any help or advice you might have for working with<\/em> instrumentation -particularly with regard to the keyboards and percussion.<\/p>\n

We will need to rent 2 keyboards. \u00a0What might you recommend? \u00a0Seeing as I
\nhave never worked with keyboards in a pit before, are there any tips or
\ntricks to programing the various voicings and patches in the keyboards?<\/p>\n

Did you have to make any accomodations with the drum and percussion books?
\nDid you use the elctronic drums or was it all played on the drum set? \u00a0Were
\nyou able to locate all the unique ethnic drums used?<\/p>\n

I realize it’s been a while since you worked on the show, but any guidance
\nfrom someone who’s “been there” would be greatly appreciated.
\nThanks so much for your time.<\/em><\/p>\n

*************
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

I’d appreciate any help or advice you might have for working with
\ninstrumentation -particularly with regard to the keyboards and percussion.<\/strong>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

We will need to rent 2 keyboards. \u00a0What might you recommend? \u00a0Seeing 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?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Did you have to make any accomodations with the drum and percussion books?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em>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.<\/p>\n

Did you use the elctronic drums or was it all played on the drum set?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Were you able to locate all the unique ethnic drums used?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

No. I let the percussionist cover as many of the parts as possible and let them substitute with what they didn’t have.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Enhancing AIDA transition music:<\/strong>
\nhttp:\/\/www.conradaskland.com\/blog\/2008\/12\/enhancing-aida-transition-music\/<\/a><\/p>\n

AIDA band and pit photos:<\/strong>
\nhttp:\/\/www.conradaskland.com\/blog\/2006\/05\/aida-band-and-pit-photos\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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. \u00a0This is my first experience working with a more contemporary style pit. \u00a0I noticed that you have experience with conductn the show. \u00a0I’d appreciate any help […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3C0LX-1eT","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4767"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4767"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4770,"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4767\/revisions\/4770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}