Today (12/6) I met with my three music directors. Instead of putting the burden of music direction for the whole show onto one person, I've doled the duties out to three of my actors. I have 9 songs in this show, so each of them will take on three songs. What we discussed today were basics of how to do each song acoustically, if there were cuts we were making and generally what I was looking for as far as sound. We'll take this post song by song:
1. Stars by Switchfoot (Zach in charge)
This song starts with some very fancy guitar work which we are cutting. I instructed Zach to simplify as much as he needed to. We've got two singers who can either switch off singing or add in harmonies if they can. Zach and Brian will be playing guitar. We're cutting the final repeat of the song.
2. For What it's Worth by Buffalo Springfield (Brian in charge)
We decided at our music meeting to add Zach to this song. His sole job is to play the harmonics all the way through. This song is very straightforward because it's fairly simple. The only thing we're cutting is all the solos in between verses. We're ending the song with a slight retard instead of trying to do a live fade.
3. Fight Your Kids by The Chalets (Zach in charge)
This is by far and away the hardest song we're attempting. I told Zach that if we just can't make it work, we'll cut it, but I'm all for attempt it and so it he. This song is going to be mostly rhythm and some guitar thrown in as Zach can figure out chords and the like. It's a strange song with a wacky beat, but will be amazing if we can get it working. Zach's up for the challenge!
4. King's Highway by Tom Petty (Mike in charge)
This song is four and a half chords. It's very easy and we're just playing it straight through.
5. Nobody Right, Nobody Wrong by Michael Franti and Spearhead (Zach in charge)
Zach wants to play the beginning of this song, so he's taking the first chorus. After that, we're going to break up the rest of the song between the rest of the cast and make this a whole company number. I decided on this because this song represents the whole show for me. Once I break everything up, we'll be able to all rehearse it together.
After this, we will be performing a short song between each act break. Each of these songs will be under 2 minutes long and serve as short interludes where people can stretch their legs or use the restroom if needed.
6. I Fell in Love Without You by Motion City Soundtrack (Brian in charge)
This song is just over 2 minutes even at full speed. We won't be doing it that fast, so we're cutting one of the three verses to make sure we keep it at 2 minutes. Other than that, fairly simple chords and not much else to say.
7. All I need by Mat Kearney (Brian in charge)
This song is actually about a flood, but the imagery is perfect for Romeo and Juliet. Again, we're only doing about half the song. Brian knows to just skip from verse to verse and this song is fairly simple once you leave out the bridge bits between verses.
8. Medicine Man by The Hush Sound (Mike in charge)
We will perform this song with no instruments, just clapping and a tambourine. Again, as simple as we can make it. Mike has an idea about tuning some PVC pipes... but we'll see if that actually plays out.
9. The Noose by A Perfect Circle (Mike in charge)
Mike is playing this song alone. We've already gone over chords and figured out how to simplify some of the rhythms. He will be playing and singing only the first verse and chorus. This song, I have to say, is already closest to finished product.
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