Yesterday was the last show of this play in Camrose, and people really liked the performance. I would say it was a success. I shared the duties as guitar player with one of my guitar students, or more precisely, I played the last two shows because my students was unavailable for those.
This musical was written by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber. You can read an overview of this play over at Wikipedia.
The set-up wasn't the best for the band. We didn't have any microphones on our instruments, and we were located behind some displays so we wouldn't be seen by the audience. Needless to say, it was not easy to know how loud to be in order to be heard out there where the audience were sitting. I turned it up pretty loud on my amp anyway, and I had a fairly bright sound so that it would cut through better.
I used my Tele the first night and my Strat on the second night. Both worked just great. The amp I used was my Vox AD50VT. It cuts through well on the Tweed 410 or AC30 settings, and I didn't need anything else than guitar, cord and amp. For this type of music, no pedals were needed.
The show went through in less than two hours, and it wasn't that hard to play either. Well, there were a few tricky spots, but nothing major that the audience would pick up on.
I enjoyed being part of the last two performances, but I gladly stood aside for the rest of them, so that my 16 year-old guitar student could get some invaluable experience by playing with a band for a musical like this. I know that when I was at that age, any time I played with people, I learned so much and improved as a player as a result of the experience. I hope and believe that so will my young student after all the rehearsals and shows he now has under his belt.
By Robert Renman - www.dolphinstreet.com
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