So it's been two years since my last post. I just finished performing in the pit for Annie Get Your Gun. It was the hardest show I've ever worked on, but it was really fun!
Here's a picture of the complicated setup I used for this show. I had to move the Alesis "above" the floor tom because I needed to use both instruments. You can see the volume pedal peeking underneath the floor tom. I got to connect the pedal to a boss Roland bass amp (100 watts! w00t!), but I still managed to get drowned out by the brass section. Sigh.
I had to pencil-in the timpani (and other percussion) parts onto the drum set score, since it's hard to flip through two books on a single music stand. The Act II Entr'acte had four sets of timpani tunings, so I had to come up with a wacky color-coordinated Post-It system to help me hit the correct pad at the correct time. Here's a picture of the first page of the Entr'acte.I realized during rehearsals that I should not have tried to play as many of the timpani parts as I wanted to, because I tied up all 21 of the Alesis' drum settings. If I had had a chance to re-program the controller, I would have divided important songs like the Entr'acte into several sets, not just one, which would have alleviated the stress of having to hit one of the eight little pads during the course of the performance.
Well, God willing, I hope to report back in two years! Happy MIDI drumming!
