Conference napalm::commusic_v1

188.0. "Sauter's First Gig" by SAUTER::SAUTER () Wed Nov 20 1985 08:09

I've just got to tell somebody this story, and you guys
are the only group I know that is capable of appreciating
it.  It doesn't involve computers except to the extent
that my synthesizer has a buit-in digital computer.  Just
say "since" if you'd rather not read this rather long story.
    John Sauter



                                My First Gig
                                  by John Sauter
                           Written November 19, 1985


     A few weeks ago I got a message that a musician friend of mine wanted
me to attend a rehearsal of a church play that my daughter had a small
part in, and he wanted me to bring my Yamaha DX7. Naturally I thought
that he wanted to use the DX7 in the play. I got to the rehearsal and set
up my equipment, using his amplifier and speakers. Talking with him I
learned that he was mostly interested in special effects. More significantly,
I learned that he would be unable to attend the performances:  he was
expecting *me* to play!

     We went over the script together and explored the DX7's capabilities.
He had very little time, since he was also doing the choreography for the
dance scene. Nevertheless, we managed to figure out a few sounds.

     At subsequent rehearsals I added some things, sometimes with my
friend's help, sometimes at the urging of the director, who was rewriting
during every rehearsal. I got the necessary adapters and cables to connect
to the building's P.A. system, so I didn't need my friend's amplifier and
speakers. We finally managed a complete run-through of the 15-minute
play a week before the performance.

     The play was intended to be part of a "road show" put on each year
by the church. Each congregation (called a "ward") in the area enclosed
by Nashua, Peterborough, Littleton and Billerica was to give a 15-minute
performance.  The first 5 minutes must have the curtain closed to give
time for the previous ward to clear out and the current ward to set up.
The major purpose of the exercise is to provide an enjoyable activity
for the youth, so, although the rules said anyone over twelve, our ward
decided to only permit members aged 12 to 18 to appear on stage.  My
daughter is in one of the the Nashua wards, so our rehearsals were in
the Nashua building, but the performances were to be in the Littleton
and Billerica buildings.  To make things challenging, each ward was to
perform twice, once in Littleton and once in Billerica. Our ward had 45
minutes to clear out of Littleton, drive everything to Billerica, and get
set up.

     The evening before the performance we all drove to Littleton to re-
hearse on the real stage.  This was billed as a "dress rehearsal" but in
fact it was a performance for the players in the other wards, who would
have precious little time to watch the next evening, as they all scrambled
between buildings. Things went reasonably well, though the director was
not completely satisfied. It was clear from watching the other wards that
our play had the most professional look: we opened and closed the curtain
several times, had costume and set changes, and had little pantomimes
in the background while the major action was proceeding in front. Also,
of course, there were the sound effects, which nobody else had.

     The director had been doing some shuffling with the scene before the
curtain opened, trying to stretch it to five minutes. Originally there had
been an actor who sang two lines from one of the church's traditional
songs then said some lines to introduce the next part of the action. She
replaced that by a trio (including my daughter!)  who sang while the
actor pantomimed. Then she added another song before the trio, played
by our piano player, and made the pantomime longer. On the day of the
performance I heard her ask one of the actors "can you sing"?  He was
reluctant but when she insisted he sang the traditional song for her. The
trio (including my daughter's only speaking part) was replaced by a solo.

     On the day of the performance, November 16, 1985, we drove to
Littleton to rehearse some more, then drove to Billerica to get a look at
that stage.  In both cases we had to move furniture to provide a place
to set up the DX7, since I had to be able to see the action to co�rdinate
the special effects. I was concerned that I would have trouble getting set
up in Billerica in time, since I didn't have the full 2.5 minutes that the
scenery people had, because some of the sound effects came during the
first five minutes.  I practiced setting up the DX7, including connecting
to the P.A. system, until I had some confidence that I could do it in
time.  To make it I had to unplug in Littleton as the final curtain was
closing, throw everything together, carry it out to my car, which I had
parked just outside the door, arrange the cables while the others were
carrying scenery, then scramble to Billerica.  At Billerica my plan was
to be standing just outside the hall as the previous play ended, enter
with their final curtain, then set up the DX7 during the first piano song,
which the director had left in despite her wish to remove it because of
my request for more time.

     As we were rehearsing it started to snow. I had visions of trying to
pack the DX7 for fast unloading with snow falling down my neck.

     After the last rehearsal in Littleton, where we added a final scene and
one more sound effect, I was sitting with my equipment, making sure the
arriving audience didn't fool with it, when I got a message that more time
was needed just before the dance scene, because some of the actors who
appear in the previous scene didn't have time enough to get costumes
and makeup changed.  The script called for the principle actor to enter
whistling, followed by a piano introduction and then the curtain opens to
the dance scene. The principle actor couldn't whistle, so I did the whistle
with the DX7. I had gotten some notes for the next song from the piano
player, and she was taking them as her cue to start the introduction.  I
arranged with the actor and piano player that I would play the whistle
notes twice, the second time slowly, and the piano would be cued from
the second.  Obviously, there was no chance to rehearse this, since the
audience was arriving as I made these arrangements.

     Fortunately we were the first ward to perform in Littleton, so there
was no time pressure on setting up. The performance went well, except
that I missed my fingering trying to repeat the 7--note whistling phrase,
and had to improvise a little. Fortunately the actor, used to my bobbles
during rehearsal, managed to follow me, and the piano player took her
cue from the actor, so the audience never knew.

     As the final curtain closed I bundled the DX7 up, threw a towel over
it, and rushed out to my car. There had been an announcement that the
time constraints would be relaxed because of the snow, but I knew that
the director would want us to start on time if possible.  It took me the
whole 45 minutes just to drive to Billerica, so I entered the building just
as the previous ward finished. The M.C. asked me where the others were
and I had to tell him that they would be late---I was apparently the first
to arrive from our ward.  The M.C. announced an intermission while I
set up the DX7. I had previously arranged the sound system in Billerica
to my liking, but there was somebody there who wanted to adjust it for
me. I needed a lot of volume for the big effect, so I set the DX7's volume
control very low to convince him to give me a lot of gain in the P.A.
system.

     We started quite late. I didn't learn until later that the director's car
had broken down on the way from Littleton.

     The first sound effect was a door knocking, which was synchronized
with an actor "knocking" on the center of the curtain.  Because this
was the first sound effect the audience was not prepared for it, so one
person told me afterwards that he was quite startled when knocking on
the curtain produced a door-knocking sound.  Naturally, the actor used
broad gestures so that I could synchronize easily.

     The performance went well, again, and I even got my fingering right
on the whistling. The hall is quite high, since it is also used for basketball
games, and the P.A. system has 18 speakers across the ceiling.  At the
climax of the dance scene, where all the dancers collide, there is a "bell"
sound effect, and when it ends action resumes with an off-stage voice
motivating the next scene. I used "Big Ben" at neaarly full volume, and
the "echoes" took seconds to die away, with all the actors frozen. That
was my favorite effect. Another was a smaller bell tolling midnight. The
action did not permit twelve bongs, so I just did a few, fading the volume
to let the audience imagine the rest. Try doing that with real bells!

     The last sound effect required that I do a three-octave sweep of
chimes, to produce a tinkling sound. During rehearsal I had been sweep-
ing with the second finger of my right hand, and by the time of the
performance I had worn the skin off!  I tried sweeping with a pen, but
there was a microphone close enough to me that I was afraid that the
sound of the pen against the keys would be picked up. I ended up using
a handkerchief wrapped around my fingers.

     After the final curtain I again packed up and took my equipment out
to the car.  This time I didn't bother packing it carefully, since there
were no more performances and it was still snowing.  We watched the
other wards perform and had a small party afterwards, all of us packed
into one of the dressing rooms. The director thanked everybody, and one
of the actors gave gifts to all of the adults who had assisted, from the
director to the piano player, and he even had one for the sound effects
man! My gift was the only wrapped package, and they urged me to open
it.  With all of us packed into that small room I handed my hat to my
daughter and read the card:  it gave me a "big kiss" from the church
youth organization. The package turned out to be a very large Hershey's
Kiss---everybody appreciated the joke.

     After that we packed everyone into the vans and left for Nashua. The
director's car had been repaired by one of the handier members. When
I was delivering my daughter her purse I learned that the lead actor,
who was supposed to be riding in that same van, could not be found.
After waiting a while the van was forced to leave without him.  I hung
around until nearly everyone had left, so that he would not be stranded,
then left myself. I drove to the Nashua church building where I learned
from the van driver that he had gone home with his parents, contrary to
instructions. There had been little time to eat during the day (especially
for me, since I was involved in all parts of the play) so I took my daughter
and her friend to an all-night restaurant for hamburgers.

     The next day, Sunday, I gave my daughter half of the Hershey's Kiss
to give to my musician friend, to thank him for creating most of the sound
effects. I wish he could have been at the performance---I think he would
have enjoyed it very much.
    John Sauter
              

John,

Welcome to the wonderful world of the gigging musician.  Sounds like you
should be asking for an Anvil flight case for the DX7 for Christmas! :-)

		Derek

Congratulations, John! A good start for a career of a gigging musician.

    Timo Lehtinen


PS. Very clever fooling the sound man by setting the DX-7 level
low during the sound check.

Congratulations.  It sounds to me like this was an archtypal "everything-
going-as-smoothly-as-clockwork" gig    :-)

Steve