Musical Hotspot Podcast

Extraordinary Day

Musical Hotspot — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 05:59:00 +0000

A lot happens between our last song, Something's Gonna Change, and today's song Extraordinary Day.

After Messy and Nappy meet, they have their first date at the roller derby rink, where Messy is pitted against Nappy's older sister Salad Fork, who also happens to be the reigning roller derby champion. When the gangs hear Nappy cheering Messy on and realise they are together, a rumble ensues, resulting in the accidental death of Papa Chocolate - apparently at Nappy's hands. Upset, Messy quits her gang; Nappy's gang kick him out for being disloyal.

Later, a mournful Messy is kneeling by Papa Chocolate's grave. The clip starts as Nappy arrives.

Now that you're all caught up, time to listen to Extraordinary Day.

The scene

I love this scene, and the way the dynamic between the characters changes. You'll forgive me for including such a long bit of non-music before the song; I think the journey the characters take, from cold anger through forgiveness to hope and optimism, is wonderful. The song seems to naturally cap off that transition; they couldn't get any more hopeful and optimistic using spoken words alone, but a song bursts through to a whole new level.

There's a mark of a successful poignant scene in here. There are moments where the 80-strong audience is deathly silent, and nothing is rushing to fill the awkward gaps in the dialogue or relieve that tension. Sometimes a quiet audience is a disengaged audience, but not this time - the audience is genuinely happy when Messy decides to trust Nappy, and they go absolutely crazy when she kisses him. If you recall back to the opening song, the audience was anything but warm at the start of the show, so to get them this warm is a great hint that the actors were nailing it.

The song

The song took me by surprise a little bit; in contrast with the very obvious signs in the earlier song, this one just sort of started. You can hear me fumble around a little bit as I figure out where I want to go. Eventually I remember that first-inversion structure from the old song - along with Kiesten and Luke's clever reuse of those 'Something's Gonna Change' and 'Extraordinary Day' phrases, we're reprising both lyrical and musical elements.

One of my favourite bits is the running joke about Nappy wanting a big family; his lyric in the song to keep the joke running was just excellent.

I really liked how Kiesten and Luke traded lines as the song progressed; Kiesten would set up a rhyme, and Luke would finish it (much like he did in Best Friend/First Mate).

I specifically recall as the song went on that I kept misjudging the end. There were a few times when I set up chord progressions that would naturally lead in to an ending, but as the next line developed it obviously wasn't going to be the end after all. After a few of those, Kiesten gave a very definite wrap-up signal with her "Because today" line, which then gave me permission to go to town and set up a nice musical ending.

Something's Gonna Change

Musical Hotspot — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 05:50:00 +0000

The story

Our story so far... Luke's character Napkin Ring has been established as the young enthusiastic pup of the Hoity Toitys. Kiesten's character Messy is the new recruit in Fingers' gang. They know each other by reputation, but have never met. The scene started with Messy joining up at Papa Chocolate's roller derby rink ("chocolate" and "roller derby" being two of the audience offers for the show). After a few minutes talking to Papa Chocolate, Napkin Ring arrives at the rink. Have a listen to the scene featuring Something's Gonna Change, and then we'll discuss it.

The scene

Rather than give you just the song, you can hear the scene preceding the song where Napkin Ring (who introduces himself as "Nappy") and Messy (calling herself "Melissa") meet each other. We really tried to take inspiration from West Side Story; when the couple met and instantly changed, irrevocably falling in love at first sight. Nappy and Messy experience much the same thing.

It wasn't hard to pick the point to start vamping in to a song. Once Kiesten's character said "I don't feel like I'm ever going to be the same again - from this day on", a song was inevitable :)

The song

Kiesten starts the vocal, following the very simple piano line. For the first verse, you can hear her very specifically lagging the bar to hear where the music is going to go, so she can follow along with the melody line. Once the form was established, she took over and started leading the bar. The biggest gamble was going for "In a way", hitting that note strongly and hoping the music would meet her there.

The chorus was really simple again. Just a single simple phrase, which Kiesten took from Luke's earlier song:

I know today
Something's gonna change
In the most extraordinary way.

Sounds a little awkward if you just say it; Kiesten set it really nicely in to that chorus.

Luke's reply verse didn't exactly match the form of the first verse, which is just fine in my book. What is important is the recall of the chorus, once it came around again.

Musically, everything was pretty simple, other than a few embellishments in the vocal gaps. I think the crux for me was that first chord in the chorus, a B on Eb. That first-inversion on B sort of gave a sense of building momentum, promise and potential - a good match for the theme of the song.

I recall freaking out at the beginning of Luke's verse. Right around 2:20, I realised I was about to rip off Bryan Adams' Everything I Do. Best not to go there.

I can also remember being really keen for the last strike of the song to feel a bit unfinished, I guess again reflecting that this was just the start of something big. The closure on the music did come eventually, as the scene played itself out.

Remember My Name

Musical Hotspot — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 04:05:00 +0000

Last week, we explored some of the ways you might use backing vocals in an improvised song. This week we have an example, where the supporting cast do a great job of providing backing vocals for a solo song.

Have a listen to the scene featuring Remember My Name, then we'll discuss it.

In the scene, Luke Allan explores Napkin Ring, his character from ImproMafia's musical Worst Side Story. This scene immediately followed The Hoity Toitys - Napkin Ring's new gang member buddies have just left the stage, and he has some time on his own.

The previous scene more broadly set the tone for the gang. This one does a great job of setting up Napkin Ring as a wide-eyed enthustiastic dreamer. It is more personal than the previous scene; Luke really opens his character up to the audience.

This song is where one of the themes of the show (one of the tropes from West Side Story) shines through - that everything can change in a single day. Luke sets up a series of reprises with one small bit of song:

Something's gonna change today
In a most extraordinary way

The idea of one extraordinary day came back over and over throughout the musical.

I thought Luke showed a lot of trust in the music here; having just wrapped the previous scene with a song, I wasn't expecting another one to come along so soon. At a certain point in this scene, Luke paused and gave the sense that he might be ready to burst in to song. I opened with a very sparse backing that didn't really strongly suggest a tempo or style, and Luke deftly inserted the opening line.

Backing vocals

There were a few folks backstage providing backing vocals during the song, but you can clearly hear Tom Dunstan setting the tone and driving them. You can hear a few different types of background vocals as the song progresses.

As Luke sings "The future's ahead of me", you can hear the folks backstage doing shapeless backing, primarily aahs. There's a sense of more than one voice back there, and it's even hard to pick their pitch, but they certainly add more weight to the song, helping it as it builds.

Once Luke gets to the chorus, Tom and co weave around the main vocal with their "Hoity Toity" line. The timing and melody of the backing is so cheesily perfect that they get a laugh from the audience. They manage to lag the bar so they can react to the music, wherever it may go.

Right at the end, when Luke sings "Remember my name", I remember thinking I was going to leave that last chord unfinished, just hanging there. Tom and the backing singers came in with a perfect "Remember his name" line, to slowly and decisively close the song.

The Hoity Toitys

Musical Hotspot — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 15:12:00 +0000

Sometimes a song can inject information in to the audience's minds and hearts far more efficiently than a spoken scene. I'm not sure why that is... Perhaps something about delivering those words with the cadence and emotional weight of music.

Tamzin McCauley, Brisbane improv actor/teacher/MC/legend-about-town, often provides the following mnemonic for high school kids about to jump on stage for Youth Theatresports: CROWS. To set a scene, you should be hitting Character, Relationship, Objective, Where, and Status. (CROW seems a common improv teaching tool. I do like the addition of Status though. Status seems like that important extra bit of oil to grease a scene.)

I highly doubt experienced improvisers are on stage whispering "Crows! CROOOWS!" to themselves... Doing this stuff should be second nature for someone with a lot of improv stage time.

I thought it would be interesting to take a "setting the scene" song from Worst Side Story, and see how it stacks up.

The Hoity Toitys

After the opening introduction song Table Manners, the gangs dispersed. First, Fingers' gang had a scene to better introduce that gang; immediately following that was this scene introducing The Hoity Toitys.

Listen to The Hoity Toitys first, then we'll discuss it.

Character: The scene clearly establishes Salad Fork (Amy Currie) as the tough-as-nails gang leader. About the only softness she shows is towards her kid brother Napkin Ring (Luke Allan); he comes across as goofy, naive and enthusiastic. Tea Cup (Alex Reichart) is the tough of the gang, unabashedly roughing up anyone in his way.

Relationship: Napkin Ring is clearly established as Salad Fork's kid brother. Tea Cup appears to be a very strong #2 to Salad Fork's gang leader role. The relationship between Tea Cup and Napkin Ring is vague at this time; it comes out later in the story.

Objective: Each of them has a slightly different gang-related personal objective. Salad Fork uses the gang to elevate herself above the less cultured members of society. Tea Cup is similar, but appears quite keen on intimidation and beating people up. And Nappy seems to have achieved his objective: Joining the gang.

Where: The show was already pretty well established as being in a bustling city, by virtue of playing off of the West Side Story tropes. This song adds a strong sense that there are (unseen) inhabitants of the city other than the gang members.

Status: Salad Fork and Tea Cup both take high-status roles, towering over the low-status Napkin Ring. Later in the story we discover that Tea Cup opposed Napkin Ring's entry to the gang. I wonder if a gang composed of just Salad Fork and Tea Cup, both high-status characters, would have been as fun to watch.

I think the guys pretty effectively painted the picture of their gang - they built a strong platform for the rest of the story. That spoken line to finish off the song, about nothing coming before the gang, is vital to the conflict that we knew would come later in the show.

My favourite bits of the scene:

Amy stepping in to the vamp to start the song. She's awfully good at that.
I really liked rhyming 'scum' with 'drum'. Rhyming words buried in the middle of subsequent lines? Brilliant!
Alex's line about helping the old ladies. Alex makes me laugh and laugh; he surprises me, and I'm a pretty old and jaded improviser now ;)
The interplay about clicking. Finger-snapping was an important trope for the genre. I didn't realise that it would be so exhausting!
Stepping out of the song at the end; the guys took the music-slowing cue and ran with it.

Perhaps the character that had the least development in this scene was Napkin Ring. At the end of this scene, Luke set himself up nicely for a solo scene, and I think a lot more of Nappy's character came out in that scene. You'll get that next week :)

Table Manners

Musical Hotspot — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 06:55:00 +0000

We've previously discussed Introduction Songs, and given one example. We finish the series this week with another example. Worst Side Story's introduction song follows a similar format, with a few twists.

The story was based around two gangs with a mutual dislike of each other’s table manners – an excellent basis for a blood feud if ever there was one. The introduction song had to set up and name the characters, set the scene, and establish the gangs. The scene opens with the two gang leaders having a quick face-off before heading off to gather their gangs for a rumble.

Like Our Town, each character gets a verse to sing. In this song however, they are generally not singing about themselves; they are singing about their counterpart in the other gang. The emotion underpinning the show was conflict, and it makes good sense for the real scene-setting song to highlight that conflict, in tone and lyric. Singing about the other gang is perfect! We decided in rehearsals it would be fun to have each of the gangs endow the other with names. (One of the characters is never again referred to by name during the show – I guess we forgot it!)

Have a listen to Table Manners, and we'll deconstruct it.

Fingers (Tom Dunstan) is the leader of one gang. He introduces Salad Fork, and starts to set up that she has excellent table manners. He also germinates what will be the chorus.
Salad Fork (Amy Currie) introduces Fingers, explaining his horrible table etiquette. She refines the chorus a bit.
Drive-In (Joel Gilmore) comes on stage to join Fingers. He sets himself up as having lower status, then names another gang member from the other side.
Tea Cup (Alex Reichart) keeps the theme going, expanding on the gangs' differences, and introduces Drive-In.
Another chorus with a sneaky key change. Both gangs are growing now, so the vocals are becoming quite strong. I really like that we established a good simple chorus, it made it easier to remember and recall later.
Messy (Kiesten McCauley) tells her gang about a new guy she’s heard about from the other gang, Napkin Ring. She's never met him, but she knows he's no good.
Napkin Ring (Luke Allan) speculates about the other new opposing gang member Messy. Again, they haven’t met.
Final chorus. It’s well established now, and all six go for it.

The ending was pretty smooth; after that long held note, Tom asserts a nice clean finish.

At this point in the story, the gangs are ready to come together for a fight, but of course the cops show up just in time, and the gangs disperse.

There was a conscious choice that all of the gang members had a personal, established animosity with the other gang, except Messy and Napkin Ring. Those characters were the romantic leads, and although they'd heard about their counterparts on the other gang, they'd never seen them. This helps us set up their meeting, followed later by the realisation they were on other gangs.

The song again immediately followed an overture. The overture itself wasn't particularly minor, but the opening song certainly was – the story was based on conflict, and the song reflected that conflict. Still used slight changes in the feel and tempo, and a fair few key changes, to keep the song moving along.

You know, listening to this song and last week's song, I realise that I always endow Joel Gilmore's characters with goofy. It doesn't matter how the introduction song starts... when Joel steps out on stage, suddenly the music goes all oompa-oompa-oompa-oompa, turning vaguely bumbling and low-status. It seems I'm very mean to you, Joel. (As this post goes up, Joel is in Peru, so I should be safe from retribution for a little while yet.) Joel is a wonderful actor and singer, and I've certainly had powerful songs with him before... But in a musical I introduce him as low-status. Sorry Joel.

There was quite a difference in the warmness of the audience for this one. It took us a little longer than it should have for us to get out on stage, consequently the audience had a few minutes of patient waiting, and that probably cooled them down a bit. In the intro from One Bride, as each cast member stepped on stage, the audience went wild; we had to work harder for their love in Worst Side. By the end of the song they were in to it, and seemed pretty warm for the rest of the show. We probably took the audience through more extremes in Worst Side; there were some particularly dark scenes, and some particularly sad scenes that moved at least a few people to tears. (How awesome is that?)

Hopefully these examples illustrate the sorts of things we try and hit in an introduction song.

Photo by Al Caeiro

Our Town

Musical Hotspot — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 05:30:00 +0000

Last week we discussed Introduction Songs. This week we have our first example.

One Bride For Seven Brothers was set in the town of Rileysberg, and the story revolved around the Riley family. With their parents long since passed, the family of six brothers are the sole inhabitants of the town. The brothers have a problem – they are going broke, and their parents’ will has gone missing, so without a means to pay off their creditors they will lose their beloved town.

As the song Our Town progresses and each of the characters comes on, you’ll hear them acknowledge the problem they have (the missing inheritance), and provide a bit of a clue about their character. This is the chance for the actors to start endowing themselves with personality and motivation. The characters that came out on the night were for the most part quite different to the characters we saw as we went through rehearsals for the show.

The introduction song goes through each of the brothers, one by one.

Archie (Luke Rimmelzwaan), the oldest brother, introduces the name of the town, their money worries, and implies that he’s maybe not so smart.
Cain (Alex Reichart) further reinforces the situation, and shows that he is frustrated with their lack of funds. Later in the story he acts on that frustration in a sneaky, but ultimately redeemable, way.
Brett (Luke Allan) has a similar verse, but is optimistic (and slightly mathematically challenged). This matches his character (later found out to be a matchmaker). Key change when Brett comes on, to freshen the song a bit.
Eric (Joel Gilmore) is a dreamer, sad to be poor, and comes across as a bit goofy. The music changed for this verse, and was a little more playful, which was a match for the character. I don’t think I gave Joel much time to react to a change of key and tempo, but he handled it pretty well anyway!
Dudley (Dan Beeston) won’t take their status lying down – he comes across as aggressive and motivated. The music switched up again, and went to a minor key as well. Dudley ended up being the “bad” character in the story, and I think this came very naturally out of this first verse.
Fudge (Tom Dunstan) had pretty evil sounding scoring, and alluded to family secrets. Later in the story he came across as a bit sneaky and manipulative.
Golly (Tristan Ham), the youngest brother, doesn’t care at all that the family is poor, he’s happy, and his music reflects his happy-go-lucky attitude. (How many key changes did I go through just before Golly’s verse? If that isn’t setting it up for a big ending, what is?)

It's subtle, but I really like that the song ended as it began, with "This is our town". We didn't have a chorus as we worked through the song, and I think that's ok; it still had a good identity. The ending was a little untidy for this one… probably something we needed to work more on at that point. Tristan steps forward and drives the cast (and me) for the ending. His tag at the end is lovely.

As the song progresses, the key moves up slowly but surely, and the tempo picks up. Hopefully this stops the song from being very samey. I have to say I’m always impressed that the guys on stage follow key changes so well. I’m pretty merciless, and they never disappoint.

It was obvious that the audience was warm and receptive from the first moments of the show. Considering a group of 30-40 school kids made up a portion of the audience, that’s a pretty good outcome.

Next week – another example introduction song, this time from Worst Side Story.

There's A Melody In My Heart

Musical Hotspot — Wed, 05 May 2010 05:15:00 +0000

This week's example comes from Prognosis: Death. In season three, Ludwig LeStrange (Dan Beeston>) broke Melody Carmichael's (Amy Currie's) heart - see Seduction in Song for the backstory. After time passed and Melody hardened her heart, LeStrange realised the mistake he'd made, and went to Melody's tiny apartment to beg her forgiveness.

Have a listen to There's A Melody In My Heart, then we'll deconstruct it.

The entry to the song was interesting; you can just hear the director Greg whisper-shouting "Sing!" from offstage. Keen-eared Prog Death fans will hear me just starting to go into LeStrange's leitmotif, pulling out just as I realise it is a song.

The lyric in the first phrase (up to "charming") drove the music, as Melody recalled her feelings for LeStrange. Amy starts the second phrase ("But she was my very best friend") by leading the bar. That line, and the way it was delivered, is the big clue that the tone is about to change, and the music dives down to reflect her anger - fading, but still hurting. Right at the end of Melody's section, the "what have you to say" encourages the music to go neutral, and set up a chord that clearly anticipates an answer to her question.

Dan slightly leads the bar as he starts his section. I think you have to know the character to appreciate what a contrast this scene had to his other scenes; LeStrange comes across as cold, unfeeling, and logical. Hearing him sing and open up to someone was quite special. I chose to play a tinkly high part to complement Dan's (or, I should say, LeStrange's) relatively deep voice. Dan drives the music with the lyrics, creating a sort of bittersweet tune resonating of love and loss.

Near the end of his verse, the music leads with a chord progression that evokes a finale, taking a stand for something, and metamorphosis. Dan takes the cue, having LeStrange sing about a potential future with Melody. The end of the song is lovely and a little more freeform, with Dan dancing around the music.

The whole way through the song, Amy and Dan move around from driving the music to reacting to the music, and it works beautifully. As a musician I thrive on this sort of stuff; left to my own devices I'm sure I'd create a pretty vanilla tune, but with these ever-changing catalysts we manage to create something much more interesting.

I know the song resonated with the audience; anything that gets such a massive "Awwwh!" from the audience scores big points from me :)

I thought the rhyming (and sometimes lack of rhyming) was really nice in this song. It was simple, not overly telegraphed, and every word fit the narrative like a glove. We'll come back to this song in a future post about rhyming.

At this point, Melody and LeStrange have finally arrived at a place of mutual understanding and reciprocated feelings... I'd tell you what happened next in the story, but, gentle reader, it would break your heart.

Best Friend/First Mate

Musical Hotspot — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 07:10:00 +0000

In St Love And The 1001 Books You Need To Read Before You Die, Doctor Melody Carmichael (Amy Currie) accidentally spilled magic liquid on her collection of childrens' books, opening up a mysterious portal allowing fictional characters to come through to St Love Hospital. Earlier in the story, Melody caught her fiancee Ludwig Lestrange (Dan Beeston) kissing her best friend Nurse Lotte Buble (Natalie Bochenski). She is sad and angry - she's lost her fiancee and her best friend. She's been hanging out with Captain Hook (Luke Allan). Captain Hook's first mate Smee was killed earlier in the story, leaving Hook similarly sad and friend-less. Melody needs a friend, but the bloodthirsty Captain Hook is just not a good match. Or is he?

In Best Friend/First Mate, Amy and Luke do an amazing job of rhyming and lyrical construction; Amy sets 'em up, and Luke jumps right on board. I love the setup for the chorus - "I want a best friend / I want a first mate" is just classic. Even though the first verse seems to set Melody as low-status and Hook as high-status, that chorus brings them together with a shared problem.

The singers do a far better job than I do on music; I lost time at least four times in the song. Luke and Amy keep rock solid timing, and I generally get back on track, but I have to say it was a pretty sloppy effort on my part. One very nice musical technique shows up at the end when Luke sings "That sounds great". Just taking his melody line and repeating it a few times in the music gives a really nice wrap up to the song.

(If you're curious about what the underscoring sounds like for this show, you can listen to a chunk of the pure piano recording from the scenes immediately following this one. Just head over and listen to Revenge on Uncomposed.)

The moment of seduction comes right near the end. And it's a pretty weak seduction.

Melody: You're just not a friend
Hook: I'm the best friend you'll ever have, my dear

Yep, that's it. Seriously, that's right up there with "Hey, steak is really tasty!" Not much of a clever argument. But I bought it as legitimate; it didn't feel lightweight, even though the words on their own kinda were. That's what grabbed me about the song - a significant emotional shift was made without much clever dialog, just some nice singing.

Right at the end, Nurse Buble is shown to be eavesdropping, so the audience realises she overheard Melody deciding to kill her - that's the source of the big "Awwwwh!" at the end. It scored pretty high on the Awwwwh-o-meter, which for me is an indication the audience is really engaged with the story and characters.

In the space of two minutes, Melody goes from missing her friend and thinking that Hook is a bad person, all the way making Hook her new best friend and agreeing to knock off her ex-best-friend. Can you imagine doing that as quickly and convincingly with just dialogue?

To Have A Wedding

Musical Hotspot — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 06:30:00 +0000

Towards the end of ImproMafia's One Bride for Seven Brothers, the two main story threads were rushing towards a conclusion. Throughout the story, Golly (the youngest of seven brothers) finds himself falling in love with Nancy (childhood friend). Nancy falls for Golly as well, but keeps her feelings in check - holding fast to her goal of digging up some buried gold and leaving the town. As the story progresses, she makes a sacrifice to ensure Golly's future security by agreeing to marry the nefarious brother Dudley. Golly finds an invitation to Dudley's wedding, and (unaware that Nancy is the bride) makes his way to the church.

In this scene, Brett, the town matchmaker, is setting up for the wedding. Brett (played by the very clever Luke Allan, of The Sexy Detective fame) reflects on his success at setting up Nancy and Dudley's match, singing To Have A Wedding.

Immediately prior to this scene, the director Mike Griffin (also from The Sexy Detective) realised what was needed was a palate-cleanser, to refresh the audience ahead of the big climactic scene. Rumour has it he practically pushed Luke on to stage whispering "Sing a song about weddings!" Luke forms a really nice song that isn't particularly tied in to the plot; it stands on its own. He was ably supported by the cast providing soft backing vocals from offstage, giving the song a bit more texture.

One thing I really liked about this song was that it was a strong performance that put the focus on a supporting role, giving Luke a moment to shine as Brett. In a show that featured a lot of comedy, drama and even slapstick, Luke held the audience for a few minutes with a gimmick-free, straight solo song. Well, almost gimmick-free; right towards the end, you hear the audience laugh - Luke did a mighty fake-out, motioning that he was going to finish that last phrase, then pulling back at the last second. (I'm glad I didn't take the bait!)

Did You Hear The News

Musical Hotspot — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 08:00:00 +0000

We used a dialogue-during-the-song technique in the song Did You Hear The News? from One Bride. In the song, Joel Gilmore sets up the format for the song and as other join him (Alex Reichart and Tom Dunstan) more characters are added there is some dialogue before it goes back to its base structure. The song is then topped off by a lovely tag by Luke Allan.

What A Beautiful Day For A Walk

Musical Hotspot — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 05:52:00 +0000

This week's recording What A Beautiful Day For A Walk is a full scene that includes a song in two parts. In the story, Nancy is just getting organised to dig up the gold she believes is buried in the playground, then leave the town a rich woman. Golly doesn't know of her plans, and thinks she is back in town to get to know his family better. Nancy is developing feelings for Golly, but her feelings are tempered by her knowledge that she is going to leave; Golly is falling headlong in love with her.

The first part of What A Beautiful Day For A Walk is a quick, happy little ditty. You can hear the point where I think a song should start; the underscoring suddenly comes in to focus as accompaniment, and Tristan and Amy dive right in.

I really enjoy some of the interplay that happens in between the songs. The bit about Nancy's parents in particular makes me smile.

The second part is a bit of a freeform ballad, where Golly exposes his feelings, and Nancy replies. You can hear the disappointment in Golly's voice towards the end. Then Tristan, in a flash of brilliance, brings back the chorus from the first song again, and Amy follows him, jumping in with both feet. The music is noticably changed from the first time around; it has gone from optimism and energy to something bittersweet.

There is one moment in particular I desperately love in the second song. When Tristan sings "filled with smiles", the music has moved to a somewhat risky chord. It would have been easy for Tristan to have gone to a note that didn't fit, but it happens that he landed on something that suited it perfectly.

I had one member of the audience, a fellow improviser, tell me after the show how impressed he was with that reprise. I agree :)

Prognosis: Death! Relapse

Musical Hotspot — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 06:05:00 +0000

Back in June 2009, we presented a set of character themes for characters from Impro Mafia's series of long form science fiction supernatural medical drama soap opera, Prognosis: Death!. Because of the nature of the show, themes for characters developed as the opening season progressed, something you generally can't get away with in a one-scene or one-night story. In mid-2009, we ran our second season of the show, Prognosis: Death! Relapse, where I shared music duties with the incredibly talented Nathan Howard. In Relapse, many of the characters evolved, either through changes in their story, or as aspects of their characters were revealed.

I have a problem when it comes to long-form impro and stories. I totally buy them. I totally get in to the characters, I believe their stories. I love to see them develop. Really, I take the whole thing a bit too seriously. This show in particular seems to work very well; the characters have such good chemistry, the dynamic is great, and the actors are all highly skilled and very good at what they do. So I end up really bonding with the characters. (I'm not the only one. One of the fans of the show will be away for the first two episodes of our upcoming season. She's asked us to film the shows - because she needs to know what happens. Does she know we're making it up? Yes! Does that diminish her need to savour every minute? No!)

A few folks encouraged me to write a Prognosis: Death! Relapseseason 2 medley (thanks Ben!), and I resisted for a while... But knowing how the characters had evolved, it seemed pretty natural to evolve their themes to reflect how they changed during Relapse.

The themes from season 1 were pretty straightforward, setting up a musical phrase or two for each of the characters. Season 2 themes usually demonstrated a dynamic in the character that came out during the show. In most cases, they show an example of taking a set leitmotif and bending it around a different emotion or experience, hopefully sounding familiar enough to the listener while evoking something new. Here's an explanation of the themes, and what I was trying to achieve with each of them.

Nurse Lotte Buble: Buble's core theme is meant to be stoic; when she suffers a setback, she soldiers on. At the beginning of Relapse, Doctor Burton Mangold stood her up at the altar, which left her terribly sad. The opening bars are supposed to evoke a feeling of numbness, of running on autopilot and not really being all there, at least for a while.

Doctor Burton Mangold: After disappearing from the town for several months, he skulked around the hospital in disguise, until the moment when he was needed. His theme begins with a sad snippet of his old theme, before launching in to hero-mode again (this time with an added sprinkling of hero-mode trills).

Reverend Jeremy Thistlewaite: As is his custom, Thistlewaite died a lot this season, being replaced by an endless variety of Thistlewaites from other backgrounds and religions, sent by some central church. His theme starts with his positive facade, degenerating into a death march. In a weird case of life imitating art, Wade Robinson (who plays Thistlewaite) was struck down by the flu (a garden-variety kind) and was unable to perform in one of the shows. His spot in the usual cast was replaced with...

Reverend Casanova Lovechild: Lovechild was sent from St Love's "Latin Quarter" to help the hospital out in their hour of need. He is a terribly attractive, magnetic, somewhat sleazy man who makes all the staff (male and female) nervously giddy. This is Lovechild's first appearance on the show.

Medical Superintendent Harold Dean: Dean was a revelation in Relapse. I'd completely misread his character in Season 1. I'd taken him to be the scowling, stomping, penny-pinching, bureaucratic bad guy in the hospital, Mangold's nemesis. In Season 2 we realised that he was just an idiot, someone who bumbles along and doesn't really understand how to relate to other people. His music stumped me for a while, but it became a Prince Nez-version of his old theme. You can hear his old theme in there, hopefully reduced to ineffectual bumbling.

Doctor Ludwig LeStrange: LeStrange's music was a little more flowy this time, not as mechanical. He broke out with more emotion this season, even growing a backbone and turning in to a superhero in one of the shows. But he always seems to return to his introverted "normal" self, hiding away in the mortuary.

Doctor Melody Carmichael: Melody's music retains her original themes of youth and positivity. This season she rose to the role of Best Damn Doctor while Mangold was away, and later found love (one-sided as it was) with LeStrange. She went through a lot this season, experiencing love and loss. Her music evolved, hopefully showing a little more maturity and a few more scars.

Mayor Rik Cocksteady: Cocksteady appeared for one episode in season one as the only doctor better than Burton Mangold. In season two, he returned in the last show of the season as the new Mayor of St Love. He was later revealed to be behind an evil operation to take over the town and knock down the hospital to get to the secret Mayan gold buried beneath it. He is smart, manipulative, and greedy.

End theme: Right in the closing seconds of the last show of the season, just as Mangold and Buble are about to be married, a stranger bursts in to interrupt the wedding. A stranger? Or is it... The season ended with a sudden cliffhanger.

Make A Deal With Me

Musical Hotspot — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 06:01:00 +0000

The example this week is again from One Bride. Rather than being a single song, this is the second half of a fairly long scene. In the scene, Nancy (Amy Currie) has returned to the playground where, as a child, she found buried treasure; she's returned to town to dig it up. Dudley (Dan Beeston) reveals his plan to take his recently-inherited playground with its pony-on-a-spring and spinning-egg, and develop it in to a high-rise hotel. He refuses to share his wealth with his now-homeless brothers (including Nancy's love Golly). Nancy is tricked in to admitting she knows of buried treasure in the sandpit; she is torn between getting her hands on the treasure, and ensuring Dudley's brother Golly is taken care of. She strikes a deal.

In Make A Deal With Me, Dan and Amy step effortlessly from speaking to singing and back again. The tempo and the key change here and there, but somehow they keep one ear on that while still creating good dialogue and telling their story, and jump back in on the fly whenever they like. There's not really a chorus (although the "Make a Deal With Me" line feels like the chorus to me) or a repeating verse structure. It's a lot more like a sing-speak opera - usually I don't care for those, but I really enjoyed this scene. The timing and melodies they chose combined nicely with the music to progress the story.

The underscoring floated around for a while before settling on a vamp that seemed like it would make for a nice song. You can pick the point where I think the scene needs a song; at about 42 seconds, when Nancy pleads with Dudley that there must be some way he can help the brothers, the vamp gets more insistent - just asking for a song.

I Can't Believe What's Happening Now

Musical Hotspot — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 22:53:00 +0000

In this week's song from One Bride I Can't Believe What's Happening Now, Tristan Ham as Golly is singing about his favorite park being destroyed - he starts it in a very plaintive tone which is matched by Kris' playing. On the word Give, Golly changes the tone to be much angrier and aggressive, and you can hear Kris play root chords into the next line with much more attack which really supports the choice the singer has taken. This allows the music to become another character, which scaffolds the action and emotion and gives another clue for the audience into the character's state of mind.

Where Have You Gone

Musical Hotspot — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 14:00:00 +0000

There was a good example of a separated lovers' duet in the rehearsals for Seven Brothers with Tristan and Amy. In the song Where Have You Gone Golly (Tristan Ham) is singing about the loss of his lake, which is all he sees as being interesting to Nancy (Amy Currie). Nancy is seeking someone who can control the weather to help it rain in her town but she does still reference Golly. While they were singing about different points of view they came together beautifully on a simple chorus, to show there was still a connection between the two.

In This Lake With You

Musical Hotspot — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 05:16:00 +0000

The example this week is from a rehearsal of One Bride for Seven Brothers. This is one of those alternate-reality stories, not the story the audience saw on the night. In this version, Nancy Buttons (Amy Currie) is an adventurer, an Amelia Earhart type, who is looking for a scientific solution to her town's long drought. She travels to the brothers' town, where it has rained non-stop for years, in the hope she can discover the source of the rain. Golly (Tristan Ham), the youngest brother, has been collecting rainwater and making a lake of his own. After realising Nancy shares his love of water, he and Nancy take a trip to the lake, where they start to fall in love.

In the song In This Lake With You, Amy sets up a great (simple!) chorus:

I'm in this lake with you
I'm in this lake with you
My dreams have all come true
For I'm in this lake with you

It's simple to pick up, simple enough that Amy and Tristan can trade chorus duties on the first chorus. That makes for a really effective duet.

A Place You Can Go

Musical Hotspot — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 13:02:00 +0000

I was privileged to perform with the EDGE Improv folks for the final of their season of Improv the Musical. Directed by Louise Callanan, the show featured a variety of musical short-form in the first half, with a nice long-form musical in the second half.

Joel Gilmore stepped up to the stage for Lounge Singer, a game featuring a singer that hasn't made it big yet, and has to play in less salubrious venues. The MC gets a location from the audience, and the singer uses that as inspiration for the scene. In our case, our fearless MC Greg Duncan got "The Ipswich Mall".

The song A Place You Can Go builds on the reputation of The Ipswich Mall. While I vamp and Joel chats with his audience, the other players set the scene with suitable lowbrow stuff - the mother chasing her kid, the patron shouting obscenities, and so on.

(I've had the pleasure of doing a band gig in a bar in the Ipswich Mall once. There's a rule that when a fight breaks out, you keep on playing. That's really hard. I'm pretty sure we all stopped what we were doing and watched the fight, slackjawed. Live and learn I guess.)

Right at the point where Joel hints that he's about to start singing, one of the other players approached me and, facing away from the audience, demonstrated how one could mistake a piano player for a urinal. That's where you hear the audience go off. Straightaway, Joel takes his cue from that, and launches in to song.

Joel starts with a nice freeform melody in the key of the vamp. Until we establish the rhythm, the music sits underneath with gentle chords, until we finally strike out with a beat.

Hear that strange sound right as Joel hits the word "Place"? That's the sound of me grinning from ear to ear. This was only my second gig with Joel, and the first time I'd heard him sing. It is wonderful to realise the person on stage has an instrument like that!

As Joel works his way through the song, he knows exactly where the rhythm is; he's being quite careful sometimes to sit outside of it, or use syncopation. Sitting outside the beat lets him soar and really sustain some of those big notes.

Another benefit is that, because he's lagging the beat a fair amount, he can take his time to let the melody settle in to a good fit with the music. For example, as he sings "white and clean and yellow", "yellow" lags a bit, so Joel can drop it nicely in to that progression. That said, when Joel does sit on the beat, you can hear him correct really nicely to slide in to a note compatible with the chord.

Right at the end, as Joel sets up the big finish, you can hear me lose my nerve and drop the rhythm from the music for a bit, until I heard where he was going and it picked up again.

That last word? Joel held that beautifully, stretching it out, and setting up the final moment really nicely. (I've never heard that word sung before. Lovely.)

The whole way through the song, Joel felt confident enough to disengage from the rhythm for a while, then come back again, really playing with the timing. I think that adds such great colour and interest.

In the end, this didn't conform to most of the "rules" of a song - no repeating chorus, no verses. It left me with the impression that it could have been a snippet from a longer song.

I don't know if this always happens to me, I'll pay more attention in the future, but I distinctly recall that when we were doing this song I had other songs pop in to my head. Moon River came to mind right away, and I'm sure that minor 6th at the start came right out of that. Somewhere towards the end, around the time Joel sings and holds "At Ipswich", Non je ne regrette Rien appeared in my head. On reflection, Somewhere You Can Go and Non je ne regrette Rien seem to be quite similar.

Skullcrusher Mountain

Musical Hotspot — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 06:08:00 +0000

Jonathan Coulton is a wonderful songwriter and musician; his music somehow manages to be comical and heartfelt at the same time. For some reason, his music seems to appeal to improvisers. Peter C Hayward suggested on The Dan Exercise post that we apply it to a Jonathan Coulton song, and voila - here you go, Peter.

A quick recap on the "rules" of Danthem. Singer takes a real song that the musician has never heard before, and sings it once through. Musician provides accompaniment, improvising music to match the melody and feel. No rehearsal, no pre-listen. The singer should generally try and remain faithful to the original melody and structure, and not use those impro skills to match the accompaniment.

The Danthem

This was the very first time we tried recording a Danthem, in a session for the Impro Mafia podcast And Time. I think it went rather well.

Skullcrusher Mountain

Dan kicks it off (as you do) with unaccompanied vocals, and I join in after a few seconds once I think I've found it. I really get lost at the start, rhythmically, finding and losing the beat, until a little light goes off right about when Dan gets to the word "crazy". The recovery isn't really complete until the end of the first chorus.

The second verse worked pretty well; we didn't have much of a set chord progression from the first verse to build on, so it was a little unstructured. At least that let us play with the progression to match the lyric. Right at the end of the first verse, the build around "making a gift for you" is lovely; Dan's singing became more intense, and the accompaniment matched it.

Start of second chorus, oops, why did I go there? Quick recovery. Phew.

It sounds like I thought the song was over after that second chorus, but suddenly a bridge appeared. As always, the bridge's job is to lift out of the song for a little while, using a different progression or feel.

The final verse was pretty straightforward again, right up until the end with a little variation leading in to the last chorus. That variation got a bit excited and took over the chorus for a little bit. Aside from that little hiccup, the third and final chorus went very well indeed; the melody had finally cemented itself in my head, so the accompaniment was more confident and established harmonies and shadowing.

Right at the end of the chorus, a repeated last sentence leads the music, so the chorus finishes pretty smoothly.

What did I learn?

Much like Pinch Me, one of the things that made this song a good candidate was the lyric leading the beat quite often. That can confuse the timing if you don't see what's going on, but once you're locked in to the rhythm, the melody can lead you around quite nicely.

One of the things that confused me in the Danthem (but is crystal clear in the original) is that the last line of each of the verses is twice the length of the others. So just when you think you've got the rhythm sorted, surprise, that variation kicks in. Dan uses that technique well in proper improvised songs, so I should have been ready for it.

Again it's good to see that a singer can push a musician around using light and shade in their voice. I was playing facing away from Dan, so I lost any chance of watching him to get cued in on changes; next time we'll do that differently.

Want to hear the original? Go to Jonathan Coulton's site; you can preview his music, and spend some money to download DRM-free tracks from his collection. I love every one I've listened to, but I'm holding back from listening to more so we can give them the Danthem treatment in the future. (I need to spend some money there, both for my own enjoyment, and to apologise for butchering his song...)

Pinch Me

Musical Hotspot — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 06:23:00 +0000

What happens when a musician is improvising accompaniment to a song where the singer is sticking to a known song with a set melody? Dan and Kris cover BNL's Pinch Me.

Back in The Dan Exercise, we talked about an activity that might be useful for honing your improv skills, and might also be kind of fun. Dan and I got together to do a couple of them, and the results are interesting. Not polished by any means, but interesting. I learned a lot about how I think about songs by just listening back to the recordings.

Dan is a great improviser, which normally means readily accepting offers and being changed. In this exercise he had to fight against his normal improv sensibilities, to try and stick to the timing and melody of the original song, and not take offers from the music.

Pinch Me

I am a Barenaked Ladies fan, but I don't have a complete collection of their stuff, so I was pleased for Dan to pick one I didn't know for a Danthem. Pinch Me was the lead single from their Maroon album. I'm not sure how I didn't know the song; it was one of BNL's bigger hits. (Maroon is sadly missing from my collection.)

The original song structure goes Verse-Chorus Verse-Chorus Bridge Verse-Chorus Bridge, with the rapid-fire BNL-signature lyrics in the chorus, and the "Pinch Me" bits in the verse. Not knowing the song, I didn't have any preconceptions about the structure, and it turned out a little differently than BNL intended.

The Danthem

Pinch Me

As usual for me, it takes me a little while to find the key and pick the timing. Sort of a mental chromatic shuffle going on there. In the verse, the lyric lags the start of each bar, so the music leads that lyric. That makes it a little harder to guess what might be coming next.

When the first rapid-fire bit hits ("It's like a dream you try to remember but it's gone...", the chorus from the original song), it sounded like the music expected some kind of change, so the feel changed a little bit. I think since it started on the same chord as the verse, to me it became an extension of the verse.

You can hear some pretty poor chord choices in there, where the music clashes with the melody. Some of those bad choices were corrected early on, some lasted until right towards the end.

After that first rapid-fire bit, it sounded like I expected a chorus, but it felt like another verse, so back in to it again I guess!

When we got to the bridge of the original song ("Pinch me"), the melody timing changes dramatically, with the words leading the beginning of the bar. For the purposes of an exercise like this, that made a huge difference to hearing where the music wanted to go. It didn't take long to catch on to a decent chord progression (one that is quite different to the original).

Entering the final verse ("On an evening such as this"), Dan's singing became very gentle, and the music followed suit. That made for some nice light and shade.

You can tell I was getting pretty comfortable with the "chorus" (the old bridge) right at the end. Until it suddenly stopped, which freaked me out a little. Wish I'd played out some more, could have been lovely.

Dan displayed the ability to insulate himself from the music, and not follow music cues (well against his "training" and his nature). You can hear him pause to let me find the right entry point near the start of the song.

What did I learn?

Listening back to something like this, and comparing it to the original, I learned a lot about the way I listen and the way I structure songs for impro.

One of the key attributes of a component of a song is how the melody/words sit in relation to the start of the bar. When they lag the start, the music is really in charge, and the singer is going to key off of the music. When the words lead the bar, they melody drives the music, and the musician needs to respond accordingly.

As the musician, when you expect a change like a transition from verse to chorus, signal that change with the music. You might play anticipatory stuff, and you might decide to change the chord structure or feel of that new section.

I didn't realise until listening back to this song that I have a tendency to set a chord progression in a verse, and vary it right towards the end of the verse. Now that I'm paying attention, I've heard that in a lot of stuff I've done. I think it freshens the verse, and acts a signal that the chorus is coming.

Prognosis: Death!

Musical Hotspot — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 04:38:00 +0000

Themes for recurring characters can bring a great element in to a long-form show. Here are some we put together for Prognosis: Death!.

In the last instalment about Prognosis: Death!, Impro Mafia's long form improvised show, we talked about how character themes can contribute to the immersion of a story.

Dan from Impro Mafia has been hounding me relentlessly to record a medley of the themes from P:D!. (Well, ok, he's asked me twice. Lay off, man!) I finally got around to it, and just in time, too - the second season of Prognosis: Death! is right around the corner.

Some of these character themes were pretty well-formed during the first season. Others were still on their way, especially where I was still getting to know the characters.

Here's that medley, along with a breakdown of how it maps to each of Prognosis Death's characters.

Listen to Prognosis: Death! Medley

or download it from Podbean.com

Listen to P:D! Theme by Tim Wotherspoon

or download it

Intro: A piano-only interpretation of Tim Wotherspoon's excellent theme music.

Best Damn Doctor: Dr Burton Mangold (played by David Massingham) is the hospital's uberdoctor. Patients rarely die on his watch. And when they do - the drama!

Mangold's music is an upbeat triumphant march, very heroic. I must admit borrowing a fair bit from Captain Hammer's opening number in Dr Horrible for this.

Meanwhile, At The Nurses' Station: During the show, as one scene finished, the narrator would call the beginning of the next scene, priming it by introducing the characters and the location. The Nurses' Station was a great spot for some of the characters to meet, gossip, and console over impossible relationships, unaware that the latest supernatural threat to St Love is on the rise.

The Leggy Avenger: Nurse Lotte Buble (played by Natalie Bochenski) has been with the hospital for a long time. Things never quite go her way, but she soldiers on. Buble has a variety of unusual skills (one of which comes from the audience at the start of the show), including a doorframe repair person and a masked superhero.

Buble's theme is mostly upbeat, bittersweet, and resilient.

Love Theme: Dr Mangold and Nurse Buble's simmering tension often seems hopeless, as they set their feelings aside to deal with the latest crisis to hit the residents of St Love. This theme, or variations on it, often appeared when Mangold and Buble had the stage to themselves.

Faith and Donations: Reverend Thistlewaite (played by Wade Robinson) was the name of a variety of members of the cloth that appeared in different episodes, all with different countries of origin but somehow always named Thistlewaite. Jeremy Thistlewaite. Jeremy Von Thistewaite. Jeremy McThistlewaite. These Thistlewaites seemed to die. A lot.

Three Seconds Behind: Dr Ludwig LeStrange (played by Dan Beeston) is the hospital's mortician. He doesn't have very much to do, thanks to Dr Mangold and the low mortality rate at the hospital. Dr LeStrange is introverted and outwardly calm, but hides all manner of emotion and tension. He has awkwardly formed hand gestures; due to a bizarre time travel accident, his fingers are three seconds behind the rest of him.

His theme music is sad and discordant. This is the theme music I figured out first. Sadly, I recently discovered that Dr LeStrange's theme works very well as backing to Britney Spears' Hit Me Baby One More Time. Sigh.

Hunting for Doilys: Dr Harold Dean (played by Luke Allan) is the hospital adminstrator, and Dr Mangold's arch enemy. Dean schemes to scrimp and save every penny to generate more profit for the hospital. Healthy people aren't profitable, so Mangold's prowess in the operating theatre runs counter to Dean's agenda. Dean is always looking for a way to take Mangold down.

Dean's music is a nice counterpoint to Mangold's, similar in tempo and feel, but with a descending minor chord structure vs Mangold's ascending major chord structure.

Will Have Ten Cats: Dr Melody Carmichael, Intern (played by Amy Currie) is the youngest staff member at the hospital. She is good-hearted, somewhat naive, and tries to do the right thing. (Well, until the first season finale where, possessed by Satan, she orchestrates the death or downfall of nearly every other character. St Love is a complex place.) Scratch the surface and her ambition to be a great doctor shines through.

Melody's music is positive, a little oblivious, and happy.

Finale: The finale music, again based on Tim's theme, has a chord progression with a ring of finality and triumph. I avoided the temptation to use it early, and saved it for the very end of the last show of the first season.

Sadly some of the cast didn't have recurring theme music.

Michael Griffin swung in to support roles for whatever story was on, playing every part imaginable - a giant vampire kitten, a dying psychic child, a mafia enforcer, up to Rick Cocksteady (the one doctor better than Mangold).

The director and narrator Greg Rowbotham got on stage for the last show to play the angel Gabriel, sneakily encouraging a fallen Mangold to get back to the hospital and make things right again.

Mike has challenged me to come up with theme music for Thistlewaite, and for each of the villians that make an appearance this season. I accept your challenge, Mr Griffin.

I'm pleased that the show is returning for a second season at the Brisbane Arts Theatre. For Prognosis: Death! Relapse I'm sharing music duties with Nathan Howard, a fellow improvising musician here in Brisbane. I hope this show is as much fun for him as it is for me!

Soap Gets In Your Eyes

Musical Hotspot — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 09:00:00 +0000

In this final installment of songs from Theatresports Lightning Doubles, Doug Bayne, Trudy Cooper and Tom Dunstan belt out a song about Soap Opera addiction. There are two versions of this song; the first was live and completely improvised. The second was, well, half-live, half-not. If the idea of improvising in front of 100,000 screaming fans interests you, you should have a listen.

The Original Version

Once again, the actors start the music, and the song is all the better for it. The beginning caught me completely by surprise, actually; when the title was announced, I mentally got geared up for an old piano standard (like Smoke Gets In Your Eyes). Suddenly Doug counts in and starts stamping his feet and grunting... giving me a couple of seconds to get a drums-and-bass patch up and running. (Just goes to show that, if you use different patches, you probably need quick access.)

Listen to Soap Gets In Your Eyes

Powered by Podbean.com

Doug breaks a bunch of conventions in this song. For starters, there isn't any singing; it's not a rap, more of a spoken-word rock song. Doug also pretty much checks out for the chorus, leaving it up to Tom and Trudy.

Like A Tim Tam Too Far, if you're not from Australia, you might need a little background before the in-jokes make sense.

Neighbours: Popular long-running Australian soap opera; 30 minutes a day, screened in prime time. Will probably run until the 22nd century.
Paradise Beach: Short-lived Australian soap opera.
Jason: Jason Donovan, an actor/singer who featured in Neighbours in the 80's.
Kylie: Kylie Minogue, the Australian singer/actor who was also in Neighbours in the 80's. Jason and Kylie's characters (Scott and Charlene) got married in the series and moved to Queensland. Somehow all retiring Neighbours characters either die or move to Queensland. What are they trying to say?

Even though there's no melody as such, as usual there's a bridge in the song towards the end. The chord progression changes and the music gets a little sparser, so it's hopefully some good light-and-shade for the audience. Doug and I do a nice synchronised stop at the end of the bridge, putting an offer out there for Trudy and Tom that they happily pick up.

I'm sad that Doug and Trudy no longer perform; they're both legends of the Brisbane impro scene. Tom is more of a living legend, currently performing with several groups in Brisbane and Sydney, and with some great projects on the boil.

Soap Gets In Your Eyes, the Arena Spectacular

You may have heard improvised songs before, but you haven't heard anything like this.

Listen to Soap Gets In Your Eyes - the Arena Mix

Powered by Podbean.com

For some reason we decided this song would have been fantastic if it was a real stadium rock song. To make this come true, we secured the services of David Lovell (guitarist and bass player extraordinaire) and his friend Mr Drums (who I'm sure has a name, lost in the sands of time) to put down band parts in a studio. Because we recorded the original performance with isolated microphones, we had a nice clean recording with Doug lead vocals, and a slightly less-clean recording with Tom and Trudy's backing.

Overlay some crowd noise, chop and arrange the vocals, add way more echo/delay than any self-respecting sound engineer would add... Hey presto - Doug, Trudy and Tom performing to thousands of screaming fans.

Performing to thousands of screaming fans? The way impro should be. ;)

Download Soap Gets In Your Eyes (mp3)

Download Soap Gets In Your Eyes - The Arena Mix (mp3)

That's it!

That's all for this series of Lightning Doubles songs. I hope to bring you more improvised stuff from Brisbane in future posts, hopefully with less tape hiss and more video!

If you live in Brisbane, you can catch the great-great-grandchild of Lightning Doubles: Impro Gladiators, running at the Paddo Tavern on Wednesday nights in 2009 from April to August. See you there!

Big Chief No Friends

Musical Hotspot — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 03:42:00 +0000

Adam Couper, Rebecca Riggs and Simon Palomares perform a song from the Haircut Challenge show that generated a few of the tracks in this series. (In this show - two teams, two team captains, losing team captain had his head shaved at the end of the show. Sadly, the day before the Haircut Challenge, one of the team captains scored a role in a movie. The scores were neck and neck entering the last game, and the non-movie-role-scoring team graciously threw the last game and submitted their captain for shaving.)

Listen to Big Chief No Friends

Powered by Podbean.com

I seem to recall a style suggestion of "Bubblegum Pop". (That said, I can't remember what colour socks I have on right now, so my memory is anything but reliable.)

The trio had a very strong start to define the style of the song. Again, this is one of those times when I think the song really benefitted from getting its start from everyone and not just the musician.

Coup is once again in the drivers seat for this one. Adam has a tremendous talent for weaving together a coherent melody in a verse and chorus, pulling together a great story, and managing to rhyme. He's one of my favourite players to work with. (You should see him in a Shakespearean scene; he's unbelievable.)

I'm accompaning on keyboard-drums and, eventually, bass. It took me a long time to come in for this one, I suspect I spent way more time hunting for the key than I should have.

I wonder how fast Adam's mind really works. I'm intrigued by the turn of events right at the end of the song:

Adam:Big Chief, he's got a friend
MC (interjecting from offstage): 10 seconds!
Adam:Which brings this story almost to an end

Was that line in the plan? Or did he alter his rhyme and story at the last second?

Adam and I found a nice ending for this song; I love it when the music just drops out in the last seconds of the song, leaving the singer to finish it with a great tag. I had a feeling Coup was going to find a marvelous ending, and he didn't disappoint.

Download Big Chief No Friends (mp3)

This is the sixth entry in a series of recordings of Songs and Operas from Brisbane's Lightning Doubles Theatresports from 1992/1993.

Don't Call Me Jack, Mon

Musical Hotspot — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 16:40:00 +0000

Two songs for the price of one today. Neither of them are going to make it on to a greatest hits album. Both of them make me cringe a little... but both of them are special to me, for one reason or another.

Don't Call Me Jack, Mon

Roger Beames and Andy Foreman trade verses in this reggae song about mistaken identity. I'm on a sort-of steel drum piano, while Adam Couper jumps in with some keyboard drums. (I tell you, the man is everywhere!)

Listen to Don't Call Me Jack, Mon

Powered by Podbean.com

I'm certain this came from the offer "Don't call me Jack", with the MC giving reggae as a style.

A few times the music halts. I can tell you this was probably at points where I thought the music was out of time with the singers, and I needed to resynch. On reflection, I should have just barrelled through; the singers needed the structure and they didn't need me to bail on them.

Roger is... well, look, I love the man, he MC'ed at my wedding, he's known my wife and I for close on 20 years, he's a talented MC and improviser and a great friend. And handsome. And can use his mad Aikido skillz to knock folks on their butt. But in this one he's a bit lyrically challenged. (Sorry, Rog.) One thing he absolutely does in this song is hold on tight to it and see it through. He knows it's not necessarily going to plan. You can hear his resolve crack for an instant right at the end of the third verse. But he holds on and continues to deliver, riding the song to wherever it was taking him.

That chorus! It's easy and charming and simple.

Don't call me Jack mon
Jack mon
Jack mon Jack mon
Don't call me Jack mon

That thing gets stuck in my head.

Andy's interplay with Roger makes me smile no matter how many times I hear this song. (I can just imagine him rolling his eyes when he says "Oh good" in the third verse.) And the audience loved it too. It wasn't the most well crafted song ever, but they just go wild.

I'm Short, Shirty and I Want to Shout

Fedele Crisci and Rebecca Riggs take this song, supported by David Lovell (one of my university lecturers) on bass and myself on keyboard drums.

Listen to I'm Short, Shirty and Want To Shout

Powered by Podbean.com

Fedele may not have an opera singer's voice. His rhythm might be a little challenged. But he absolutely committed himself 100% to this song. He knew the wheels were falling off, and even with minimal backing from two supposedly supportive musicians, he carried on.

You can hear the point where Dave and I just say "Let's go!" and decide that we should (finally) give Fedele strong backing. And then Rebecca jumped on to that backing. And she completed the second half of the song by basically singing to Fedele about his singing and dancing skills, and how she wants him anyway. I thought Rebecca's handling of that was great; she made light of the first part of the song without being mean, and had a go at Fedele's skills while still professing her love.

There's a good amount of light and shade in the music (once it got going, anyway). Right towards the end there's a nice sparse section that lets Rebecca have some fun, before ending quite strongly.

And, once again, the audience goes wild. Do they care that the song might not have been as strong as it could have been? Not really - the performers gave it their all, and the audience stayed with them to the end, rain or shine.

Epilogue

Roger and Fedele now run one of the most successful comedy agencies in the country, the Sit Down Comedy Club. Will they still be able to sleep at night, knowing they were responsible for these two songs? I think they'll be fine.

Download Don't Call Me Jack, Mon (mp3)

Download I'm Short, Shirty and I Want To Shout (mp3)

This is the fifth entry in a series of recordings of Songs and Operas from Brisbane's Lightning Doubles Theatresports from 1992/1993.

Tommy's Little Boat

Musical Hotspot — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 03:27:00 +0000

Tommy's Little Boat is a rock-opera, featuring Adam Couper as Tommy, Rebecca Riggs as Tommy's mother, and Simon Palomares as the father/narrator.

Listen to Tommy's Little Boat

Powered by Podbean.com

Normally we'll do an opera in more traditional operatic style. I suspect (given the title and the obvious connection to The Who's Tommy) this was offered as a rock opera. I find it challenging to do a rock opera, and try and give the same sort of feeling as you'd get from a heavy guitar-bass-drums format, using just a piano.

Adam is a very strong singer, confident and clear. He doesn't wait for a musical offer to set a key, and he changes keys/feels at the perfect time. I managed to find his opening key pretty quickly, but there are other times (eg when his dad first makes an appearance) where you can clearly hear me hunting for his key. Adam carries on confidently, but I think the absence of music lets the opera down for a while. Once again, what I wouldn't give for perfect pitch.

This is not a textbook-perfect opera, but there are a few magical moments that I really love. My favourite is the piece that takes place around 2:30, just at the point where Tommy begins to understand why he can't read. The "I Can't Tell My Left From My Right" song is a great example of counterpoint, where each singer sets up a particular melody and rhythm for themselves. This is quite similar to the counterpoint technique Michael Pollock describes in his book Musical Improv Comedy: Creating Songs in the Moment. Adam's melody is complex, well patterned, and it is phrased very quickly; Rebecca's is soaring and holds for longer; Simon's is phrased somewhere between the two, and kind of injects itself around the others.

Haven't read Michael Pollock's books? Here's a short review: Buy them. If you need more convincing than that, I'll be reviewing both of his improv books soon.

Something I harp on about is making sure as a musician you're changed by what is on stage; if you get lost in your own momentum, you're hurting the scene. There's a good example of being changed at 2:20, as Rebecca sings "Tommy I told you" - I had just started to set up the next section, sort of a minor version of the previous section after Tommy figures out he can't read. Rebecca slowed it down with her vocal, so the music discarded that staccato rhythm to match what she was doing.

Right at the end, Simon does a really nice narrator voiceover to close the opera. Sadly he used the shotgun microphone, so Adam and Rebecca's closing song (which I suspect was another lovely counterpoint) is lost forever.

Download Tommy's Little Boat (mp3, 3.8 mb)

This is the fourth entry in a series of recordings of Songs and Operas from Brisbane's Lightning Doubles Theatresports from 1992/1993.

My Mother Was An Undercover Cop

Musical Hotspot — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 05:29:00 +0000

Danny Murphy delivers a great reggae song on the perils of being a kid with a cop for a mother. He is ably supported by Jamie Rowe and Andrew Nason.

Listen to My Mother Was An Undercover Cop

Powered by Podbean.com

Adam Couper leads the music on guitar, with me supporting on keyboard-drums. This is one where the musicians started the music, laying the basic support for the players to sit in. As much as I love having the actors start first, starting with the music does give the song a lot more polish.

The verses are nicely structured with A-B-A-B rhyming. Actually, Danny's rhyming is excellent in this song; his rhymes are perfectly in context and don't feel forced at all.

Well I'm a pretty straight kind of guy
I'm the kind of guy you know where he's coming from
You can look at me, right in the eye
But don't come up and look at my mum
Cause she's an Undercover
Undercover cop

This is a good example of a song where the chorus is just a tag on the end of a verse. Very simple, and very effective.

Once again, the final "verse" is chorded as a bridge. It keeps the style of the music consistent, but the change in chord progression freshens things up for the audience, and gives the singer a little more scope to be adventurous. A good bridge tilts the story, and this one is no exception.

It's amazing to hear the audience go wild at the end of the first chorus. The chorus-tag was about as simple as it gets ("She was an/Undercover/Undercover cop"), not very clever or challenging, but when the audience got a whiff of the actors actually using the words from the offer in a song, they went crazy. It doesn't take much in a musical game to get the audience on-side.

Download My Mother Was An Undercover Cop (mp3, 2.1 mb)

This is the third entry in a series of recordings of Songs and Operas from Brisbane's Lightning Doubles Theatresports from 1992/1993.