Portland Megaband 2024
Rehearsal Report #2
January 21, 2024

Announcements:

Thank you for being here today.

The only announcement is to introduce Betsy Branch, fiddle in the front. Betsy is the fiddler on the practice recordings and also oversees all the harmonies (and writes many of them herself)

Louis Cyr / Reel Beloeil

Louis Cyr—you should have the version dated 1/9/24. Small change: First and 5th bars of the A part now match. Dotted quarter G, eighth B, quarter D, eighth rest and eighth D. Print the music, you’ll see it.  Good lift, good swing.

Louis to Beloeil: Nothing special. In the rest at the end of Louis, leave that rest open. No offbeats on the switch.

Ending: Bar B6, rest the last three eighth notes. Then the last bar of all things, just D, F, D, two quarter notes and hold the last D

Lounge Bar / Rakers

A variation in the Lounge Bar might be to have some section play the C part and fill in with the rest for the D part.  Watch for that. Conductors will signal who is to play

In Rakers, a variation will be to play the A parts normally, then through B1 and B2, drop volume very low and build to the end of the B2.  **Remember that changes in volume (dynamics) don’t have anything to do with changes in tempo.** So we’ll have a really dramatic build through the B parts.

Lounge to Rakers: There’s a switch bar written into your music. Melody, hold the D through the measure (tied dotted quarters), backups go to a G chord for that last bar. Then start Rakers with alacrity so it’s clear that we’re now in a different tune.

Ending: No breaks or holes. Just play through the last bar and land on a held Dm.

Rainy Night / Paddy / Vladimir’s

Rainy Night, A part arpeggios, give the first note of each of those bars emphasis. That’ll drive it along. In Paddy, add lift at bar A7, pop off that first quarter note. And bars B1 and B5 make those staccato notes short.

Vladimir, remember to put the swing in even though it’s a bit more difficult tune. As much as you can.  [Pro tip: at home, slow it down and totally go overboard with the swing, make it sound like a schottische or something. Then when you speed it up an appropriate amount of swing will remain. Really, it works.]

Rainy to Paddy: Last bar changes to half note D, quarter note D then quarter note rest. Back up players use block chords in that measure for the switch.

Paddy to Vladimir: Change the last bar to three quarter notes and a rest (hole). Last time through Paddy, backup drop out, maintain percussion, Play the B part in the low octave.

Possible Ending: Leave a hole at the end of B2-6 (second bar in the last line), then play straight through and hold out the last A note/chord. However, if this set ends up being the last one of the evening, we will construct a fancier ending.

William Blake / Live Oak / William Blake

Note that last time through Live Oak we go to the coda which is up an octave in the B part.

Oak to Blake 8va: be ready for the pickups, which means pop off the G of Live Oak in time to play those pickups at the same tempo as you just played Live Oak

Ending: Bar B6, cut off the last two notes to leave a hole…. More next time 🙂