Theatre Drumset

[Joe P]

Hey, does anyone have any setup or playing tips for a theatre gig? I was asked by the director to take some artistic liberty with this show called "The Fantasticks." The show is generally musically sparse, but the music director has wanted to "rock it up" if you've ever heard of it.

Again, does anyone have any tips for equipment setup or dynamics or playing in a musical theatre setting?

[Deathmetalconga]

I've done some cabaret shows and the drums were used for accents as well as music and I kept a lot of sound effects with me as well. I don't know what your show is like, but the main thing is that the music is in service to the acting and should complement it. The director becomes the leader of the band and you try to interpret what he's looking for. I'd get real familiar with the script and what the show is trying to accomplish through mood, music, dialog, costumes, etc. You're part of a much larger entertainment experience.

[basscase]

A theatre gig usually requires a very small kit. Remember you need to share the pit with all the other musicians. 4 piece kit at the most and lotsa percussion. A set of bells, cowbell, tamborine and whatever else the score calls for even maybe some timps. Remember, the audience is there to see the people on stage, not the pit band. The hardest part of playing in the pit it remembering to play soft and taking on a supporting role in the music.

[mrchattr]

I have played a ton of pit gigs, from small places where I had to use a four-piece and brushes, to theatres so loud that everything I had was mic'd.

There's no ONE set-up for a show...each show is different, which is why you need to read the score before figuring out what you need. The kit I used for Ragtime was huge (for a theatre set-up)...but for The Mikado, I only needed a bass, snare, one cymbal, triangle, gong, and tymp (more on that in a moment).

Remember that you are not supposed to do too much musically in MOST musicals. There are tons of exceptions, of course, such as Rent, but in general, your job is to simply keep time, and then hit accents according to what happens on stage.

The best advice I can give to someone doing local theatre is to get something like the Roland SPD-11 or SPD-20 or HandSonic or something that you can use to synthesize a ton of percussion stuff. I generally have one kit on there that I set up with a lot of the accessories (glock, gong, ratchet, vibraslap, whatever else the score calls for that I don't own in small accessories)...another kit that I set up with tympani (tuned, of course, to the pitches needed for the show)...and sometimes, if it's necessary, I will even set up vibes or marimba or xylo notes on there. This has been REALLY helpful. Some examples: Playing The Mikado, I had very little space. My whole set-up was a snare and bass (with the SPD-11 mounted in the tom holder above it), one cymbal and a triangle. The SPD-11 was used for the gong (which opens the show and is used throughout) and tympani. There is NO way I could have fit a gong and tymp into the pit. Also, you can use these devices to trigger stuff. In Ragtime, for instance, the soundguy had issues with his soundeffects CD for the show...so when a doorbell needed to ring, or when one of the main characters gets murdered by gunfire, it was ME, in the pit, controlling those sounds. THAT was fun.

[MattRitter]

Whenever possible, an experienced theater drummer always gets at least one recording of the show beforehand. That will generally tell you what you need to know...from the gear right up to the actual rhythms. Even the score will probably not be as reliable as the recording. The score was probably written by a non-drummer, so it is bound to feature some things that are very "interesting." Get the recording, and hear with your own ears how drummers have traditionally interpreted the drum part for The Fantasticks.

When I did the national tour of Hello, Dolly, I bought 3 different recordings of it plus watched the movie version. All of these versions were somewhat different from one another in terms of the drumming, and NONE of them mildly resembled the written drum music! Anyway, my research gave me an idea of how the drum part had been interpreted over the years. My version ended up being a hybrid of all past versions with a bit of my own stuff thrown in.

So...get the recording. Hope this helps.

Matt Ritter
Bass Drum Techniques For Today's Drummer
www.UnBuryingTheBeater.com

Vote for my band, WHIRL, in the semifinals here: www.BoruBarBand.com

[mrchattr]

Even the score will probably not be as reliable as the recording. The score was probably written by a non-drummer, so it is bound to feature some things that are very "interesting."

HAHAHAHAHAHA. Truer words have never been written on here. Some of the scores I have read were...interesting, to say the least.

[MattRitter]

HAHAHAHAHAHA. Truer words have never been written on here. Some of the scores I have read were...interesting, to say the least.

hahaha! Sounds like we've had similar experiences!

Note to Joe: I realize we may have scared the daylights out of you with our responses. If so, I apologize. I don't want to do that. You'll probably have a good time with this gig. Just prepare in advance by getting a copy of the score and a recording of the show. Have fun with it. Theater drumming can be a blast. As for gear, I've done tons of shows with a normal drumset plus woodblock, triangle, splash cymbal, cowbell, mounted tambourine, and windchimes. Best of luck!

[mrchattr]

hahaha! Sounds like we've had similar experiences!

Note to Joe: I realize we may have scared the daylights out of you with our responses. If so, I apologize. I don't want to do that. You'll probably have a good time with this gig. Just prepare in advance by getting a copy of the score and a recording of the show. Have fun with it. Theater drumming can be a blast. As for gear, I've done tons of shows with a normal drumset plus woodblock, triangle, splash cymbal, cowbell, mounted tambourine, and windchimes. Best of luck!

Good call, Matt.

Yeah, Joe, Matt is right. Don't be scared off. Sure there are a ton of "D'oh" moments (like when the scores have songs titled or numbered differently, so at a practice the director shouts "Play number 13" and you slam a gong on beat 1 of the pretty ballad sung by the young girl with a soft, lilting voice)...but you work them out, and the performance aspect of theatre drumming is a TON of fun.

With that said, there's one tool that is ESSENTIAL, and neither Matt or I mentioned it. Bring a pencil. Bring two pencils, just in case. There WILL be edits to the scores, and you will want to write them in...don't rely on memory. Even if it makes sense to cut the second repeat of song number 2 in the first act, you won't remember that 36 songs later.

[BullCrunky]

I did percussion for a run of the show "Little Shop of Horrors" last year. One thing that really made it great was my Roland V-kit that I was using. For musical theatre it's perfect because it can be mixed so it doesn't over power the acting, and you can have so many different sounds, you can have latin kits, electronic noises, rock kits, different tom sounds, all kinds of fun percussion stuff to jazz it up where straight rock drums don't cut it.

[BullCrunky]

Hey, does anyone have any setup or playing tips for a theatre gig? I was asked by the director to take some artistic liberty with this show called "The Fantasticks." The show is generally musically sparse, but the music director has wanted to "rock it up" if you've ever heard of it.

Again, does anyone have any tips for equipment setup or dynamics or playing in a musical theatre setting?

OH! And since he wants you essentailly composing the drums for it be sure to keep a few things in mind:
1) Always try and play to the theme of the song. Most songs are written to sound somewhat familiar to something, pick up on that (Aka. Jazzy, big bag, rock, latin)
2) Remember that it's still about the show, not the drums. I got in hell for this one, (heh heh). Keep rolls, intricate beats (Off times, syncopation) to a minimum, (likely not at all :(

For SOME reason, non-drummers don't appreciate that stuff as much. Write to compliment the music, not to dress it up.

Good luck!