Live Variables

The week opened with an intention to focus on some memorisation work for an upcoming country theatre project. An all-day rehearsal was scheduled for Wednesday and would be the only chance for the full line-up to get together before the first official show on 29th August. Having secured a dozen theatre bookings for the later part of this year is a major milestone, but coordinating calendars has proven incredibly difficult due to everyone’s competing professional commitments. I'm no stranger to this myself, having prioritised this rehearsal over a video recording that had been offered after this date had already been booked.

Study plans were quickly and almost immediately disrupted on Monday afternoon by a request from a folk-rock project to take on new material in the form of ten brand-new tracks and writing original violin lines for a further six existing numbers where I had previously played guitar. The extra weight was only slightly relieved by some of the new tracks being covers that I was familiar with. While the official tour launch is five weeks away, the functional deadline is shorter, as the first full-day rehearsal is next week. If I can get a head start on the material, I'll be able to develop it throughout the lead up to the tour, leaving a window to develop parts on the lead up to the tour.

Wednesday was entirely dedicated to a full-day rehearsal at The Queen’s Hall in Nuneaton with the country project. The first two hours were taken up, as you would expect, by arrivals delayed by intercity traffic and soundchecks, meaning playing did not start until around 11:00 am. I got a text just after we started to ask if I could rehearse that evening with a bluegrass band for the Friday evening gig, but I had to defer that, wondering at what alignment of the stars had made this day the focus point of every project I'm involved in.

Thursday was set aside for domestic tasks, household management, groceries and administration. I needed a window to manage email correspondence, to review travel logistics for the multiple weekend gigs, and ensure my gear was prepped and organised before hitting the road.

Friday I played at Crick Music Festival with the bluegrass band. After my experiences the previous weekend with dodgy directions being given by a map app that somehow was legislated into being the default option—gaslighting me that I had arrived at my destination whilst dropping me off at a random hedgerow—I was keen to avoid a repeat performance and engineered matters to force the use of my favoured map app. This did not, however, stop me from missing an exit turning on the M45, resulting in an additional 12 miles drive before I could find my way off the road near Northampton. All in all, this cost me an extra 20 minutes of driving, though I still managed to arrive in time for soundcheck. The set was spaced into two blocks throughout the evening, interspersed with another artist who similarly played two sets. By the time we finished at 11:00 pm we had played for around two hours, including the soundcheck and a rehearsal making up for Wednesday's missed get-together. We delivered a mix of original material and covers, such as Thin Lizzy's Whiskey in the Jar and Pink Floyd's Time/Breathe Reprise, all with a colourful shading of Old Time and Bluegrass. The technical hitch of a faulty double bass pickup at the beginning of the second set didn't stop us for long, and we finished with a delay of around only 10 minutes as a result of the hold-up.

Saturday arrived too early and with too little sleep. As I got ready, I ran through the itinerary for the day and the plans for my journey to Burntwood for a recently booked wedding. I was soon distracted, however, by an invitation to move some heavy garden furniture that required a new coat of paint. The job would not wait and I was obliged to get changed into scruffs so that I could carry out that task, before having to go through the process of getting ready for the wedding all over again. Despite the slow traffic through the Midlands and especially the speed camera infestation bonanza on the A446, I was still able to reach Burntwood with plenty of time to spare for setting up the PA and other kit. A glorious day, I was still relieved that this was a church wedding and consequently indoors, away from the dangers of instrumental wood shrinkage, brittle strings and mammothly exaggerated bow-hair torque.

I had received a message the previous day from the bride asking if I could play the longer version of the bridesmaids' entrance song due to there being several small children in the party. As it happened, the girls moved down the aisle so rapidly that I was barely able to reach the fourth phrase in Pachelbel's Canon in D before I needed to fade out the track.

Which is where I hit my first hurdle. I had set up my iPad as always to run backing tracks through a volume pedal, which is a really effective way of bringing music to a close during ceremonies where the whole track is not needed. However, on this matter the volume pedal remained completely ineffective. Multiple thoughts ran through my mind at once—first and foremost the need to hush the associated sounds of a string quartet accompaniment—so I went old-school and lowered the iPad volume manually with the hardware buttons. Not the most efficient way of doing things, as the next time I needed to play a track I would have to guess the previous level, but luckily my best estimate was enough for the congregation. I used the same method to fade out the bride's entrance music, having to stop playing so that I could use my hands to reduce the volume, while my mind worked overtime about what could have caused the issue. I kicked myself that I did not test this during my setup. I had experimented at home the previous day and everything had worked perfectly. Why not today? The PA is still new to me, so I wondered if a dial on the pedal had been twisted in transit, but a quick sight-check showed no such luck.

Of the half-dozen bridesmaids, half of whom were very young and active during the ceremony. One had to be removed from the immediate area owing to a particularly vocal form of protest at a part of the event only she was aware, while another was on a mission to wander around the church, constantly being called back by the older bridal party. An eventual compromise was reached where the two remaining girls began to dance in a circle to some inaudible music that only they could hear, which continued right into the signing of the register. Distractions aside, I did my best to keep the flow of the pieces moving and brought them to a close without my microphone stand acting as a literal stumbling block. When the ceremony finally finished, I at last had an opportunity to test the volume pedal. I don't know if I was relieved or abashed when I discovered that the iPad had automatically connected to the PA via Bluetooth, meaning the cabling was completely redundant—a lesson learned for tomorrow's wedding!

After a successful pack-down, I sat in the car to eat my lunch in the baking afternoon heat. Barely twenty minutes into the drive home, I pulled over and discovered my phone was running hot and had became unresponsive to screen presses, forcing me to turn it off whilst I went to find coffee.