My wedding gig

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My wedding gig

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Miguel de Maria

Posts: 3532
Joined: Oct. 20 2003
From: Phoenix, AZ

My wedding gig

Guys, played a wedding on Saturday. I was very nervous about it because I had to learn a new song for the wedding--Pachelbel's Canon. The bride requested we learn that for her procession. I agreed, partly because the song could come in handy for other gigs. It was going to be me, another singer/guitarist, and a percussionist.

The wedding was held in a hidden place called Boojum Tree Gardens. It was a nursery, a large wooded compound nestled off near the freeway yet not accessible from it. I got there about 45 min. before the gig was to start. I called the singer and found that he was in the shower! So once again, I was stuck with the job of setting up. I found a bustling scene inside the gardens, photographers, AV guys talking into their mics and listening on earpieces, well-dressed and not-so-well dressed guests bustling about.

I bought the Samson Expedition Express a few months ago. This is a small PA system containing one powered speaker and one un-powered speaker. The powered speaker is extremely heavy, and not fun to load up on a stand. Setting up was long, laborious, aided only by the fact that winter in Phoenix is rather comfortable. Yes, the wedding was to be held outside!

Now, I had been busting my butt learning this Pachenbel's Canon, which is a simple progression of D A Bm F#m G D G A, which is a bunch of variations all in this progression. Some of them were a bit difficult, going up to the 15th fret and doing stuff under barres. I worked fairly consistently for a month to get it up to speed. This was compounded by the fact that I fizzle under pressure, so I wanted to overprepare. In our rehearsal, me and the other guitarist worked out an arrangement. We would play continuous rasgeo (this was supposed to be a "flamenco" version) for two cycles of the above-mentioned progression. On the second cycle, he would play a slow picado line, one of the more recognizable variations. Then he would switch to playing arpeggios, and I would go into the variations I had spent a whole month perfecting.

Well, fast forward to the wedding. There is some confusion, as we are cued to play certain songs at certain times, by mistake we play Pachenbel's Canon for the bridesmaid's procession. We start off with a light, graceful rasgeuo... the groom catches my eye and gives me the thumbs up signal. He likes it. On the second cycle, my partner starts playing the melody... okay, it sounds okay, not bad for only learning it last night. The third cycle starts, where he's supposed to start playing arpeggios and I take over...but no, he plays the melody again. The fourth cycle--he plays the melody again! The fifth--again!! The sixth! Mercifully, the procession ends, and now...

Then the bride comes out, who we were supposed to play the Canon for. Whoops! My partner says, "What do we play?" I say, "Pachenbel's Canon!" I start the rasgeuo intro again, and he follows me... on the second cycle, he starts playing the melody. He repeats the same simple picado line over and over again until finally, mercifully, the bride reaches the front and we stop.

I sit back with a no doubt sour expression on my face... a bit bitter--no quite bitter!-- that I had worked hours and hours and hours on this song, and when it was my time to shine, I was relegated to strumming while my partner idiotically repeated a simple and poorly-played simplification of one of the melodic variations! Damn!! Thanks for listening to me vent.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 10 2003 17:17:16

Jon Boyes

Posts: 1377
Joined: Jul. 10 2003

RE: My wedding gig (in reply to Miguel de Maria)

That must be so frustrating, M. I was getting tense just reading it!

Put it down to experience, and congrats on playing your first wedding, may it be the first of many.

Wedding gigs are my favourite - well paid and everyone is (usually) very happy. I guess you'll be doing your next wedding solo, eh?

_____________________________

Spanish Guitarist in Devon, Cornwall and Somerset

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 11 2003 9:00:27

Miguel de Maria

Posts: 3532
Joined: Oct. 20 2003
From: Phoenix, AZ

RE: My wedding gig (in reply to Miguel de Maria)

Jon, I had a feeling you'd sympathize :). Actually it's my second wedding, but the other one went a little better, and I had a different partner. That one was funny, because the bride got my other partner's CD and loved it, and she heard him play "Samba para Ti" and asked him to play that song. So we were supposed to play "Samba Para Ti" during the whole processional...parents, bridesmaids, best men, groom, bride... well that song was at least 10 minutes long. We just keep repeating it over and over again.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 11 2003 14:00:44