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Just Landed a New Gig. Could Use Some Input.


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Just confirmed that I'll be joining a line-up of fun players in this region, a few of whom I've gigged with previously. Fairly recent act, though they quickly became busy pre-pandemic, stayed together and gigged a few times during it, and now are picking up solid bookings again for later this/next year - outdoor fests, some clubs again.

 

Set list is all over the place: classic, alt and new rock, old and modern country, some older R&B and a little modern dance stuff (which I can add to, from my last band's book). If I had to cover a gig with them tonight it would happen, except for a large 'handful' of classic rock songs with heavy-duty, signature keyboard stuff - songs I haven't covered in performance. Though I have a capable ear and can write charts and score, it would be an awesome time-saver to access any charts/lead sheets those here could offer. Synth-programming shouldn't be a problem for most of this, though some input could be helpful - especially on any of the synth lead/signature riff layers.

 

If any of you have charts/lead sheets/score for these it would be super-helpful. In 2015 the response was great when I made a similar request for a Pink Floyd gig on which I had to get up-to-speed quickly; same with a Mellencamp tribute show, last year. Really appreciated that!

 

Tom Sawyer - Rush

The Grand Illusion - Styx

Foreplay/Long Time - Boston

Carry on Wayward Son - Kansas (Did this one on the road in 1980, but it was heavily edited/part of a medley)

Feels Like the First Time - Foreigner

Double Vision - Foreigner

Light Up - Styx

Rosanna - Toto (Changes and structure okay; having a transcription of the horn riffs and synth lead work would save a ton of time)

Just What I Needed - The Cars

'Someday, we'll look back on these days and laugh; likely a maniacal laugh from our padded cells, but a laugh nonetheless' - Mr. Boffo.

 

We need a barfing cat emoticon!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I'm almost positive the Rosanna solo was covered in Keyboard mag by Jerry Kovarsky. I may still have that issue!?

 

 

Looked online but didn't see where MusicRadar posted the content... only the interview (and ads.... so many ads...)

 

Edit: I am positive. The reference is online ;)

I make software noises.
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Congrats on the new gig! Sounds like a fun list to play.

 

Here's a link to the Rosanna keyboard solo transcription:

https://www.scribd.com/doc/289543912/Rosanna-Keyboard-Solo

 

Fun article about the creation of the solo:

https://www.musicradar.com/how-to/paich-and-porcaro-show-you-how-to-play-the-iconic-rosanna-synth-solo

 

I usually go to https://www.ultimate-guitar.com to get the general chord structure for a song if needed. Look for the higher-rated versions for each song.

Nord Stage 3 HA88, Nord Stage 3 Compact, Casio CT-S1, Radial Key Largo, Westone AM Pro 30, Rolls PM55P, K&M 18880 + 18881, Bose S1 Pro, JBL 305p MKII, Zoom Q2n-4K

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Here's a great cover of Rosanna by Child's Anthem. Jim Frazier nails the synth solo.

 

[video:youtube]

That was pretty good :)

 

The brass was well played...although: Many people (including myself back in the day) miss out on a very important note in the figure entering the chorus. Following the first "F" there's a "D" that precedes the Ab. i.e. The lick doesn't stop halfway on "F". It's not easily heard in the recording, but it's there and makes a world of a difference.

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The brass was well played...although: Many people (including myself back in the day) miss out on a very important note in the figure entering the chorus. Following the first "F" there's a "D" that precedes the Ab. i.e. The lick doesn't stop halfway on "F". It's not easily heard in the recording, but it's there and makes a world of a difference.

Agreed. (Only on the last one though.)

Now out! "Mind the Gap," a 24-song album of new material.
www.joshweinstein.com

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The available sheet music for Foreplay will get you 98% there. There might be literally 1 or 2 notes off in the intro but it doesn't matter. I can E-mail it to you if you want.

Kawai C-60 Grand Piano : Hammond A-100 : Hammond SK2 : Yamaha CP4 : Yamaha Montage 7 : Moog Sub 37

 

My latest album: Funky organ, huge horn section

https://bobbycressey.bandcamp.com/album/cali-native

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I have a chart for 'Feels Like the Very First time too' done by myself. Happy to send.

 

EDIT: I also have 'Carry On My Wayward Son'. Charted it out last year when I got to play it with John Elefante himself!

Kawai C-60 Grand Piano : Hammond A-100 : Hammond SK2 : Yamaha CP4 : Yamaha Montage 7 : Moog Sub 37

 

My latest album: Funky organ, huge horn section

https://bobbycressey.bandcamp.com/album/cali-native

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Allan,

There was an article in Keyboard magazine a while back that featured a transcription of the Rosanna solo that was spot-on. I used it when one of my bands did the tune. It even had different versions that the various keyboard players in Toto did over the years. I"ll see if I can find it. Another challenge was setting up all of the zones among the two keyboards in my rig. There"s a lot going on in that song; piano, organ and brass/sax section during the verses, and fat lead synth brass, synth-bell, saw lead, and a reso-polysynth patch for the solo. There"s even the brass/sax section during the solo that 'answers' the lead synth brass but I never played it. The piano solo at the end was fun, as well.

 

Edit: Well, STB, I see that johnchop recommended this article earlier in the thread. I will now tell myself what I sometimes sarcastically say to others: "It doesn't hurt to pay attention."

"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing."

- George Bernard Shaw

 

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This has been posted here before, and I know you are requesting transcriptions, but for shitz and giggles I ran this through the Amazing Slow-Downer at 60% and it was fairly easy to pick out the notes. Haven't tried it yet, but I bet the ASD would also help with that wild-ass organ solo in Carry On My Wayward Son. I've never seen a transcription of that solo.

 

[video:youtube]

"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing."

- George Bernard Shaw

 

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Allan, what rig are you using for this?

 

Ken... The set list is very broad, so I'm going to try and pack as much functionality into two keyboards as possible. Though I'd covered a suprising amount of split/layer capability with my Stage 3, 76 in the previous band, having two keys on stage will open up options and simplify programming.

 

The Stage 3 76 over RD-88 combination showed a lot of potential when I gigged it a couple times late last year; so that's where I think this is going. With three, ZenCore-based zones available per Scene the RD can reproduce huge layered and/or split synth combis; or it can be SN-based stage piano - or all of the above. If this gig had minimal piano and was synth heavy all night, I'd likely use my Fantom 7; or if further homework shows a need for pattern/arpeggio/sample use the rig could be Fantom over Stage 3 (I've used a couple edited Nord piano tones for a while now). Meanwhile, the Fantom has also been great for quick, Tone programming for export into the RD-88.

I've also considered using my Korg Prologue 8 - either doing a L-shape or offset/angled tier (I'm not into stacked, 3-tier rigs..), or simply using a Prologue-over-Stage 3 setup. That might be a very attractive lightweight rig - especially for small, club stages or quick set 'n strike fest gigs. And it's the real deal for covering a lot of the vintage, analog synth-based material. By its nature, the Prologue does in-the-ballpark OB-X coverage; and there are now both OB-like 4-pole and Ladder filter plug-ins for the instrument. Also the Nord and Roland VAs do a very respectible job with all of that.

 

My MODX 8 would be a monster for this gig, but it's been a studio controller and sound source for close to two years. Also, its action seems to have been beaten up by previous gigging and studio piano stuff. A couple of mid-range keys seem a bit loose (weights moving?), and I'm a little concerned about taking it out.

'Someday, we'll look back on these days and laugh; likely a maniacal laugh from our padded cells, but a laugh nonetheless' - Mr. Boffo.

 

We need a barfing cat emoticon!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Thanks everyone! So far I've received several charts and scores. I have leadsheets and/or fairly condensed charts for all but the Styx Tunes - The Grand Illusion plus Light Up, and Rush's Tom Sawyer.

I do have slightly inaccurate sheet music copies of those songs (most keys lines, but crappy arrangements - shortened/missing sections, repeats, etc..). Using those I can render my own charts, if need be; but if any of you have more accurate arrangements - or better yet leadsheets, that would be awesome.

'Someday, we'll look back on these days and laugh; likely a maniacal laugh from our padded cells, but a laugh nonetheless' - Mr. Boffo.

 

We need a barfing cat emoticon!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Yes, sadly, when Future Music decided to shut down the Keyboardmag and EM websites, nothing was moved over to a new place. For that matter, my column STILL doesn't have a home online, it only goes into print. It's very frustrating... but I still get paid so I'm sticking in there and holding out hope.

 

I actually did a follow-up to that column which never got printed, with some corrections that I got from Steve that came too late to make the print. So I'll attach it here for all.

 

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Let me know if this helps.

 

Jerry

 

 

I'm almost positive the Rosanna solo was covered in Keyboard mag by Jerry Kovarsky. I may still have that issue!?

 

 

Looked online but didn't see where MusicRadar posted the content... only the interview (and ads.... so many ads...)

 

Edit: I am positive. The reference is online ;)

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OK, on re-listening/looking my bar 6 is overly complicated. The player in the video above doesn't hold the A note properly, but after that note my cascade down is not accurate rhythmically. From the F# down it should be a steady stream of notes, not as I wrote. My bad for that.

 

What else do you guys see?

 

Jerry

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But the critical decision to make is what to do during the very overdubbed bars 4-6. The Scribd link doesn't include my discussion of how the live players cover it.

 

Here's the article text:

 

Playing It Live

The opening three bars are easy enough, and one of the most iconic synth lines in popular music. I"ve never heard Toto play the lower stave notes live, however. The bell figure that starts in bar 4 has been done many different ways, often triggered as an audio sample. Example 2 shows how Steve Porcaro treats it currently, and Example 3 shows how Greg Phillinganes did it circa 2008. As long as you bath your sound in some deep delays it"s going to work fine. Both versions simplified the bell part to make it easier to get to the synth horn line that starts in the second half of bar 5. And both players play that line different than the original recording, using a descending melodic line.

 

Steve Porcaro's reduction:

 

zGpRd1z.png

 

Greg Phillinganes reduction:

 

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Jerry

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And now that I found my copy again, the discussion with both guys is so interesting (at least to me), so here it all is:

 

The Making Of

SP: 'Rosanna' was coming together very quick. I was staying at David"s studio, The Manor, working away on synth stuff, while he would be down at the studio with the guys. At some point he did a solo, and he even experimented with some cool stuff. He did a Hammond thing, and he did some backward stuff. I was going ahead with my idea for a real grandiose solo there. Meanwhile, while I was working on it, they had already done the horn arrangement. And the horns had some lines that answered David"s solo. So all of that was there already.

 

I remember walking in one day late at night after really thinking about it, and the opening phrase hit me. I wanted to do a Keith Emerson kind of heroic opening line that established 'here I am,' but with the blipped trumpet sound that we copped from the Sheik Yerbouti album. That"s where that came from: Tommy Mars with Zappa. I loved that type of sound; it became 'our' sound. I had the opening line down, I knew it was strong, and I liked it. I was noodling around with different stuff, but let"s just flash to the night before they were mixing the song. David and I were looking around at his studio, where we had everything set up. And we decided, 'let"s go around the room. Let"s use everything that"s in here and just go for it.'

 

And let me return the favor to David. He says he"s taken credit for a lot of stuff I"ve done; I"ve taken tons of bows for that 'Rosanna' solo, but it"s as much Paich as it is me. The very next section, the sequence line that falls down, that was an MC-4 sequence that we programmed: those were Paich"s notes that he wrote out. And then right away we knew we wanted a Rick Wakeman 'Catherine of Aragon' kind of filter-being-driven-by-the-keyboard on a Minimoog. So that was the next line we put on. And we just went around the room, and put together this solo. This was hours before they were going to start mixing the song.

 

By the way, one of the first things I did when I started working on the solo myself, because I wanted all the tracks, I erased his solo. And as a matter of fact, I erased it with the VSO kicked in at high speed, I"m sure. (Laughter.) Because I was anxious to get to work. At least I thought I had erased the solo. We were at the very end: we had put all these elements together, and there was one last section missing. And we were stuck, I didn"t know what to do, I was drawing a complete blank. All of a sudden I look, and I hadn"t erased David"s solo all the way to the end. I unmuted the tracks, and there was this real cool backwards Hammond thing that he had done. That"s what closes the 'Rosanna' solo!

 

DP: Now let me fill in a couple of details for you. Steve gives me credit for the MC-4 part; I did write some notes, but that"s because I had gone over to the MC-4 and said, 'Well, let"s use this. What"s in this now?' And I hit it, and a tumbling array of notes came down. I said, 'That"s the kind of thing we want, except they weren"t the right notes.' So Steve looked at me, and looked at the empty, blank music paper, and said, 'Buddy, you better get writing right there.' So those four lines weren"t just haphazard accidents. They were actually orchestrated. I"m so glad that he did the solo that he did, and thank God he didn"t erase and used the very end. Which makes it the great outro that it is. A happy accident.

 

SP: We bounced it down right then and there, with all my rolling tape slaps, all the s*** that L.A. engineers would normally not let me use. You know, that L.A. 'we"ll do that in the mix' style of recording in those days. We bounced it down to two tracks and brought it over to Record One where Greg Ladanyi was mixing that tune that day. Brought over the slave and he just had a left and a right for the keyboard solo. He f-n" loved it, and cranked it.

 

DP: You have to understand our band: any time we would play a keyboard part that had anything substantially interesting, they would reach for the faders and immediately pull them down. Now, I come to the studio, and I hear he has it cranked in there. We couldn"t believe it. Steve and I are going, 'Well, there"s going to be a band meeting over this one.' (Laughter.) But Greg didn"t know that he was supposed to turn that all down to where the band liked. He just cranked it to the top, and that made the whole thing happen. He just mixed it like he heard it. Keith Emerson told me that"s why he liked that song: that solo lifted the whole record.

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So it's been bothering me, as I hold Bernmeister and his ears in high regard, so if he says something is wrong I listen. So I did that, and relistened to the cascade section in bars 4-6 of the original to try to better decipher what they did. This is my revision... it's much better than before. Note, this is not what you would ever try to play, but it's what they did on the original recording. Or at least closer. I left out a couple of lower synth notes I hear starting on beat 4 of bar 5 and into 6 just to keep the score cleaner/simpler.

cQ5HMfE.png

 

Jerry

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OK, on re-listening/looking my bar 6 is overly complicated. The player in the video above doesn't hold the A note properly, but after that note my cascade down is not accurate rhythmically. From the F# down it should be a steady stream of notes, not as I wrote. My bad for that.

 

What else do you guys see?

 

Jerry

The very first figure should have the triplet start on A (instead of 8th rest and then the G). It's a three-note phrase there.

Now out! "Mind the Gap," a 24-song album of new material.
www.joshweinstein.com

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Hi Math:

 

Read my article again... I had originally done it that way back when I wrote the column and Steve P was very adamant that it was wrong. The note we all hear comes from the CS-80 comping figure, not the solo line.

 

[video:youtube]

 

That said, if you add it no one is going to complain, as it is heard in the track.

 

Jerry

 

 

OK, on re-listening/looking my bar 6 is overly complicated. The player in the video above doesn't hold the A note properly, but after that note my cascade down is not accurate rhythmically. From the F# down it should be a steady stream of notes, not as I wrote. My bad for that.

 

What else do you guys see?

 

Jerry

The very first figure should have the triplet start on A (instead of 8th rest and then the G). It's a three-note phrase there.

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