For our third project, we were tasked with performing in two different tribute bands. This means that we would have to research into the set artist and genre, and provide and authentic replication of their performances. Our band was set to be a tribute to the popular reggae artist Bob Marley, and for this I was tasked with playing the drums. This would be somewhat difficult for me personally, due to the fact that I am fairly new to playing percussion with very little prior knowledge of this instrument. I was instructed to compile a 5-song set-list with the other band members and this involved extensive research into the style and origins of Bob Marley, in which I had to thoroughly and keenly observe his iconic style in order to successfully channel this into the band.
Our band had a total of eleven members, making us much larger than the other tribute band.
Myself – Drums
Cain – Bass Guitar
Finlay – Saxophone
Ant – Vocals
Shy’yan – Vocals
Veronica – Vocals
Jada – Vocals
Sarah – Keyboard
Harry – Keys/Mixed percussion
Jensen – Electric Guitar
Leah – Electric Guitar
Due to us having such a large band it would take much more time to arrange and learn each song, plus Ant is a rapper so we would have to incorporate this aspect into our performance without subtracting from the level of authenticity.
The positive of having such a large group, is that there was plenty of room for adding in extra bits of mixed percussion and improvisation to our set and this really added to the authenticity and presentation of our performance as this is a common aspect of many other reggae acts, including Bob Marley himself.