Our band is far bigger than the other tribute band, and our instrumentation is as follows:
-Drums
-Keys
-Bass
-Guitars
-Saxaphone
-Vocals
-Various Percussion
*More detail on this on the “Introduction” page
When we had to decide on a 5 song set list, we chose some of Bob Marley’s most famous tracks, that were somewhat easy to play for each instrumentalist. Due to the short timescale and the size of the band, the difficulty level was an important factor to think about when choosing a set list.
The set list is as follows with the chord sheets attached:
–Buffalo Soldier – This is probably Marley’s most famous song ever written along with ‘Three little birds.’ Not only this, but it was very simple to play for every instrument and has a simple enough structure to rearrange when necessary. The drums just hold down a steady one-drop rhythm while the rhythm section play the chords. The saxophone plays the memorable melody line that brings in this song.
–Is This Love – Again, another very well known song by Bob Marley. This song holds down a simple one-drop rhythm on the drums similar to the one in buffalo solider. The rhythm instruments play the chords while the saxophone plays a melody line in parts.
–Turn Your Lights Down Low – This personally was my favourite song to play as it opens with a big drum fill and bass backing, and has a few more fills scattered throughout. The main drum rhythm is a sort of mix between a one-drop beat and a rocker beat. This beat has a straight constant quaver hi-hat line with a kick on beat 1 and an emphasised rim shot and kick on beat 3. Once again the guitars and keys play the chords using a skank rhythm while the vocals take the leading role and the sax plays a few improvised melodies when necessary.
–Jammin’ – This song was a struggle to pull off at first. The drums played certain fills and such which I did not have time to master. Not only this, but it also has a verse right in the middle where everything drops all the way down and has two chord stabs and drum fills to finish it, this was hard to pull off as there is no obvious cue to go into this section. Other than this the instrumentation is the same as the other three songs.
–Three Little Birds – Another immensely famous Marley track, This was a nice laid back song to end on. Instrumentally, the set up s still the same. the sax plays the iconic melody from this piece throughout while the band holds down the rhythm. The drums play a simple one drop rhythm with crotchet hi-hats instead of quavers.
As for band rehearsals, we practised once every Thursday afternoon, and would try to fit in extra practice time on a lunch time during the rest of the week.
Our main three big rehearsals were on: Thursday 1st of February, Monday 5th of February, and Wednesday 7th February.
–Thursday 1st – We finished learning all five songs, and learnt ‘Jammin’ together from scratch. we ran through almost the whole set once to an acceptable standard but improvements would be needed. Buffalo soldier was near perfect. Three Little Birds was near perfect. Turn Your Lights Down Low needed the rhythm section to work with the drum fills, and an ending had to be arranged as the album version has a fade out ending. We finished off learning Is This Love, but were yet to put the song together properly.
–Monday 5th – Neither guitarists decided to show up to this outside of lesson time rehearsal until we were already an hour and a half in. We continued without however and perfected both Buffalo soldier and Three Little Birds. when the guitarists arrived we had an hour to assemble Is This Love and get it to a good standard. This was successful and we moved on to finishing turn your lights down low. once these were all to a presentable standard we spent the rest of our time learning Jammin’ and separately worked on this song throughout the week so that it was ready for the final practice.
–Wednesday 7th – In this session we put together Jammin, and used all of our time with 100% efficiency and really managed to nail the whole set. We then ran the whole set in orded four times in total so that not only were we fluent on the songs, but that we were effectively moving between songs and not having long transition times. In this session we also very briefly discussed stage presence, set up, sound/lighting, and possible dress code. We were ready to perform the following afternoon.
*I had already learnt my parts within the first few weeks of the project. I practiced every lunchtime and even at a practice room once a week in Bradford so that I was as prepared as I could be for the gig. See the next page for details.
Footage of our final practice: