Skye Ladder - 19th November 2012

Session times: 8pm-9pm

Sky May Fall

During the first session for this song, way back in August, the band and I had discussed using a Flugel Horn for the solo on this track.  

At Remembrance Sunday last week, I spoke to Danny Hirst from Littleborough Brass Band (which I used to play Euphonium in many moons ago) who were leading the parade, and he agreed to come along and put down the solo part.

Janie had written the solo on the keyboard during the first session, so I transcribed it into the key required for Flugel horn (which is written in treble clef, one full tone higher than concert pitch) and emailed Danny a mix of the solo section and the score for him to practice against.

Tonight Janie and Paul chauffeured Danny to the studio with his Flugel Horn and Cornet.  I used the sE2200a as we wanted a clean mellow sound rather than the more bright and brash CS02  (although I had a CS02 set up ready, we never used it).  After a few run throughs and a bit of tuning up we got a take.

I also wanted Danny to try out the same part but with a Cornet, which has a slightly harsher sound (but not as harsh as a Trumpet). In the end we only used the Flugel Horn track.

We were all impressed with Danny's playing and wondered if we could fit another part in at the end of the song during the fade.  Although the music was the same, there was a vocal line which didn't quite sit right with the solo, so we had to quickly write a new part which I then wrote out for Danny to play.

A couple of takes (and a missed accidental) later and we had the take for the ending.

There a a few more songs Skye Ladder have recorded that require some sort of brass section and hopefully Danny will join us for them too.



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