Despite the ongoing pandemic, my music teachers at West Hill school were keen to produce some music and keep pushing us forward as musicians. However, when the second lockdown measures came into action, any hopes of this appeared to be gone as all rehearsals were cancelled. In my efforts to raise spirits, I decided to contact all of the members of dating back over ten years to when it started. I arranged a medley of Christmas songs in a Jazz big-band style, strongly influenced by two previous arrangements that we have played in the past. I also included a section from the arrangement of 'O Holy Night' (originally played by Wayne Bergeron) as this is a personal favourite of my music teachers.
I sent sheet music and recording instructions to all of the musicians involved and organised a time to record the drum part. I only had access to one overhead mic, so I made sure I used as many close-mics as possible. The final mix had five drum tracks: Kick/Snare Top/Mono Overhead/Rack Tom/Floor Tom. I also spent a long time on the mixing of the drum tracks as I wanted to get the most professional sound I could. It took a few more weeks before I received the rest of the recordings, which left me with less than a week to edit all of the audio and video into a finished project.
I still proceeded with the project, after a busy week, I was happy to have organised such a successful project. The final video is available to watch above. You can also see the article from West Hill school's website below: