Leadership:

Q- how would you describe yourself as a leader and give an example of

a situation where you had to take a decision in a leadership
Position;
When leading a band or a section in a performance context my number
one priority as a leader is to be clear. Communicating clearly and
effectively is, I believe, the most important quality a bandleader can
have. Other strengths I posses that I think are important are:

An ability to quickly recognise potential problems during

performance and quickly direct the band to adapt (eg.
Vocalist skips a line of the verse)
Excellent aural skills that allow me to monitor each
musicians part and quickly react to any issues and
direct accordingly (eg. An instrument is playing the
wrong section)

Some leadership decision making examples:

Leading horn section

Last week I was leading the horn section for a 14-piece band.
The horns had charts but rest of the band did not. This involved
me constantly monitoring the band and the vocalist and directing
the rest of the horn section when to come in at certain sections,
which sections to repeat, when to go to the CODA etc.

Delegating roles in a trombone section

Each year I sit on the audition panel for my states Honour Band.
Once the players for the trombone section has been chosen, it is
then up to me to choose which player will be principal, who will
be second, which chairs to double etc. I always try to choose a
combination that draws on the strengths of each player. For eg.
A strong leader playing principal paired with a second player
who is a great listener sensitive to section balance.

Conflict resolution
As leader of an originals band I recently had an issue where one
member was becoming increasingly unavailable for gigs and
rehearsals. The other members of the group wanted to

permanently replace this member. Instead, I organised a oneon-one meeting with the member in question and raised the
issue of his availability and level of commitment. He confided in
me that even though he still valued working with the band, it was
true that this band was no longer a priority to him. We came to
the agreement that the band would seek out and rehearse a
replacement for him, but we would still offer gigs first to the
original member.
Technology:
Describe how you would proceed to operate the following tasks on
Ableton live:
Modifications to songs in the show:
length (add a chorus),

Assuming the show is set to run from the session view with each scene (or
group of scenes) being one song in the show and assuming that the added
chorus is to be a permanent lengthening of the song, I would make the
changes as follows:

1. Copy the songs scene from the session view to the arrangement
view (click and drag).
2. Select all tracks and create a split at the point where the chorus is to
be added.
3. Select all tracks from the split point to the end of the song, then click
and drag to create space for the extra chorus (eg. 32 bars).
4. Select the chorus (32 bars) that is to be repeated and copy-paste
into the space just created.
5. Select entire song and click and drag back into the corresponding
scene in session view.

alternate versions (Plan B version without the central section of

the juggling act (shorter),

Again, assuming show is set to run from session view, I would have two
scenes set up to run the juggling act. The first scene would act as the Plan A
(long version) scene. That is, it would run complete from start to finish as
planned.
Below that I would create a Plan B scene which, when triggered, jumps to
the beginning of the CODA (or at the beginning of whatever section of the
song comes immediately after the section that is to be cut). During
performance, if the song needs to be shortened, I would cue the band to jump
to the CODA then count them in and trigger the Plan B scene. To create this
Plan B scene in Ableton:
1. Select Plan A scene in session view and click and drag into
arrangement view.
2. Select all tracks and create a split at the beginning of the section
immediately after the section that is to be cut.
3. Select all tracks from the beginning of the split to the end of the song
and click and drag into seesion view, creating a new scene directly below the
Plan A scene.

addition of an instrument.

1. Click and drag all tracks into arrangement view.

2. Assuming new instrument is an audio file, or it is an instrument to be
recorded, create new audio track (CMD+T)
3. Either import audio file or record instrument into the arrangement.
4. Click and drag all tracks back into session view.