theatre - Gary Mullins - Professional Guitarist

Jesus Christ Superstar

April 23, 2014PermalinkTheate Work24, acoustic, andrew, christ, custom, electric, guitar, jesus, line6, lloyd, martin, musical, paul, pod, reed, royal, slough, smith, superstar, theatre, webber, windsor Leave a comment

Just before Easter I was involved in a production of Jesus Christ Superstar at the Theatre Royal, Windsor. While I didn’t get to see the production itself, it sounded fantastic as the band were great musicians directed by a fantastic musical director. We were left largely to interpret the music how we saw fit, which gave me a lot of room to express myself and put my own stamp on this iconic musical.

I used my Paul Reed Smith Custom 24 Artist pack guitar for the majority of the run, along with my trusty Martin acoustic.

The music is consistent throughout the show, and there are no natural opportunities to change from electric to acoustic, therefore I had have my acoustic mounted in a playing position beside me so I could play it still wearing my electric. This system worked ok, although it wasn’t ideal! Still, I’d have rather have a true acoustic sound than compromise, so it was worth the stretch!

I had to use my POD as an amp sim to keep the volume down in the pit, and I thought it sounded lovely, and took the sound of my pedal board well.

I felt the run was brilliant – really consistent and a great show with fun music to dig into, be expressive and delicate in equal measure. I can’t wait to do it again!

Sound of Music Dress Rehearsals

May 27, 2013PermalinkTheate Workacoustic, guitar, line6, music, new, of, oxford, Sound, theatre, Variax Leave a comment

Today I have two dress rehearsals for the Sound of Music, and we’re half way through the first act of the first run. It’s pretty interesting as this is the first time I’ve played in a room separate from the pit, and with a headphone mix/video feed. It’s taken a little getting used to, but it’s starting to feel really good. It is a bit odd being in a different place to the rest of the orchestra, and there is a lot of creaking overhead from the performers moving about on stage. It all makes for a very interesting experience, but it does a good job of forcing you to concentrate really hard. One other benefit of being in this room is that there’s quite a lot more space than I’m used to! Real luxury!!

Sound of Music rehearsals

May 14, 2013PermalinkTheate Workmusic, new, of, operatic, oxford, rehearsal, society, Sound, theatre Leave a comment

At the moment I’m getting ready to start rehearsing with the Oxford Operatic Society for their upcoming production of The Sound Of Music. I’m currently running through the pad and making sure there isn’t anything too unexpected in there, and all seems to be plain sailing at the moment.

I’m using a Line6 Variax Acoustic guitar for this show since there are a few mandolin cues that I’ll be covering with the Mandola voice on the guitar. I’ll be playing everything up an octave too, so that should give me a reasonable interpretation of the mandolin sounds the MD is looking for. I’ll be using the Martin OOO voice for the rest of the show which is a nice and focused sound which cuts through nicely.

The Variax is a great instrument and is a real asset in these settings. This will be the first time I’ve used it on a show like this, but I’m already feeling the benefit of not having lug extra kit around, plus the tangling of cables with multiple instruments is always something to contend with. Thankfully I won’t have to worry about that, or any rapid changes to and from instruments. Just a turn of a dial for me!

The show runs at the New Theatre in Oxford from the 28th of May to the 1st of June, with a matinee on the Saturday. I’m looking forward to the show since this will be the first time I playing at the New Theatre, and it wasn’t so long ago I saw Ray LaMontagne and Zappa Plays Zappa there, so it’ll be nice to grace the some venue as those guys!

Sweet Charity

June 23, 2012PermalinkGigs, Theate Work175, 60, aer, charity, compact, court, es, gibson, musical, sweet, theatre, tring Leave a comment

I’m currently playing on Sweet Charity for the Tring Festival Company at the Court Theatre in Tring.

The score requires me to play a Jazz semi acoustic, and a classical guitar since it’s largely made up of big band and flamenco style parts. It’s quite a challenging pad because a lot of is counted in two which makes reading it a bit tricky at times. There are some uptempo pieces in 3/4 too which are quite exciting!

I’m running my Gibson ES175 and my Manuel Raimundo classical through my AER compact sixty. I’ve got a touch of slap-back delay on the 175 for a 60’s vibe and that’s about it! It’s a nice, practical set up that sounds great and is really easy for the sound guys to work with. Lovely!

Seussical The Musical – Elgiva, Chesham

April 21, 2011PermalinkLive Work, Theate Workbanjo, chesham, elgiva, gary, guitar, guitarist, mullins, musica, player, risborough, seussical, theatre, youth Leave a comment

Tonight will see the first performance of Seussical the Musical at the Elgiva Theatre in Chesham, Bucks. I’m really excited about it because the music in it pretty varied in style, but I’m also covering two guitar parts. It’s really challenging, but great fun.

The show has rock, funk, latin, and blues genres in it, and a handful of lovely ballads too. I have to play electric and acoustic guitar as well as banjo which is a real treat!

There’s a great deal of uptempo stuff in the music – your counting has to be spot on especially because the time signatures change around quite a lot.

Managing both guitar parts isn’t too difficult either – I’ve marked both pads up where I need to swap from one to the other, and any instrument changes as required. I do find myself playing parts from both pads in a single tune, and some changeovers are as short as a couple of bars, but it’s great fun and I wouldn’t want to do it differently.

Gear-wise I’m using my trusty Ibanez RG3120 for the electric stuff. It’s a really versatile humbucker-driven guitar, and I can get some really sweet out of phase single coil tones out of it too. This is plugged into my pedal board, and out into my Blues Junior which does a great job in these settings. My acoustic is the Martin OMC16Aura which sounds lush through my AER Compact 60 acoustic amp – the mic algorithms sound fantastic. I’m also putting my banjo through the AER since I fitted a K&K Banjo Twin transducer pickup to the head. This sounds really good – beyond all my expectations. The banjo is also holding up well in the pit – it’s a Deering Goodtime Special and I’ve tuned it to G D G B E which means my chord shapes on the top four strings are the same as the guitar stuff. I feel a bit ashamed doing it as I’d love to same I can play it as it’s meant to be played, but alas! needs must. It’s doing the job and sounding great.

I’ll keep you posted how it goes!