Broadway Pit Band Tour!

Get ready for me to speak in awkward phrasing at the camera! This is a tour of the gear and setup used in the pit for the broadway musical "Something Rotten" that I was on tour with for more than a year.
Website: www.camrguitar.com/
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[@benpo97]

Flying V’s, squier basses, and budget acoustic guitars on a broadway show? Heck yesssss

[@CameronRasmussenGtr]

all day loooonggggg

[@OliverSchlecter]

This is cool man! I just joined the pit band for my school’s production of Legally Blonde. It’s my first time doing anything like that and I’m pretty excited

[@rogierdancona8462]

yoooo i thought my spotify was on the background. PLINI!!!!

[@whamajamma75]

I am doing drums for this now, we are in tech week and open this Friday. Glad I found this it is a fun show.

[@FOHGeek]

Compared to live band sets which emphasizes portability, mobility, creativity and visibility, theatre pit bands are more like hidden, semi-permanent, standardized, reliable setups with heavy-duty rackmount gears, sophisticated routing and comms, and preset-based operation workflow. What inspired me the most is those computerized keyboard synthesis engines, which ensures tonal consistency regardless of the actual model of keyboard the venue or rental shop can provide - No matter it's a cheap Casio piano or a high-end Nord workstation, it'll sound exactly the same with the same patch loaded into the computers.

[@bluejay9638]

I'm taking advantage of my high school years where they get a full pit but cause they know me and know I'm really good I get to play in the orchestra on clarinet, bass clarinent,and alto, tenor, and bari sax. On one of the shows they needed 3 flutes to play at once (we had 2) so I got to play for one. Playing in an orchestra is so fun, especially playing with professional that outshine me in every way LOL. It's still super fun and once I graduate I hope I'll get invited back and go down in history as the guy that played at all of his high school's shows till he died 😂

[@gabrielwareing]

Great video! Nice to see such a thorough tour of a pit.

[@dbeach4044]

Fabulous tour. Awesome amount of work to put in , for sure.

[@ConradAbbottMusic]

Awesome setup thanks for sharing!

[@fullscanproductions]

Excellent tour of the pit. I’m an old guy so an inside tour like this is really a revelation to me!

[@WhippetOut]

Great tour. Thank you!

[@Jamminjared]

Hi Cameron! Thank you so much for uploading this! I hope you are well and you get to return to playing when everything reopens! :)

[@lamusico7746]

"Daddy wasnt there"🤣🤣

[@mastromjm]

oh Cameron you legend. Can't wait to play with you again one of these days!!

[@emilia123zz]

I don’t understand every word but thanks so much for taking time to film this, amazing video

[@pcarhart]

Fascinating. I had no idea there was so much tech involved.

[@stepitupandgo67]

thanx for sharing!!!

[@jimdevlin9045]

really interesting!!

[@abedinsubashi]

Im in high school and we do broadway shows every year and I “quadruple” (don’t know if that’s proper terminology) on Soprano, Tenor, and Bari sax and bass clarinet and I always thought that it’s sick. You’re just surrounded by a wall of instruments

[@CameronRasmussenGtr]

Truck yea! Its a fun part of the job. The terminology we would usually use would just be "double". You have your main instrument, and then 3 doubles. Kinda dumb but thats what it is.

[@mikkovaltonen3564]

I'm studying drums and percussion in Florida at the moment and I'm planning to go to either LA or New York for work when I graduate and get some experience under my belt. Can you compare the pros and cons of the music scene of LA and NYC and which one would be your choice? Of course you'll start out as a sub.

[@CameronRasmussenGtr]

I honestly really enjoyed both cities, but their biggest difference is the "vibe" of how people are. LA most people you will meet I think will be more laid back than in NYC. If you want to do broadway related things, there is more in NYC not just the shows on broadway, but also off broadway and regional theaters, LA will always get tours going through, but the turnaround wont be as frequent and there aren't as many theaters. NYC i think is my permanent choice at this point, but LA is just as fun in different ways. If you are more interested in studio playing, or pop gigs LA is probably better to pursue that. NYC has some pop gigs that happen here, and minimal studio work at this point, but has the broadway game. Hope that helps!

[@joshwhitver1018]

I do MainStage programming for a local theater; my setups all look pretty much identical to what you had going on there, so nice to know I’m doing it right. :) Curious if you know what pedal they’re using for patch advance? Looks better than what I’ve been using.

[@CameronRasmussenGtr]

Nice! Not 100% on the pedal, but i think its usually a boss fs-5u, or something like that construction. Been a bit since I have been in the pit!

[@argoknees2126]

I love that theatre. Wish I got to see that show when it came through. Any advice on getting pit gigs?

[@CameronRasmussenGtr]

Contact the musicians in your area who are doing it, and also the musician contractors and let them know what you do and that you are in town.

[@richardgibson1605]

Great video and set up. I love the "V"! How do the actors hear the pit? Are there stage monitors?

[@CameronRasmussenGtr]

Yes on the side of the stage

[@Jennyshalfmusic]

Are you playing in the UK tour? I can then justify to my girlfriend why I have 2 axe fxs and need to buy a third haha on a serious note would you be up for sharing a patch on the axe change. Would be cool to jam through a real pros preset. Thanks for the vid. Would be my dream to play in a pit band but not a strong sight reader. Still enjoyed some on the amateur shows where I can blag it tho lol

[@CameronRasmussenGtr]

Im actually with Doubtfire full time in NYC right now, no longer with Rotten, though I miss it. I think I will eventually upload some stuff to axexchange, however I dont know if it would be what I used on tour. You can find patch packages for somee of my music on my website!

[@Jennyshalfmusic]

@@CameronRasmussenGtr hey man. No sweat. Watch a few of your vids. Excellent player. Also watch your vid on getting an axe fx preset. Need to really tune my ear into frequencies and get better with that and that'll help!

[@noelhoekstra6852]

So nice! Won't the pedalswitching "clicks" be heard?

[@CameronRasmussenGtr]

do you mean the actual acoustic sound of the switch or the axe fx switching patches?

[@thatdrumguy-hd5zx]

Hey, Im a drumset player/percussionist who is interested in getting into a musical pit. Any seguestions? Thanks

[@CameronRasmussenGtr]

Best way is to contact who is doing it locally and ask to watch with them during a show!

[@BrianRIngram]

I realize every show is different, but what is the typical breakdown of musicians with the tour vs hired local. Are most tours looking to hire local keyboard players, or string, woodwind, percussion etc.?

[@CameronRasmussenGtr]

I think its safe to say that every tour will have 1 keyboard for sure, usually 2 for a tour because if it isnt a huge production like dear evan hansen or hamilton they are probably going to be reducing the orchestration from broadway and putting a lot of midi samples in the keys. other than that there i think is always a touring drummer, and probably something else from the rhythm section like guitar or bass, depending on the style of show and orchestration. after those things, the company will probably elect to hire local musicians for most other things, again depending on the contract.

[@Jamie_kemp]

You said you don't have any music, do you read music? Does that make it harder or do you just find it easier to not have to look at sheets? Thanks

[@CameronRasmussenGtr]

I do read music, there's no way you could do this job in particular without being able. I just said that because after just over a month of playing it every night on the road and looking at the same sheets every night I had it memorized.

[@Jamie_kemp]

@@CameronRasmussenGtr Cool, thanks!

[@seanschweska856]

You have my dream job Do have to live in New York to for broadway

[@CameronRasmussenGtr]

Yes, unless you only wanted to do local theater or touring with a show.

[@seanschweska856]

@@CameronRasmussenGtr how dose one get picked for a touring

[@CameronRasmussenGtr]

@@seanschweska856 Reach out to music contractors is probably the best idea.

[@seanschweska856]

@@CameronRasmussenGtr It’s cool just to reach out cold call people like that

[@CameronRasmussenGtr]

@@seanschweska856 Im sure some people think it's uncool, but whatever

[@NOWELLM08]

Hey man, terrific video! I’m a guitar player for pit orchestras as well, and I have a question. So how was your acoustic mic being routed to the FOH board? I’m trying to figure out how that Boss pedal is muting your mic signal? What was is triggering to mute the signal?

[@CameronRasmussenGtr]

There is a mic muter pedal that the xlr gets routed through first. So to mute/unmute the acoustic you will have to step on both.

[@NOWELLM08]

@@CameronRasmussenGtr Oh ok. So is that Boss pedal just triggering the mute function on that other box?

[@CameronRasmussenGtr]

@@NOWELLM08 Not sure what you mean. The Boss pedal is DI only, and mic muter pedal is just for mic.

[@NOWELLM08]

@@CameronRasmussenGtr Hmm ok, I’m trying to wrap my head around it. So the Boss pedal isn’t muting your acoustic mic? I know it only has a line-in, and is normally just used to trigger a function on another unit.

[@hintonus]

I'm a bassist and have done a few pits before but nothing as big as this, I have moved to a new city and want to start doing pits there, what would be your advice on how to go about getting your first job in a new place?

[@CameronRasmussenGtr]

Sorry for delayed reply! Definitely need to find out who the musician contractor is for the theaters near you and let them know you are in town, what you play, and what you have done before.

[@drasonmeerrkat2617]

Do you have any tips

[@CameronRasmussenGtr]

...not sure. Like working in a restaurant? What do you wanna know?

[@jacobkeppler1984]

Buffalo got best theater in the world

[@liamhill156]

The other guitar chair