Following lessons with Richard last week I've finally made a choice on the final piece for my set. He gave me a couple of books to look at and I've settled on a Dave Weckl piece called 'Island Magic' which I'm quite fond of. It's technically challenging in a different way to the others, as it is more Jazz/Latin influenced, and includes several different rhythms, hits and a lengthy drum solo as well odd time bars. This will allow me to showcase another side to my playing as all my other pieces are largely Rock influenced, and don't leave as much room for improvisation. There is the matter of how well it will fit into the set given this, but it is still a very active, up-tempo piece, and I think if I place it after 'Subdivisions' somewhere in the middle of the set it will flow nicely. I had wanted a piece that was a departure from the rest of what I did but felt that arranging instrumentation would hold me back, but as this track comes with a backing track it means I don't have to worry about this, which is good given I'm having enough of a challenge arranging rehearsals for my other pieces. The set list, in no order, stands thus:

Subdivisions - Rush
Selkies: The Endless Obsession - Between The Buried and Me
Universal Mind - Liquid Tension Experiment
Schism - Tool
The Sound of Muzak - Porcupine Tree
Island Magic - Dave Weckl

I have to demonstrate a sample of my set on Wednesday 6th March, and have arranged rehearsals to hopefully get the pieces we are playing up to scratch. I'll be the first to admit that we are behind with rehearsals at this stage, largely due to scheduling conflicts and failure of some of the band to turn up, so I'm a little apprehensive about it. The pieces we are aiming to do for this are Schism and The Sound of Muzak. I'm quite comfortable with my parts for these, and have continued working on my double bass drum pedal technique so I can incorporate it into Schism where I'd originally planned to re-orchestrate the parts. It will just be a matter of getting the tracks together with the rest of the band. I've also started working intensely on learning 'Island Magic' in the hope that if I couldn't get the other pieces together I'd be able to substitute that in but although I'm making good progress, it's not looking like I'll get there in time. I'll continue working on it in my spare time just in case, and even if I can't perform all of it, part of it would be better than nothing should the other tracks not come together.