Big Country - Bela Fleck and the Flecktones - percussion cover

[lr52185]

This is amazing! Wish I had a chance to play this back in my percussion ensemble days. I do think putting the banjo part on a xylophone would have been slightly better (seems more banjo-y to me).

[bandgeek599]

wow this is good i suck at xzylophone probably cause i just started but i like this its good i play brass instraments and 2 woodwinds hard transition from a brass/woodwind to percussion

[74gretsch]

Very Nice !

[brenno08]

Is there anywhere I can purchase this arrangement from?

[bjorlrr]

Hey man can you get your arrangement anywhere?

[Moog167]

I always love the part where Jaco Pastorius's "Continuum" is heard within the song (3:33)

[joannalovesit16]

Damn, that was fun to play. I miss that marimba a lot. It's chillin in my parent's place right now gathering dust, but my dads getting me a place this summer in town where I can live/ keep my instruments, particularly that one right there :)

[dmjust]

Hey! This was incredible! I myself am a percussionist struggling my way up to get to a nice university ahah!

Is there any way i could have this arrangement?

Thanks in advance and congratulations!

[percussiontech1]

What  mallets is the bass marimba using? Those sound tasty!!!

[ap2011]

Great job on the first soprano solo!! Awesome arrangement!

[rampagededdog]

WOW! This is a really amazing arrangement! Last year at Marshall University we played the other arrangement of this song. I listened to the original and our piece sounded kind of off, to me at least. I can't even describe how great your arrangement is! I love it! Keep the good work up and hope to hear more from you!

[NiklasSD]

fuvkin Nice arrangement of bela fleck's Big Country - Really nice marimba interpretation! - the marimba really made the "Country" mood, like the banjo does in Bela's work.

Awesome players, hope to see more of u guys here on youtube!

cheers from Denmark,

Hope to see u soon in DK! ;)

[SriKitchi]

This is pretty damn stunning, I have to say.

Panpipes? I'm not entirely sure what those instruments are... but the arrangement is absolutely fantastic.

It's kept the 'feel' of the original remarkably well. Plenty of kudos!

[SeanUNT]

@SriKitchi Thanks, I'm glad you liked it! Who said anything about panpipes though?

[SriKitchi]

@SeanUNT Haha!

I dunno... I don't know what those instruments are. I don't know what panpipes are, either. So I put two and two together. :P

[SeanUNT]

@SriKitchi Maybe you were looking at the resonators on the instruments and thinking they reminded you of panpipes, hehe? It's 2 marimbas and a vibraphone, which are percussion mallet instruments. And of course panpipes get blown into, haha.

[himmy0169]

very nice.........

[Cronaldo02]

i think i like the original arrangement for percussion.

[SeanUNT]

If you're talking about Olin Johannssen's large ensemble version, if you've heard Bela Fleck's original on Left of Cool, I think you would agree that he butchered it and turned it into a goofy hoedown. Plus he took out all the good solo parts and watered it down.

[Cronaldo02]

Totally agreed,

[Cronaldo02]

either way, a great deal of skill no matter how you look at it

[SeanUNT]

I realized pretty quickly when I was arranging it that it was almost impossible to get a real drumset to sound like Futureman's Synthax Drumitar, so my solution was to have my drummer use brushes, which I think got his chilled out feel over a big snare backbeat that makes it too country like in Johannsen's. Before I arranged this I used to think the Flecktone's would be better with a real drummer, but there is something to the Synthax for Bela's style of writing I had to admit after this.

[Cronaldo02]

In any case, That was, Wow. I had troubles playing the piece and you went ahead arranged it. Good on ya. Keep it up. =p

[Canawadry]

C'est tout simplement génial ! J'adore ce son !

[FSULesClaypool]

This is probably my favorite song of all-time. You guys did it justice!  Beautiful!!!

[boogpatton]

Well done.

[SHnoregrets1979]

Impressive!

[Alboropeacepriest]

AMAZIIIIIIIIING!!!

[ChukDaDrummer]

This is great.

You should really listen to the Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer, and Mike Marshall version of this song. It's on the album Uncommon Ritual. I would really like to make and play an arrangement of that version.

[SeanUNT]

Yeah, people have told me about that one. Haven't heard it, but I'm sure it;s awesome with Edgar. Thanks for the kind words. I have my arrangements Metric Lips and Vix 9 on here, and more on the way, would you subscribe? Thanks!

[JeNnI9523]

This is soooooo cool, seriously.

We played this at FYPE (Fife Youth Percussion Ensemble) but ofcoarse it was a slightly different composition but to be honest we had a little trouble with the four mallet players in our piece always speeding up but on the day of the concert we managed to fix it. I really love what you have done to this piece, you have basically given it life. Sorry if I sound a bit sadistic but I love this piece and it was one of my favourites out of our programme.

X

[SeanUNT]

No problem, I love it too. It's one of the most beautiful pieces ever written. I hope you have heard the original version by Bela Fleck & the Flecktones? If not, you really must, it's on Left of Cool.

Was the arrangement you played by Olin Johannsen? I didn't like how he changed the feel of the piece, and left out all the complex parts. My version is as close to the original as possible, and it ended up working best with just 1 person on a part. Thanks for the kind words, glad you enjoyed it!

[HerbieTG]

Wow, this is awesome. I wish my band director cared enough to do something like this. Instead, he focusu solely on the drums and leaves us mallet players out of the picture mostley. Jazz band was even worse.

[SeanUNT]

That's a shame. I like drumming, but you can do so much more (like my videos) with mallet percussion. See if you can ask your director in a nice way if the pit can have more challenge/exposure.

Thanks for enjoying the video. Make sure and check out my others, and subscribe if you like for more on the way!

[sk8terbennett]

Hey! Awesome version, mind taking a watch of my high school's version of this song?

[SeanUNT]

Thanks! Would you subscribe? I have a lot of cool percussion arrangements of mine on my channel, and I'll be uploading more soon. Sorry for the super long comments on your videos, I get passionate about this sort of stuff, haha.

[mjhild]

Nice arrangement. I'm the same way with Bela Fleck tunes, I play them the exact way he does as best I can- I'm not going to be able to improvise it better. Keep up the good work, thanks for checking out my video.

[undertaikur]

very nice cover. I can see that you're a perfectionist.

[SeanUNT]

Thanks! Haha, that's an understatement for sure. If you check out my other arrangements on my channel, it's pretty obvious.

Some people do arrangements and add their own stuff or (more often) take good stuff away, but I do pretty literal translations. It may be unimaginitve as an arranger, but I use all that creative effort to make it work as true to the original on completely different instruments, and why mess with perfection right?

[Soundmaster2013]

Once again stopping by to listen this amazing song :) It's really great work!

Best wishes

BTW Joanna looks beautiful

[SuperSaxy93]

Mr. Redman

Thanks for arranging this. Because of this I now have four Bela Fleck albums on my Ipod. And this remains my favorite song (though I prefer the Live at the Quick version because of the Wooten/Coffin).

-Cory (Alto Saxophone)

[SeanUNT]

Hey, no problem Cory. It was a blast to play, and it's good to hear that I got more people listening to Bela and the Flecktones, they're the best. Out of curiosity, which 4 albums do you have?

[SuperSaxy93]

I've got Left of Cool, Outbound, Live at the Quick, and Jingle All the Way.

[SeanUNT]

You should check out Live Art too. Another great live album. There are two tunes on there called Vix 9, and UFOTofu that are jaw dropping.

[vinchenzo54]

haha man... i wish we had that kind of equipment at my school...

awesome job though.. bela fleck is amazing

[wolfpackfan1985]

epic! great job guys, wow!

not sure i agree with some of the aspects of the arrangement (not a fan of dissonance in percussion), but some of what i heard could have just been mistakes by the players, easy to make given the scope and difficulty of such a piece

5 stars! and kudos to the music director with the talent and chutzpah to pull this off :)

[SeanUNT]

Well, it was a very hard piece to put on mallet instruments, and sure there were mistakes in the performance. Even some really weird ones that never happened before until this concert, like the bassline dropping out at one point, but that happens with live performance.

I arranged it as a note-for-note transcription of the original Left of Cool track, so there isn't anything added from my end. Glad you liked it though! Check out my other arrangements too if you have a chance.

[musician1971a]

Very well done, both arrangement an playing! These kind of malletsounds always have some kind of relaxing effect on me, and this video is no exception, even though it's originally a banjopiece. Thanks :-)

[lesliebeavers17]

Absolutely beautiful. :) I love the double mallet part especially. I've always wanted to learn how to play with double mallets. I'm only on singles right now, since I started 2 years ago.

[SeanUNT]

Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it. 4 mallets was definitely the only way I could hope to cover a banjo part by Bela Fleck, that's for sure! It was one of the harder things I've ever learned, constant 16th notes the entire 6:30 piece!

[jimm2371]

Kudos to you Sean for being such an open-minded and progressive teacher! I really enjoyed this and I imagine the students will really appreciate this late on in life thinking about their musical experiences!

[SeanUNT]

Thanks jimm. That's what I was going for, by using music that's more relevant to kids these days to keep them excited about music. The classics are important too, but sometimes they get bored or less than enthusiastic with older styles. Plus, I enjoy teaching this kind of music more too (and getting to play with them, haha).

[jsuede7]

Beautiful!

[bmcgee420]

I am very impressed...not only with the unique cover of the 'tones music, but the fact that a teacher is passing great music by GREAT and eclectic artists on to students....I'm sure it is immensely satisfying to see the results of such inspiring music take root.

Well done! Carry on!

[SeanUNT]

Thanks bmcgee, I'm really glad you liked it. Have you seen my other arrangements on my channel? Subscribe if you like them, there's more coming.

That was exactly my goal in arranging these pieces, to get the kids excited about good, modern music. This was the 2nd year I taught them, and I've never seen them work so hard or enjoy learning stuff so much, especially Bohemian Rhapsody. That was a request from them. And then most of them went out and bought Flecktones music off itunes after this.

[beaverteeth92]

Also, I could picture a xylophone being used somewhere on here to accent the vibes.

[SeanUNT]

I went back and forth on how to arrange this piece. At first I wanted it to be a large percussion ensemble, but it wouldn't work out and sound right. Eventually I realized the only way to capture the original feel was to have 1 person to a part. I actually hate the xylophone for modern music, I hardly use it in any of my percussion arrangements, unless it is a really loud/percussive part. It's just so plinky. If I added another instrument, it would probably be another marimba.

[beaverteeth92]

Oh okay. I was just thinking that there should be some high-pitched instrument to accent the melody at some point.

If you don't like xylophone, then what about glockenspiel or the high end of a marimba?

[SeanUNT]

Yeah, I could see a glock playing with the vibes on the chorus maybe, but I think it works best as a quartet like the original. It's hard to improve on the Flecktones :)

[beaverteeth92]

Yeah. Maybe playing accented quarter notes the entire time.

Sort of like a bass in any other setting.

[beaverteeth92]

Do you have the sheet music for this? It's amazing.

[SeanUNT]

Hopefully this will be published by Drop6 percussion in the next couple of months. I'll put a note on here when (if) it is. Search for them on Google.

[austinsucks]

Awesome arrangement. You and your students pulled it off as well, great job.

Did you transcribe the solos from the CD version, or the Live at the Quick version that is nicely on youtube?

My only quibble is that the Jeff/Vic question answer section sounds a bit too much like to separate lines - as opposed to the magic those boys manage to summon. But hey, when a decent comparison can be drawn between you and the Flecktones you certainly know you're doing something right!

[SeanUNT]

I transcribed it from the CD Left of Cool. Live at the Quick is much different. The Jeff/Vic question answer section was a tough spot to transcribe. They lay back their rhythms and it doesn't transfer to conventional notation very well. I did what I could, and had the kids listen to the recording and try to slur the rhythms, but it was definitely tricky.

Glad you liked it, thanks for the kind words!

[YouNoob85]

Hey guys....very nice work! What an interesting arrangement with a nice sound, really ejoyed it! I just saw them tonight in NYC and got to meet them afterwards. What a great song and great band. Check out their Christmas album if you haven't already...

Awesome work though guys! You should keep the music flowing.

And props to the drummer for a good replication of the sound of the drumitar...It is not easy to reproduce the sounds that a man lightyears ahead of our time makes haha!

[SeanUNT]

Thanks man. Wow, I would love to meet them. I've seen them live, but never tried to get backstage.

Yeah, it was a challenge to make the drums sound right. Being an acoustic drummer, I've never been totally sold on the drumitar, but doing this arrangement made me realize how well it complements Bela's music. Using brushes and a sparse beat did the trick, since sticks made it sound like a silly hoedown.

[lastwishSTAR]

Beautiful arrangement. Good call to keep it limited to three keyboards. I think this one is my favorite :)

[SeanUNT]

Thanks, I'm glad you liked it! I had originally tried to make it work for a larger ensemble, but then I would have had to leave out all of the difficult intricate parts underneath the main melodies, and that's what really makes it a special piece.

To see an example of how a large ensemble didn't work for this piece, go to the arrangement at the top of the Related Videos, you'll see what I mean.

[SeanUNT]

Hi Kathleen!

[bubbajames2008]

Amazing arrangment. There are a few mistakes, but I don't think those are because of your arranging. Your arragement doesn't have the country feel that the original song has.

[SeanUNT]

Yeah, it was far from a perfect run, but in concert that's hard to achieve, especially since I transcribed all of the difficult solos.

I would say that the original doesn't really have a country feel. It's very mellow, hardly could even be considered bluegrass in my opinion. Olin Johannsen made it super country-fied for his percussion arrangement, but it made it sound totally goofy in my opinion, losing the beauty of Bela's original.

[bubbajames2008]

That's what i meant. . .It doesn't have the same feel that Johannsens' version has

[SeanUNT]

Which is a good thing in my opinion, I think he ruined the song.

[brucefan91]

this is really cool man. I love bela's music and you captured it amazingly. I'm a trumpet player my self but it would be really cool if my school did something like this

[MartialGandhi]

its pretty good. It's nice to see an unorthodox set of instruments play this song

[Dmle22]

I Loved this! You guys nailed it right down to the Continuum Quote!

Way to go!

[SeanUNT]

Thanks man. I'm ashamed to admit I didn't even realize Vic was quoting Jaco there, even though I've heard Continuum before, but it's been awhile. I just looked it up on Youtube, and bingo, note for note, that's crazy! It fits in Big Country so perfectly, even in the same key, very cool stuff.

[ES942]

This is brilliance. All of you were great.

[lckeeper1]

Wow, incredible. Way to capture the song. I'm speechless.

[SeanUNT]

Thanks! This is one of my favorite songs of all time, so I am glad you think I did it justice.