4 December, 2013: Rehearsal "Otherside of the Game"

Serena, Kian and myself met at my house, where we rehearsed Erykah Badu's "Otherside of the Game" for an hour and 30 minutes. Kian had learnt the chords for guitar in his own time and brought both an electric and an acoustic - as he prefers playing with the former.

In our arrangement, Serena led the song, whilst I and Kian supported on vocals and Kian also accompanied on his electric guitar. We incorporated elements from various recordings of the song, including the one below.
For example, we harmonised the line "pays the bills" - as seen at approximately 0:35 in the video - similarly to how Badu and her band performed it for this particular live recording. However, I suggested that we not harmonise anything until after the first verse, to build interest as the song progressed. This differs from both the original studio recording (which doesn't contain any harmonies on the "pays the bills" line) and the live performance featured below in which the line is harmonised throughout.

Below are the lyrics of "Otherside of the Game" -  green text represents the sections of the song which we rehearsed to a near-performance standard and red signifies areas which are much more of a working progress.

Whatcha you gonna do when they come for you
Work ain't honest but it pays the bills
What we gonna do when they come for you
Gave me the life that I came to live

Do I really want my baby?
Brother tell me what to do?
I know you got to get your hustle on, so I pray
I understand the game sometimes
And I love him strong but

Whatcha you gonna do when they come for you
Work ain't honest but it pays the bills, yes it does
What we gonna do when they come for you
God I can't stand life withoutcha

Now, me and baby got this situation
See brother got this complex occupation
And it ain't that he don't have education
'Cause I was right there at his graduation

Now, I ain't sayin' that this life don't work
But it's me and baby that he hurts
Because I tell him right, he thinks I'm wrong
But I love him strong

He gave me the life that I came to live
Gave me the song that I came to give
Pressure on me but the seed is grown
I can't make it on my own

Summer came around and the flowers bloomed
He became the sun I became the moon
Precious gifts that we both received
Or could this be make believe

Whatcha you gonna do when they come for you
Work ain't honest but it pays the bills
What we gonna do when they come for you
Gave me the life that I came to live, yes you did

Don't worry baby

I know there's confusion
God's gonna see us through, yeah
Peace out to revolution, but we paid though

Don't you worry, keep your balance

(What you gonna do, What you gonna do)
The work ain't honest but it pays the bills
(Yes it does)

Don't you worry keep your balance
(Don't have to worry baby)
Gave me the life that I came to live
(Yes you did)

Don't you worry keep your balance
The work ain't honest but it pays the bills
Don't you worry keep your balance

You gave me the life that I came to live

Gave me the song that I came to give
Pressure on me
But the seed had grown
I can't make it on my own

Summer came around and the flowers bloomed
He became the sun I became the moon
Precious gifts that we both received
Or could this be make believe

Oh yeah
Badu is with you baby
We gon' make it, yeah
Me, you and the baby

You gonna do
Whatcha you gonna do
Go, yeah, baby, baby
Oh go on

See I ain't tryin' to bind your life
But I want you to do what's right
I'm your wife

Peace out to revolution
I know there's confusion
You gonna what you gotta do now

By the next rehearsal I aim to have learnt all the lyrics so that we can focus our attention on perfecting the arrangement so that we can start performing it as soon as possible so that it will feel completely natural by the time of our major performance.