How often does your band rehearse?

[pedro]

I do believe it really has sunk in now. Putting a band together made up of old guys with jobs etc is something akin to herding cats.

Ok here are my questions and please consider this a poll or survey of sorts.

1. How often do you rehearse?

2. How long did it take you to learn enough material to play out? (Say 3 sets)

[tbwilson]

My band practices 2 times a week for about 2 hours of REAL playing. it would take my guys to learn the material in 3 or maybe 4 weeks. some weeks we can get things better then others.

[pedro]

Thanks for the reply.

[Willy2911]

If you are a serious band you should be at least Rehearsing 3 nights a week IMHO.

[coreyfyfe]

I'll try to be semi-helpful here. My original-music band practices twice a week which pretty much strains our schedules as we all work plus I'm in grad school.

Our drummer also plays in a cover band which practices once a week, with their original line up they prepped a night's worth of top-40 songs in about 2-3 months. After about a year they had a line up change, took a month to get back up to speed, 6 months later another shift, another month or two off, 6 months gigging and now they're back looking for a singer.

My dad is a drummer in a blues band playing a mix of covers and originals which practices once a week. Over the years that he's been in the band I've seen a whole host of new players jumping in and out (all bass players or singers) and they would take about a month or so to get the new addition up to speed.

Good luck with the band, scheduling is always a huge pain in the a**.

[pedro]

Its not a serious band. The goal is to gig out once or twice per month. Covers/bar gig type of stuff.

[Joe Nerve]

A band needs to practice as much as they need to practice to get the job done. Some bands have to do it 3X a week, some none. Some take weeks, some months, some one or no rehearsals. My feeling regarding this is that less experienced musicians need to put the time in. For many years I practiced with the bands I was in 2 or 3 times a week. I think that investment carries over in most of the musicians I know. In the past few years I've played with a number of bands that don't rehearse at all (unless it's original stuff). It's not unheard of for guys to meet for the 1st time on stage. I did it this past saturday.

A great deal depends on how much people can accomplish on their own, how organized they can be, and how accustomed to playing with other musicians they are.

[Stumbo]

Originally Posted by Joe Nerve

A great deal depends on how much people can accomplish on their own, how organized they can be, and how accustomed to playing with other musicians they are.

Practice at home, rehearse with the band.

All the songs to be learned should be on CD's and/or have charts made so that when you get together everyone should already know their parts.

Having separate vocal rehearsals helps as well.

If you have people standing around at rehearsal while somebody learns their part, IMO, it's a waste of time.

If someone leaves the band, as long as you have the CD's/charts, the new member should be able to get up to speed quickly.

[seanm]

Originally Posted by pedro

I do believe it really has sunk in now. Putting a band together made up of old guys with jobs etc is something akin to herding cats.

Herdin' Cats

Originally Posted by pedro

1. How often do you rehearse?

2. How long did it take you to learn enough material to play out? (Say 3 sets)

1. We are a cover band. We rehearse once a week.

2. We did one practice before our first gig.

[Germanbassist87]

Practice 3 to 4 days a week, for about 2 hours at a time, take a break and come back and work some more for about a hour. Prior to gigs, we run through our set once then we pack up and head out. We are a original material band, with 2 covers from Children of Bodom and Slayer for a little extra spice.

[pedro]

A couple of points here

1. The question I asked aren't motivated because they guys can't learn the material. Everybody is a good musician and they don't have any problem learning the stuff. However, the problem seems to be making time within busy work/family schedules to put the stuff together. And yea, we could play a bunch of gigs with tunes thrown together (we've all done it) but we wanted to do something better.

2. We can learn the stuff at home (and do) but somethings have to be worked out together - vocal harmonies, arrangements, etc.

[Clank]

Once a week. All orig.

[Stumbo]

Originally Posted by pedro

1) the problem seems to be making time within busy work/family schedules to put the stuff together.


2. We can learn the stuff at home (and do) but somethings have to be worked out together - vocal harmonies, arrangements, etc.

1. If the guys don't make time, then you really don't have a band, just some guys who think they want a band. Or a band on a certain level, i.e. practicing once a month.

2. If you can only learn 1 song a week, or every two weeks, etc. do the math. How long will it take to get 4 sets of 10 songs together?

There's no magic.

[alembicguy]

One of the bands I play with is a cover band and we dont rehearse together,everybody has a list of songs to learn off the original and show up at the gig and do them.

[seanm]

Originally Posted by pedro

A couple of points here

1. The question I asked aren't motivated because they guys can't learn the material. Everybody is a good musician and they don't have any problem learning the stuff. However, the problem seems to be making time within busy work/family schedules to put the stuff together. And yea, we could play a bunch of gigs with tunes thrown together (we've all done it) but we wanted to do something better.

That is why we are once a week. Any more just becomes a scheduling nightmare. But once a week seems doable.

Originally Posted by pedro

2. We can learn the stuff at home (and do) but somethings have to be worked out together - vocal harmonies, arrangements, etc.

That is an important point. Often enough, the bass line that works great with the recorded version gets thrown out when we cover it. Or we start and stop the song different. That said, once you know the basic structure it is easier to change on the fly.

[Ric5]

Originally Posted by Willy2911

If you are a serious band you should be at least Rehearsing 3 nights a week IMHO.

That would drive me up a wall ... in a very short time I would hate all of the songs and all of the band members ...

seriously if band members do their homework once a week is plenty ... if you over-rehearse then you start to suck.

The band I am in sounds better when we take a whole month off ...

[andybb1500]

We dont rehearse enough haha

probably like once or twice a month, though at school we can sometimes and seeing as its an original band it doesnt matter as much

[bronzehydra]

I'm in highschool, so I can't practice very often. When I was in a band, practice was once a week for us. We had 2 types of practice: A and B. "A" is when we go to the drummer's house and practice with the whole band for about 5 hours. "B" is when we go to one of the Guitar players houses, spend the night (Yeah, i'm not too old to do that) and practice our parts throughout the night and the next morning.

[pedro]

Originally Posted by alembicguy

One of the bands I play with is a cover band and we dont rehearse together,everybody has a list of songs to learn off the original and show up at the gig and do them.

Yes that can work to a point but you still have to work out keys, endings, beginnings, etc.

[pedro]

1. If the guys don't make time, then you really don't have a band, just some guys who think they want a band.

And that is what we are grappling with. It maybe that some in the band will have to admit that while they’d like to be in a band they simply don’t have the time.