Band practice efficiency

[standupright]

As far as I'm concerned thats 'assumed'. However, Mp3s etc. may still require some transcriptions if the vocalist requires a key change.

i def agree with circulating the music......when it comes time for new tunes, then cd's get burned, words get printed, and if needed, charts and music is distributed. def makes a difference.

for existing tune....there's no need since it has already been distributed.

 

[standupright]

Show up late, by at least 15 minutes.

Crank the volume on your amps.

Just call out random songs, you know, the rest of the band doesnt know what theyre called anyways.

Never teach the guitar riff to the bassist.

Have overall bad EQ.

Proceed to cut open your hand on your gibson SG at the end of the last song practiced.

Oh I almost forgot... get mad at the hot chick singer that you have a crush on because she was late and proceed to take her outside, away from the band, to let her know youre upset.

lol

 

[the_hoople]

Yeah, we just put a billiards table in our practice studio. Death of a band, birth of a billiards team. I would advise against billiards tables if you are trying to improve rehearsal efficiency.

 

[Chris Hodges]

Yeah, we just put a billiards table in our practice studio. Death of a band, birth of a billiards team. I would advise against billiards tables if you are trying to improve rehearsal efficiency.

LOL! Been there, done that!

 

[MatticusMania]

lol

you lol, but that was my last "rehearsal"

 

[MatticusMania]

Yeah, we just put a billiards table in our practice studio. Death of a band, birth of a billiards team. I would advise against billiards tables if you are trying to improve rehearsal efficiency.

I used to have a billiards table in my garage where my old band would rehearse. Besides taking up room it never got in the way.

 

[cassanova]

everyone in the band is responsible for practicing on their own time. reheasal is not the time to practice what you don't know.

I wish every band had this attitude. Far too often many a good rehearsal turn to crap because people feel the need to learn the songs there rather than at home.

 

[TimWilson]

Everyone in the band is responsible for practicing on their own time. Rehearsal is not the time to practice what you don't know.

This should be taped to the wall of every practice room.

 

[Fnord Explorer]

I send out an itinerary via email at the beginning of the week and the morning of the practice day stating what I want to accomplish. We're all original music and we practice twice a month for 3 hours at a clip. The first half-hour is usually a warm-up/jam thing which is recorded in case any cool ideas pop up that I go back to and find good chunks from to email as mp3s to the other guys. After that we work on newer material, flesh out arrangements, and things like that and then the last hour is do a couple of the finished songs and call it a night.

It works out pretty well for me. I don't run it like a drill sergeant as its all fun for us as opposed to a mean of income so no point in getting anal about it.

 

[tZer]

I send out an itinerary via email at the beginning of the week and the morning of the practice day stating what I want to accomplish. We're all original music and we practice twice a month for 3 hours at a clip. The first half-hour is usually a warm-up/jam thing which is recorded in case any cool ideas pop up that I go back to and find good chunks from to email as mp3s to the other guys. After that we work on newer material, flesh out arrangements, and things like that and then the last hour is do a couple of the finished songs and call it a night.

It works out pretty well for me. I don't run it like a drill sergeant as its all fun for us as opposed to a mean of income so no point in getting anal about it.

This is the exact same method I use. The ONLY difference (and I am not sure if it is a difference) - We record EVERYTHING - not just the warm-up.

I am a firm believer that if you are playing you are only able to fully appreciate small parts of what the band is really doing. Based on your position in the room, your mood, how complicated your part is, etc... it's very difficult to hear the band with an unbiased ear.

I don't know how many times I've felt like rehearsal just sucked only to listen to the playback on the way home to realize we actually sounded way better than I thought. Had I never listened, I'd have thought a perfectly fine session was bad and possibly made choices that were founded on bad information.

By recording everything and, just as importantly, LISTENING to everything, you get a 100% 'honest' representation of what you did. That way you can fix parts you may not have realized were broken or leave parts alone that you may have thought were off.

Probably more important than being able to correct a misconception about how the band sounded - a few years ago we were auditioning singers for a while and had I gone on my memory of the session rather than the recording, I'd have probably not realized how truly great the singer we have now was.

Because he as a new body and because of all the preoccupation I had with organizing, directing, overseeing, the mood I was in and trying to make sure what I was playing was on - AND because he was sort of understated, personality-wise, my overall impression of his audition was uneventful. But when I listened on the way home I was blown away! I shudder to think of how easily we could have passed on him had we not had the benefit of the recording.

The recording won't lie and it will provide you that unbiased representation of how you sounded. Even better - the recording will help you NOT miss things that you shouldn't miss.

 

[prokfrog]

I'm in a cover band. We all expect of each other to keep brushed up on the current set list on our own time. We will only get together rehearse new material. We do not figure out anything at practice. Everyone is expected to come prepared knowing the new tune we agreed on. We don't try to cram 10 new tunes into a rehearsal either. it's 4 max. After that, we talk about any trainwrecks that migh have happened at the last show, and worrk on those parts if we feel the need, or anything else that may not have sounded right.

 

[standupright]

I wish every band had this attitude. Far too often many a good rehearsal turn to crap because people feel the need to learn the songs there rather than at home.

This should be taped to the wall of every practice room.

it's an attitude that i carried over from playing in orchestras and such. if you dared to sit down at rehearsal and sound like you have not even looked at the music, you would frowned upon, and in principle position not acceptable. the group i play in, we rehearse once a week or twice a month when schedules get crazy. the only way to make it work is to learn the music on your own time.

 

[Fnord Explorer]

This is the exact same method I use. The ONLY difference (and I am not sure if it is a difference) - We record EVERYTHING - not just the warm-up.

I am a firm believer that if you are playing you are only able to fully appreciate small parts of what the band is really doing. Based on your position in the room, your mood, how complicated your part is, etc... it's very difficult to hear the band with an unbiased ear.

I don't know how many times I've felt like rehearsal just sucked only to listen to the playback on the way home to realize we actually sounded way better than I thought. Had I never listened, I'd have thought a perfectly fine session was bad and possibly made choices that were founded on bad information.

By recording everything and, just as importantly, LISTENING to everything, you get a 100% 'honest' representation of what you did. That way you can fix parts you may not have realized were broken or leave parts alone that you may have thought were off.

Probably more important than being able to correct a misconception about how the band sounded - a few years ago we were auditioning singers for a while and had I gone on my memory of the session rather than the recording, I'd have probably not realized how truly great the singer we have now was.

Because he as a new body and because of all the preoccupation I had with organizing, directing, overseeing, the mood I was in and trying to make sure what I was playing was on - AND because he was sort of understated, personality-wise, my overall impression of his audition was uneventful. But when I listened on the way home I was blown away! I shudder to think of how easily we could have passed on him had we not had the benefit of the recording.

The recording won't lie and it will provide you that unbiased representation of how you sounded. Even better - the recording will help you NOT miss things that you shouldn't miss.

Well, I record the entire rehearsal but the jams serve the most purpose in that regard.

 

[Bassorama57]

Great thread Obe. Unless it's already around on here, make it a sticky when we're all done.
I play with two bands - one is "geographically challenged," and only assembles once every several months. We have a working web page where we upload lead sheets, etc.
The other band has very strong leadership from the frontman/lead vocalist - who, while not as formally as the process outlined below (which I'm going to copy/paste into my practice logbook), does essentially that. Fun warm up, works in progress, and a few new-new ones. End practice with another fun/easy/well known number, then lead sheets for the next "Cat 3" tunes are passed out.

 

[Obe]

Wow everybody, thanks for all the insight.

Recording practice to review it is definitely something we haven't thought of. We have done it to have material for promotion, etc., overdubbing vocals and redoing tracks as necessary, but we never have just "let the tape roll", or I guess technically "let the hard drive spin"?? The stupid thing on my part is I have a nice workstation. I will put it to more use!!

Good ideas on how to keep the songs that we have down sounding good, too.

 

[tZer]

Wow everybody, thanks for all the insight.

Recording practice to review it is definitely something we haven't thought of. We have done it to have material for promotion, etc., overdubbing vocals and redoing tracks as necessary, but we never have just "let the tape roll", or I guess technically "let the hard drive spin"?? The stupid thing on my part is I have a nice workstation. I will put it to more use!!

Good ideas on how to keep the songs that we have down sounding good, too.

Aside from all the other great advice - this is without a doubt - one of the most useful things a band can do. You should do an experiment sometime and after you finish a rehearsal and before you listen to the playback talk about how you felt things went - parts you thought were really good, parts you thought were bad - all that. Then leave, put the CD in your car stereo and start listening. Listen to that CD a lot for the next week and see how closely everything aligns with how you thought it was.

It won't surprise me if you are close - but it also won't surprise me if you find things that you had no clue about or that parts you thought were good that weren't and parts you thought were bad that weren't.

 

[lethargytartare]

Currently in a 3-piece that practices 1-2 times per month, and we really rely heavily on showing up prepared -- and the session is a time to lock in on changes, play with the arrangements, etc. It helps to have guys who are keeping on top of things and who are all comfortable voicing their opinions -- after a song, if anyone wants to review a part, or just run through it again, they say so. Personally, I rely on recordings a ton -- I don't get as much time to practice as I'd like, but I listen to our sessions and best recordings on my commute every day (which might bore a lot of folks, but it works for me), and that way, at worst, I've got all of the structural elements thoroughly embedded in my skull, and I can focus more on my playing when I do have the chance or in rehearsal...which is kinda backwards, but a product of life circumstances. And we generally work on (1) any new material, and then (2) the setlist for any upcoming shows.

In my first band, the songs were much more complex, and we made heavy heavy use of a 4'x8' whiteboard -- for song lists, and new song charts, etc. Recordings were done on a PC, and discs could be burned for everyone on the spot. The mistake we made there was we'd have a tendency to start with the same tunes, so, over time, we were extremely well practiced on 3 or 4 songs, and much more raw on the rest...

Then in one band there was a guy whose attitude was that you can only get better in the full band rehearsal...basically, he didn't want to practice on his own...

The funniest challenge one of my bands had to deal with was an overly talkative bandmate -- very nice guy, but would go on at GREAT length about nothing, and next thing you knew, 3 hours of practice was over and we'd only played 5 songs...it's fun to hang out, but you gotta get through the business at hand!

TIP: never underestimate how good the condenser mic in a cheap boombox is -- I have hundreds of hours of boombox recordings that are better than anything we tried to do with mics and cheap mixers hahahaha in a pinch, just grab a cheapie boombox, and you can probably get a plenty good recording of your sessions!

cheers!
ltt

 

[kNIGHTY]

I was given this many moons ago..still relevant.

THE 10 BAND REHEARSAL COMMANDMENTS



1. PRACTICE THE SONG AT HOME-HAVE CHORD SHEETS & PLAY ALONG WITH THE TUNE UNTIL YOU KNOW IT –THEN USE THE CHORD SHEETS AS A REFERENCE-NOT A CRUTCH, IF YOU ARE A VOCALIST, KNOW THE WORDS BEFORE YOU REHEARSE IT.
2, IF SOMEONE IN THE BAND HAS NOT PRACTISED THE SONG & DOES NOT KNOW IT-DON’T REHEARSE THE SONG-IT WILL ONLY LEAD TO FRUSTRATION.

3. BE ON TIME FOR REHEARSAL- BE SET UP & READY TO GO.

4. DON’T GLOSS OVER STARTS, STOPS, BREAKS & ENDINGS IF THEY ARE NOT RIGHT-GET THESE SORTED BEFORE THE EASY PARTS. PUT NOTES ON CHORD CHARTS TO HELP IF YOU KEEP MAKING THE SAME MISTAKE AT A PARTICULAR POINT.

5. PLAY AT LOW VOLUME WHEN STARTING OUT-WITH AS LITTLE DISTORTION ON GUITARS AS POSSIBLE.


6. STICK TO THE SONG LIST-REHEARSAL IS NOT FOR DISCUSSING OTHER SONGS, PAST BANDS OR OTHER CHIT CHAT. USE THE TIME AVAILABLE WISELY.

7. IF SOMEONE SUGGESTS SOMETHING TO MAKE THE SONG SOUND BETTER, GIVE IT ATTENTION-IF IT IS TO MAKE THEM SOUND BETTER, LISTEN, BUT DON’T GET CAUGHT UP IN AN EGO TRIP.

8. DYNAMICS ARE IMPORTANT TO A SONG, SOMETIMES THE RUSH OF PLAYING A GREAT SONG CAN CAUSE THE BAND TO FORGET THIS POINT. ALL GOOD BANDS USE DYNAMICS TO BUILD EMOTION INTO A TUNE.

9. THE MOST IMPORTANT BAND MEMBER IS THE SONG YOU ARE PLAYING AT THE PRESENT, TREAT IT WITH RESPECT, FOR IF YOU PUT THE EFFORT IN-IT WILL REWARD YOU, FOR AS A GROUP OF MUSICIANS, YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE TO CREATE THE BEST POSSIBLE VERSION OF THE SONG AS YOU CAN.

10. HAVE FUN, YOU WOULDN’T BE PLAYING IN A BAND IF IT DIDN’T MAKE YOU HAPPY.

 

[Ron Plichta]

My band usually gets together on Friday nights for about 2 hours. We're as much of a social group as we are a band, so we'll have folks arrive up to a half hour before we're scheduled to start and shoot the breeze about work/family/whatever. We'll pass out beverages and then get started.

New material generally goes first. We'll try to get our arrangements set and then move on. If we have no new material, we'll go through a set or two just to keep the material fresh. And we're not above redoing an arrangement if we feel that we can do the song better.

Some nights, we'll play "Songlist Roulette". We'll go around the room and someone will pick a number. The singer will go down the list, find the song that corresponds to that number and we play it. It's a way to keep us on our toes.

While it's not as structured as others here, but the underlying premises are the same - we show up prepared and make an effort to make the material better. And it's okay if someone has an occasional rough spot learning a song. We'll work with him if necessary.

 

[LowDown Hal]

Question for those of you who "let the hard drive spin"

How do go about distributing the results?
I'm guessing only two channels?

I tried that one night (multi-channel for possible isolation) and ended up with a 7.something GIG Sonar bundle file?

Splitting it up was a nightmare