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Bands that never rehearse

#41
I played unrehearsed at church quite a bit - the music is well structured without any surprises and not too difficult. I guess we get away with it because the band are either good musicians or in my case I practice beforehand.

I did perform in a folk duo on Monday, unrehearsed for the first time. We live about 40 miles apart so rehearsal isn't really practical. My fellow performer Facebook messaged me videos of him performing the songs on guitar and vocal. I messaged him back me singing backing vocals and some ideas for accompaniment on mando. He tagged my videos with a thumbs up and that was our preparation complete. We went on stage and played. Scary, but kind of fun. I guess it worked because I took a lead from him. Which I guess is a long winded way of saying what @_Tay_ said - learn to play to a recording.
 
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#44
mrcbass said:
I play in a no rehearse band and sub for another that I don't think have rehearsed since I started playing with them.... They've played essentially the same songs this entire time. No real need to rehearse when everything is so ingrained....They're now comfortable that I can do what I say I can and will let me know when they're adding a couple new songs...Both bands have added new songs along the way during my tenure....
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Well, which is it? Are your bands playing the same songs or have you learned new songs? New songs to ME mean band rehearsals. I know that not everyone thinks so.

It's a valid point for me because I like to add new songs regularly and I don't trust my bandmates to learn the songs correctly and just play them at a gig (there's a thread about this).
 
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#45
This thread feels like two very different things are being discussed.

1) Original bands (like Vulfpeck) start with a foundation of writing/rehearsing/gigging. The frequency may vary, but those dudes spent a lot of time together early on hammering out their songs and establishing the chemistry/connection. They're over a decade into their career as a band. So it's not terribly surprising that they can share recordings, maybe run a section at soundchecks, and then play new songs live. Still, I would bet 95% of those takes sound better the further they get into a run of shows...

2) Cover bands that are floating bars/sections and playing off the cuff are different. It's like a more modern version of playing real book jazz gigs. There's an understanding of the material, chord changes, etc. And, presumably, the better of these bands have some high level mix of ears, non-verbal communication, and/or being able to nail recordings note-for-note.

With the above in mind, there are very few original bands I listen to that would sound great live without rehearsing before a tour or run. Unless you're playing purposefully improvised music, insanely simple/loose tunes, or you're constantly on the road, you'll be hard pressed to sound as good as you could live without some amount of rehearsing.
 
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#46
sears said:
I'm in a band with a couple of very famous musicians, you've heard of them, probably shouldn't say who they are. Anyway, our band doesn't rehearse. We don't gig either. I probably know them a lot better than they know me.
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In a previous band the drummer told me that he didn't care if we ever played a gig or not as long as we continued to get together once a week and play music and drink beer. I agreed with him for ~ 8 years. We did play some gigs but they were, for the most part, sporatic.
 
#47
My cover band is playing a private gig tomorrow. We haven’t played together since late November 2022. We aren’t rehearsing before, and I’m not worried. We aren’t adding any new songs, and we don’t use a set list.

Will it be perfect? No, but it probably won’t be any better or worse than our last show. We’ve all been doing this a long time, and frankly, it’s too damn difficult to get us all in the same room even if we wanted to rehearse.
 
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#49
Auspuff said:
Nightwish.



It is rumored that one of the bands ire's, with Tarja, was she was so practiced, she would routinely shun rehearsals, show up to gigs, belt it out, and leave.

That's talent.
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On the other hand, liberal use of backing track vocals & symphonic instruments gives you a lot of wiggle room and power if you want to duck out for a part.
 
#50
51PRI said:
Well, which is it? Are your bands playing the same songs or have you learned new songs? New songs to ME mean band rehearsals. I know that not everyone thinks so.

It's a valid point for me because I like to add new songs regularly and I don't trust my bandmates to learn the songs correctly and just play them at a gig (there's a thread about this).
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51PRI said:
Well, which is it? Are your bands playing the same songs or have you learned new songs? New songs to ME mean band rehearsals. I know that not everyone thinks so.
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Well both - but 95% of most of our shows are the same ol' same ol'. I prefer to rehearse new stuff as well, but it is kind of fun yanking up the anchor and winging a new (to us) song in front of a crowd. typically a couple of lead guys know them well enough for the rest of us to fall in. It works about 90% of the time and we just laugh it off when it doesn't, beg for music lessons tips etc.

I'm with you - I prefer more song turnover - but I have no control LS and lead players always get the control of playlists. And when in Rome ...
 
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#52
My last band never rehearsed, we were all sidemen for other groups. We had all crossed paths enough on the circuit to click really well, we just sent tunes and keys out a few days before the show. We were all playing out with local acts as sidemen as well as studio and pickup gigs almost every night though, don’t think my chops would be up to it anymore. Those were fun days.
 
#56
It works just fine if everyone is experienced and mature enough, and the criteria laid out in the OP defines how it's possible. In my original jazz trio, we all compose, we all create clear and concise charts on the computer in MuseScore, create basic demos to practice melodies and solos over, and we put in the work individually. Now - we DO sometimes rehearse if we're doing a lot of older tunes that we haven't unearthed in a while, or if there are very specific unison or group melodies or new arrangements that have to be 100% spot on. But that's maybe 1 rehearsal for an hour or 2 once every few months. We also will certainly rehearse a bit more if we're going into the studio. Otherwise, I seriously think that we maybe rehearse a half dozen times a year max on average.
 
#57
We have 'practice tracks' downloaded from karaoke websites. Each member gets an individualized version that features the whole rest of the band, minus your part. So in my case it's everything but bass.

During the live show we use those same practice tracks but strip them down to just a click, a guide (saying 'verse' or 'chorus' etc), and any background instruments we leave in. If everyone prepares using their practice track it all falls together seamlessly. This also makes it easy for subs to fill in or new members to come onboard.

Say what you want about tracks and clicks but this has my made my life so much easier and saves us a ton of rehearsal.

Caveat - We did practice together for a solid year first before reaching this level of trust.
 
#58
I played in a no rehearsal band for years.
There was no set list and lots of different songs.
However, the material was in the general American roots genre, the singer /band leader/primary guitar player knew exactly what he was playing.
The rest of the band just had to practice on their own and be alert during the gig.
 
#59
Pocket Dave said:
Which seems to illustrate why many prefer gigging more often. If you're going to invest in that much time, why not get paid something for it?
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This is it for my current band. We'll end up playing seven gigs this month. That's not something I planned on when we started a couple years ago, but here we are. There's no way any of us would want to add practices on top of that, and we don't need to. We're adding a new song tomorrow night. I'm sure it won't be perfect, but it won't be bad either. The audience won't care if it's not perfect and we'll iron out the rough spots over the next couple gigs. Rinse and repeat.
 
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