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Cover bands: How much time do you spend rehearsing?

#21
Joe Nerve said:
Definitely not the most phenomenal player here... but again, I do my homework, and I listen closely when playing with others. If people are playing what they're supposed to be playing, there isn't a whole lot of nuance we need to be keyed into. And if people change it up a bit, it doesn't take a whole lot for me to feel what they're doing and go along with it. I don't know. Maybe I don't give myself enough credit. I have been at this for a while, so maybe that just comes easier to me than it does to some others.

I also feel that if the musicians are responsible, they'll be working even harder on stage than they will at rehearsals. They'll be more on their toes, so to speak.

I don't think our definitions of tight are different. Here's a guy I'm hired to do shows with from time to time... this particular gig I just met the drummer that night. And actually just got that new Bongo hours before :)... iz my first time playing it. The drummer did his homework. If he had any nuances I needed to be aware of, I'm pretty sure I was on top of them enough to pull it off. Same with him towards me. PS, this wasn't my most exciting performance of all time, but I'm posting it as an example and to be sure our definitions are the same :).



Same band with a different drummer. Doing our own take on ticket to ride. If we rehearsed, we only rehearsed once. I enjoy this guy's old school guitar playing at around 2:08.

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Once again Joe, love your. Vid in ur sig... In the hospital, and watched it again!
 
#24
My original band:
Bassist for 6 years
4 whole gigs during that time
Rehearsed 3 times a week (3!!!) so we'd be "ready" for gigs or whatever the BL wanted it for. It was a waste if time.

My cover band:
Bassist for 4 years
Hundreds of gigs
I can't remember the last time we rehearsed. It's been months.
We only get together when we want to go over new material before we gig with it.
 
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#25
Dave W said:
My original band:
Bassist for 6 years
4 whole gigs during that time
Rehearsed 3 times a week (3!!!) so we'd be "ready" for gigs or whatever the BL wanted it for. It was a waste if time.

My cover band:
Bassist for 4 years
Hundreds of gigs
I can't remember the last time we rehearsed. It's been months.
We only get together when we want to go over new material before we gig with it.
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Sounds like a glorified garage band......!
 
#26
I am of the camp of people who like to rehearse, play, & gig. I want to be playing music as much as possible, if it's for a gig, all the better, but I like to play regardless. I try to play music every day. If you are playing music you like with people you like, then what's the hold up with playing together. I have to agree that for me at least I like to see the goal of each project as ending up in performance situations.

If some people here don't want to rehearse, I'm ok with that. But I often see cover bands that sound like they needed to rehearse more. I have a hard time getting exited to go see a band that hasn't put in the effort or doesn't have the talent to be great, you can tell the ones who are just there to get laid.( I've been in those bands too). I rarely go see live music these days because I don't see much that is all that good. I am sure there are pro players out there that can do a spectacular gig with no rehearsal, but 99% of the people here are not these players. You are lying to yourself if you think you are great with no rehearsal.

For me personally, the times I have committed to gigs with little or no rehearsal, I have not been satisfied musically. I want to sound great by the time I present music to the public. I am not trying to be a hard ass or anything, but I have my opinion. I can't disagree with the original poster, he is just saying what he likes, I am just saying what I like.
 
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#27
soitainly said:
I am sure there are pro players out there that can do a spectacular gig with no rehearsal, but 99% of the people here are not these players. You are lying to yourself if you think you are great with no rehearsal.
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Sorry, I disagree. If a musician is well rehearsed and well prepared, they don't need a rehearsal (if none is planned). The guys I subbed for (that rarely rehearse) knew their music. I could have benefited with at least one rehearsal. I have played with some really good musicians who don't need a 'band' rehearsal. And bands that shouldn't even be gigging at all! I don't need to play music that much where I need to rehearse just for the sake of rehearsing/play music. You also have other band members who have 'LIVES' outside of music. Great if you have that much time on your hands.
 
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#28
I posted earlier that gigging gets you tighter than excessive practicing does. Still, I don't want to be whole-hog on a "no practice" bandwagon. I find that a lot of the time there are various bits and pieces that need to be sorted out when translating a particular tune to any given cover band. Are there backup harmony vocals? Which member of the band has the range to hit them? If nobody, how will you harmonize, or will you? If you're in a band with no keys or no rhythm guitar, will you do something to cover the space left, since the original recording had them? Sure, I suppose seasoned pros can make this stuff up on the fly and pull it off, but I still think there's good reason for most bands to have a few rehearsals to iron that stuff out before gigging a tune. It's not like people are inferior musicians because they want to practice a tune.
 
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#31
We try to do two to three hours once a week, but I'd say this is partly hanging out and partly rehearsals, we're hobby players, not a touring band. During slower periods it does get pushed down the list of priorities though, everyone has a life besides music ... but when we have a gig planned we try to rehearse a couple of times to refresh our memories, come up with set lists, run through songs we haven't played in a while, go through beginnings and endings, and we try to add a few new songs to keep it interesting.
 
#34
soitainly said:
I am of the camp of people who like to rehearse, play, & gig. I want to be playing music as much as possible, if it's for a gig, all the better, but I like to play regardless.
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I'm going to agree with this sentiment. I'm not about zero rehearsal but definitely don't want to just rehearse and not gig either. I also see rehearsal as the point where the performance is refined - dynamics, transitions, finer points of arrangements. Definitely not "practice" or "learning songs".

I'll add: If the band's intent is to gig, let's get there as quickly as possible and not get stuck in the rehearsal cycle. That said, I don't mind jamming for jamming's sake. But it's not a rehearsal if there's no intent on gigging. Although a jam could in fact be a gig!

Oh so confusing.
 
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#35
Joe Nerve said:
The tightest bands I've ever been in have been the bands that have rehearsed the least. When I toured with Bumblefoot we rehearsed 2 or 3 times before going overseas (2 1/2 hrs worth of pretty intense and crazy original material), and we were locked in with each other like nobody's business. Tightness has nothing to do with how often a band rehearses. It has to do with the experience of the players, and the commitment they have to doing the work they need to do on their own.
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You toured with Bumblefoot?!!! That's amazing!
 
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#36
My very active cover band only rehearses when we learn new material, about once a month. We all do our homework and arrive knowing the songs. Rehearsal is for any arrangement changes and segues. We do a lot of segues, keeps the music going (I despise dead space between songs) and keeps the guitarist from tuning (what is it with guitarists and tuning?). The drummer and I do most of the transitions which works well since we're primarily a dance band. My original projects gets together weekly. We write, arrange and record so it's very productive. The cover band rehearsals are generally two hours, no breaks. The cover band is three hours with frequent breaks, it helps the creative process.
 
#37
I'm another of those people who just likes to play and I enjoy rehearsals. My band doesn't rehearse every week, maybe every 2 weeks on average. We record all of our gigs so rehearsals are used to tighten up any songs, or parts of songs, that we've noticed might need a bit of attention from the recordings, or to refresh everybody on songs that haven't been in the set list for a while, but mainly to keep adding new stuff and keeping things interesting.

Working up new stuff to gig standard is something I really enjoy doing.

Previously, I was in a band that never used to rehearse...they seldom introduced new stuff and were content to just play the same set over and over again. On the rare ocassions that they did introduce new stuff, they would do it on the fly... We'd get a couple of weeks notice that it would be in the set on 'x' date and just do it...but the result was usually less than stellar until it had been in the set for a few months. I left the band because I was so bored with the same old same old, but I also think that it's disrespectful to your audience to have the band knocking the rough edges off on their time...even if it's only one or two tunes in the set.
 
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#38
Though I've played plenty of gigs with low/no rehearsals that have been fun and good, the really good shows I've played and good bands I've been in, covers or originals, we have rehearsed a lot. Like at least 2x a week, and at most, 3 hours a day, everyday, and occasionally all day whenever possible in the best group I've been in for a couple months. Nobody in that band was an all-star player, but we could have beat the crap out just about any band except maybe Fishbone or the JBs. We were telepathic and rock solid and played as intensely as we could.

I've done a bunch of gigs the past few years where everyone was middle aged and experienced and busy with life and kinda strutted in like "we dont need any rehearsals cuz wee been around", and after the gig I've felt like we could have demolished the music and the room and each other if we'd just got together a handful of times and got tight. Didn't "need" it, but it depends what your going after I guess.
 
#39
It totally depends upon the caliber and work ethic of the musicians. Joe, I'd say you're somewhere to the right of that spectrum with the folks you're in with now. Congrats.

In my current band (I'm on lead vox, guitars, and keys), the drummer and I are always way ahead of the bass player and other guitar. If we don't plan a rehearsal, those guys won't be accountable. I would never trust them to learn even simple tunes and show up ready to perform without hearing it at rehearsal first.

But they're good band mates in all other respects, I actually feel kinda lucky, so I give them a pass and show up for rehearsal every Wednesday at 6PM, whether I need it or not.

The up-side is, we get to talk about the songs and tighten up some of the stuff that plagues even experienced and competent musicians, plan song clusters and segues, instrument changes, and a lot of the polish that helps our sets flow and gives us a more professional product. Not all bands put a premium on that stuff; we do.
 
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#40
Hey Joe Nerve... I was really diggin your bands version of ticket to ride! All through the guitar solo , I was waiting for you guys to rip into tomorrow never knows without skipping a beat. You and your drummer were on that path! You may want to bring it up? Too cool! Luv it!
 
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