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How do I (NOT) pay for rehearsal rent?
- Thread starter crow01
- Start date
Check out Wright on Carroll practice spaces. PM me if you want the number for the landlord - his name is George.
We pay $300 (talked them down from $325) for a 23x11 space. I split it with 4 other guys, so it's $60 a month. Not too shabby.
$150 is A TON to be paying per person for a rehearsal space. You could probably find a storefront/workshop/loft/rehearsal space that you could live in in Chicago for that price.
I'd offer to chip in with the drummer if you wanna work things out, but $150 is WAY too much IMO
We pay $300 (talked them down from $325) for a 23x11 space. I split it with 4 other guys, so it's $60 a month. Not too shabby.
$150 is A TON to be paying per person for a rehearsal space. You could probably find a storefront/workshop/loft/rehearsal space that you could live in in Chicago for that price.
I'd offer to chip in with the drummer if you wanna work things out, but $150 is WAY too much IMO
My last $900 studio had a massive wood drum room w/25' ceilings and a loft (could fit two bands in there playing comfortably at the same time), AC (instead of swamp cooling - that's big stuff out here), full control room, decent iso booth, and a front room where a 5-piece bouncy jumpy metal band was perfectly comfortable.
Mmmph. The bar practice idea/free Thursday - sweet idea
Tell him that if it's more than $600 / year, then you need his social security number so you can send him a 1099 at the end of the year.
Or I would just figure what I was willing to afford, offer him that, and what happens, happens.
Is he paying you to show up for his band's rehearsals? Musicians are not free.
Seriously, if it's your project and your using his space, you can arrange on some kind of payment, which should be low since he's in the band and will benefit from that.
But if it's his project and he's using his space for it, well you don't pay him, it's his project. He's got to put something out for you, you know, getting musicians to play his music.
A band playing in a bar on a Thursday night...(pay day for workers)... bands used to get PAID for that.
My solution to looking for a practice space was buying a 6 bedroom house! I have plenty of room for all my junk now. 
All joking aside I agree that $150 a month each is too much. Hell if you guys are paying that much you're not that far away from splitting the rent on a small house in some parts of the country. A two car garage with some insulation works wonders.
I own both an acoustic kit and an electric kit and the electric kit works great for after hours practices or small apartment practice. If you can swing it a small electronic kit and a semi decent PA, which you will need for vocals anyway, will do just fine. In fact I ran my Roland kit through a single 12 bass amp for quite awhile. Not the best sounding but it got the job done while I was living in a duplex.
Talk to the guys/gals in the band and see if you can find a cheaper place. Treat it like any other business thing you do. How did you pick your car insurance company? Shopping price quotes. Cell phone? Same thing right? This is no different. Find someplace smaller and cheaper (with decent securty if you can) and present it to drum guy as a way to cut costs, both as a band, and as a teacher. The advantages to the band would be huge. Less overhead on the practice space means more funds for promotion, gear, recordings, t-shirts, etc... not to mention gas and food money in the pocket.
If the guy throws a fit then he just answered the "is he trying to rape me" question. The answer would be yes he is. In that case move on. Lesson learned for future reference.
All joking aside I agree that $150 a month each is too much. Hell if you guys are paying that much you're not that far away from splitting the rent on a small house in some parts of the country. A two car garage with some insulation works wonders.
I own both an acoustic kit and an electric kit and the electric kit works great for after hours practices or small apartment practice. If you can swing it a small electronic kit and a semi decent PA, which you will need for vocals anyway, will do just fine. In fact I ran my Roland kit through a single 12 bass amp for quite awhile. Not the best sounding but it got the job done while I was living in a duplex.
Talk to the guys/gals in the band and see if you can find a cheaper place. Treat it like any other business thing you do. How did you pick your car insurance company? Shopping price quotes. Cell phone? Same thing right? This is no different. Find someplace smaller and cheaper (with decent securty if you can) and present it to drum guy as a way to cut costs, both as a band, and as a teacher. The advantages to the band would be huge. Less overhead on the practice space means more funds for promotion, gear, recordings, t-shirts, etc... not to mention gas and food money in the pocket.
If the guy throws a fit then he just answered the "is he trying to rape me" question. The answer would be yes he is. In that case move on. Lesson learned for future reference.
The difference is that your drummer doesn't own the rehearsal studio ... does he?
Hey, you say "cheap," I say "thrifty," "fair," or "commonsensical." Tomayto/tomahto.
yeah, now that i think about it, he should not be paying that much at all..
i've never even realised i could use a warehouse space to jam. is this a "normal" thing to do? i guess i've got some googling to do..
if i was invited to join a band,and promptly handed a bill,i think it would have been a big ol' red flag
Depends on the region and personal living conditions. In large cities where space is minimal it definitely is much more common.
I always have a space in my house I can set up and a moments notice for an impromptu jam, and my guitarist's place has served as our "unofficially official" rehearsal spot for a few years now. Up at school with my other band, however, is a different story. We often have to pay rent towards a spot, but it's usually never more than $20-$30 a month per member. For $150 a member you could literally be paying towards a mortgage for a 3 or 4 bedroom home. It won't be in a very nice area, but you can do it.
LOL. Come to Toronto, where a 6X9 drum room goes for $500. I've seen rooms being rented here for well over $1200.
I thought the club owners where supoosed to be ripping off the musicians..not other musicians??
I think your paying too much but am in support of contributing something...
I think your paying too much but am in support of contributing something...
heh. you sure such numbers apply here in new york?
my old band used to have a room that was pretty small, and was $500 per month. it was split half and half between two bands, and our $250 was split 3 ways, a bit more than 80 bucks each. and that was considered rediculously cheap..
if i could find something for $150 total per month, id sign up immidiately.. but highly doubt theres anywhere i can legitimately rehearse, for that much money..
sorry for going a bit off topic..
A bit of a Catch 22. If the band was gigging regularly and being paid well then chipping in for the rehearsal space would be fine but if the band was gigging regularly then you wouldn't need the rehearsal space.
I've had a lot of work this last 12 months and very little of it involves rehearsing. There is one group I work with where the leader wants to rehearse every week with or without gigs in the future. That gets tiresome after a while. And as much as I like the group if I had to pay to rehearse I'd have to move on.
I've had a lot of work this last 12 months and very little of it involves rehearsing. There is one group I work with where the leader wants to rehearse every week with or without gigs in the future. That gets tiresome after a while. And as much as I like the group if I had to pay to rehearse I'd have to move on.
