How much practice before you perform?

[Wissen]

I'm also gonna join the "it depends" chorus.

For a lot of the music I play on bass, I can get the gist and make up my own part. Learning a set of simple chord progressions is a lot easier than learning a whole song, so a couple hours at home and a brush up rehearsal or two with the band, and I'm good to go.

I was a ringer in a high school musical pit this past fall, and I put a good 10 hours of rehearsal on my own on top of the 40-50 hours of rehearsal with the whole cast and crew leading up to the performance. That was the hardest I've worked on bass in about twelve years. It was awesome.

In other news, I'm getting into melody instruments right now and learning tunes (chunes, if you like). I've been collecting tunes for about four years now, and I'd say I only have about a dozen of them down well enough to walk into a performance situation and not be a total trainwreck. A dozen tunes in four years. And I've worked my ass off. Truth be told, I've been going about it the wrong way. I felt like I needed to have the tunes down before I showed up to a session. Should be the other way round. But my schedule doesn't allow me to attend sessions regularly, so I am usually a session of one.

So...two hours? 50 hours? Four years? For me, they are all the correct answer. But they cover a wide spectrum of experiences. Also, will I be allowed to read music, or does this have to be from memory? Because...that's another dimension to this whole thing.

 

[otp57]

As a relative newbie and total amateur musician I am curious to know how many hours you practice a song before you typically feel like you are ready perform it? This would include both solo practice and practicing with your band.

Study music theory because it is a language and you will can play from a to zztop.

 

[Scarysharkface]

As a relative newbie and total amateur musician I am curious to know how many hours you practice a song before you typically feel like you are ready perform it? This would include both solo practice and practicing with your band.

Totally depends upon the genre and the particular tune. Most gigs I do are fill-ins with mostly similar material. I walk into those cold and usually nail it. Some gigs require charts and sometimes those charts require some study. And of course, there are some tunes that just always need work even if I can play them well enough to get through the gig without any ill feelings from anyone else in the band.

Having written all of that, I'd consider that every minute with the instrument in your hands can count as practice, in which case I've been working on it since the mid '70s.

John

 

[2cooltoolz]

I'm certainly no pro. I've been playing for 50 years, but due to career, family, blah, blah, blah, much of it was mindless noodling without any attempt to bring any song up to "performance ready".

I retired about 4 years ago, spent about 6 months putting in the time and building a repertoire, and started auditioning. I've been in the same band for about 3 years now. We seldom rehearse anymore and don't have a permanent drummer (we cycle through 3 guys I'd consider at least "semi-pros"). We're expected to have the song ready to go in a couple days notice, pretty much per the studio recording. There are songs that are beyond my abilities, but we are a classic variety band, so I don't encounter many. Most of the songs that have a signature bass line, I can get in 5 hours or less (including charting to save in my "book"), but our singer/BL can't say no to a big tip, so I have, on several occasions, learned tunes "well enough" on break, in the parking lot.

 

[bassliner50]

I get the tunes emailed to me in pdf form. Usually melodies in treble cleff with chord symbols. These I take to the piano, and hammer out Real Book style. If I catch an error I go back to the arranger (reed player). He will issue a revised chart and I take it back to the piano. At the piano I can approx the bass, harmonics and melody and aquainted with the music. I I usually do not need to touch the bass at this point in process until rehearsal. Time invested at this point 20 minutes to an hour if its a bear.
If I get a bass line conventionally notated in bass cleff, I will read it and play the bass repeatedly with a metronome as a side man. Repeat ad-nauseum a bit each day until the rehearsal or gig. These are usually high stress gigs like a Sinatra tribute we are doing presently (before virus) theater pit etc. Can never get enough practice for these gigs.

 

[Playbyear]

Usually just one or two times through it.

However, I'm primarily an American roots music player. Most songs in the genre are based on familiar progressions and beats.

Other material may require a little more effort.

 

[WestyBassBob]

I'm also gonna join the "it depends" chorus.

For a lot of the music I play on bass, I can get the gist and make up my own part. Learning a set of simple chord progressions is a lot easier than learning a whole song, so a couple hours at home and a brush up rehearsal or two with the band, and I'm good to go.

I was a ringer in a high school musical pit this past fall, and I put a good 10 hours of rehearsal on my own on top of the 40-50 hours of rehearsal with the whole cast and crew leading up to the performance. That was the hardest I've worked on bass in about twelve years. It was awesome.

In other news, I'm getting into melody instruments right now and learning tunes (chunes, if you like). I've been collecting tunes for about four years now, and I'd say I only have about a dozen of them down well enough to walk into a performance situation and not be a total trainwreck. A dozen tunes in four years. And I've worked my ass off. Truth be told, I've been going about it the wrong way. I felt like I needed to have the tunes down before I showed up to a session. Should be the other way round. But my schedule doesn't allow me to attend sessions regularly, so I am usually a session of one.

So...two hours? 50 hours? Four years? For me, they are all the correct answer. But they cover a wide spectrum of experiences. Also, will I be allowed to read music, or does this have to be from memory? Because...that's another dimension to this whole thing.

I wasn't thinking of doing a song from memory. I was assuming you either have the music or tablature or you write the song yourself.

 

[Thumpin6string]

I would say 1-2 years as long as I don't forget what I'm doing.

 

[JW56789]

A lot of it depends on WHO you're going to play it with.

Occasionally, I would get in a situation where I was with great or better-than-me players (I always made the most progress having to catch up a bit to play with really good players), and if they said it really would be a 'note for note' version, that always took a little longer but was the most satisfying.

Then I'd walk into something where they said it was note for note, I learned it that way, only to rehearse it with them or just call it on the bandstand . . . . and they weren't even close. Aggravating to learn all the stops and pushes and the exact part . . . . basically for nothing.


And sometimes you just do those VFW gigs with a bunch of 'good ole boys', and close . . . . was plenty good enough, all head or ear charts. Get the key, someone hollers 'OK, Turn it around from the 5', and we're off. I sometimes think these taught me a lot, as you just need to make it through the correct chord changes, keep the groove going simply, and edit myself to play enough and not too much ( . . . . as if I'd EVER do such a thing ! ).
Plus successfully winging it for 5 hours over and over again will build some steel in your spine. I often got called to replace drunks and druggies whose bad habits had cost them the gig, and walked straight into working bands as an emergency replacement: I had to learn to read people, have fast ears, and be solid. It was excellent training.

I'd also say when I was playing steady 5,6,7 nights a week for months everything would come fast: My muscle memory was peaking, my ears were faster, all of it. Let me sit home for a month or two, and even if I practiced for 2 or 3 hours a day without fail, it never came as fast as when I was gigging constantly.

 

[WestyBassBob]

A lot of it depends on WHO you're going to play it with.

Occasionally, I would get in a situation where I was with great or better-than-me players (I always made the most progress having to catch up a bit to play with really good players), and if they said it really would be a 'note for note' version, that always took a little longer but was the most satisfying.

Then I'd walk into something where they said it was note for note, I learned it that way, only to rehearse it with them or just call it on the bandstand . . . . and they weren't even close. Aggravating to learn all the stops and pushes and the exact part . . . . basically for nothing.


And sometimes you just do those VFW gigs with a bunch of 'good ole boys', and close . . . . was plenty good enough, all head or ear charts. Get the key, someone hollers 'OK, Turn it around from the 5', and we're off. I sometimes think these taught me a lot, as you just need to make it through the correct chord changes, keep the groove going simply, and edit myself to play enough and not too much ( . . . . as if I'd EVER do such a thing ! ).
Plus successfully winging it for 5 hours over and over again will build some steel in your spine. I often got called to replace drunks and druggies whose bad habits had cost them the gig, and walked straight into working bands as an emergency replacement: I had to learn to read people, have fast ears, and be solid. It was excellent training.

I'd also say when I was playing steady 5,6,7 nights a week for months everything would come fast: My muscle memory was peaking, my ears were faster, all of it. Let me sit home for a month or two, and even if I practiced for 2 or 3 hours a day without fail, it never came as fast as when I was gigging constantly.

That's great advice thanks. I'm hoping for find some people to play with in a few more months. I think I'm getting to the point where if I don't find a band I won't be able to get to the next level. In the meantime COVID means lots of time to practice alone.

 

[dbsfgyd1]

As a relative newbie and total amateur musician I am curious to know how many hours you practice a song before you typically feel like you are ready perform it? This would include both solo practice and practicing with your band.

'I think I'd like to breakdown my time to band practices, and personal wood shed time.

For a band that's been together for decades, we usually practice 12 hours over 2 days once a year, mainly to go over new material for that year's show. Keep in mind all shows and practices are recorded for for future individual practices and reference.

On the personal side, prepping for a performance is nothing more than making sure I have beginnings and endings down cold. I will spend time working on more difficult passages to make sure they are smooth. The total time spent here is dependent on how long it's been since the last gig, usually this takes about an hour or two.
Then I will run through the entire show which is about 2 1/2 to 3 hours of material.

In addition, I spend anywhere between 0 to 30 minutes daily to make sure my chops still work. Since I'm not gigging at the moment, I've been spending some time on the Yousician app to learn how to play the bass. After 53 years of gigs and recording sessions as a bassist, I figured it's about time I learn how to do it.

 

[Pilgrim]

Less than an hour per song. I'm not a total pro, and there are limits both to my patience and time available. There is room to be "good enough."

 

[2112]

Depends on the song. And it ain't a matter of whether or not I'm ready to perform, it's whether or not the whole group is ready to perform.

We're fortunate enough to have a high level of talent and work ethic across the board in our band. So we can crank out regular songs with just a couple runs through and they're tight enough to perform. Harder songs take a few more reps.

 

[glocke1]

As a relative newbie and total amateur musician I am curious to know how many hours you practice a song before you typically feel like you are ready perform it? This would include both solo practice and practicing with your band.

I can't quantify how many hours I'll practice a tune before playing it out...Lets just say it's " a lot" and there are tunes I've been playing for a decade or more that I'll find new things in when i go to listen to them again.

In any case, I heard some old jazz guys say you really don't know a tune until you've played it live in front of people 100 times...I'll go with that.

 

[SoCal80s]

Depends on the song. Old Time Rock and Roll I have never practiced. Tom Sawyer I spend at least 10 minutes on everyday still. But if you want an average, I'd say 1-2 hours per song from the first listen.

 

[Thegrandwazoo]

It depends on the complexity/weirdness of the song. Generally speaking, about half an hour of playing along with a recording or jamming the song with friends will have me playing said song with no problems, but there are certainly exceptions (songs that have multiple parts/movements, blistering metal, extra-crazy fusion, bizarre time signature stuff, etc.).

 

[Charlzm]

As a relative newbie and total amateur musician I am curious to know how many hours you practice a song before you typically feel like you are ready perform it? This would include both solo practice and practicing with your band.

Depends on the song.

I would want to practice "YYZ" a lot longer than "Mustang Sally" before I play them in front of people.

 

[gln1955]

Some songs I can play through once or twice along with a recording and feel good to go.

Other songs, I've never felt ccompletely comfortable with no matter how much I've worked on them.

 

[Reedt2000]

Short answer? As long as it takes.
Long answer? Times will change with a few aspects;
1) Type of material. I can learn a blues song in 30 seconds of listening. A Dream Theater tune could take days or weeks to master.
2) Experience level. I've been doin this a long time. Played a lot of tunes. So today, it would take me far less time to add a song to my repertoire than it did 30 years ago.

Recently, a local peer fell ill. I was called to sub. 40 or so tunes of the metal variety. From Maiden to Godsmack. That type of stuff. I learned all the tunes in 3 days. Performed on the 4th. And won the job. Way back? I couldn't have done it in a month or two. The more you learn, the more your vocabulary expands. So, what you learned on the last tune, will apply to make the next easier. I try to learn tunes every day. Just to keep in practice.

Pretty much exactly this ^

 

[StyleOverShow]

I make sure I get the landmarks down, particularly if there's a bass line driving it or unison parts. Like a bass intro or fill that's a cue for the rest of the band.

I really don't spend much time aping the recording. The organic process takes over as the band(s) make it their own.

Overall, it's probably more important to get a good handle on the form, the rest is blending the instrumentation to get a passable representation of the tune.