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How often does your band rehearse?

#41
A "serious" band can reherse once a week. You turn up, having LEARNT the stuff at home, and play it right first time. If you reherse three nights a week (and have a day job+personal life), when are you finding the time to practise at home, and actually LEARN the stuff? Band's that rehearse every night of the week (and I know some that do), are probably learning the material at rehearsal which is an expensive, and frustrating way to operate - no "serious" band would do it.

Originals is slightly different, but I'd still recomment 1 rehearsal + 1 or more "song writing" sessions where you work out material at a more comfortable volume, and perhaps without the full band present.

When do fill in gigs I do one rehearsal (having LEARNT the stuff before hand), and then we go. If you put the work in before hand reharsal is just to check everything is working. For another project I do, we do one rehearsal before each gig (it gigs about once a month), just to brush up and maybe add some new stuff. We can add 2 or 3 new songs in a couple of hours, but that's because those guys are "serious" players, and do their homework.
 
#42
watspan said:
blues band rehearses once a week, gigs twice a month. we feel 1 gig=10 rehearsals! we play 80% standards. adding a new song can happen in 1-2 rehearsals or take 4-6--depends on the song. I'd say rehearse enough to know your material then start gigging ASAP. you'll get frustrated w/o gigs and and gigs will show you what you need to work on in rehearsal. my .02
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Thanks for the input my friend.
 
#43
Stumbo said:
Practice at home, rehearse with the band.

All the songs to be learned should be on CD's and/or have charts made so that when you get together everyone should already know their parts.

Having separate vocal rehearsals helps as well.

If you have people standing around at rehearsal while somebody learns their part, IMO, it's a waste of time.

If someone leaves the band, as long as you have the CD's/charts, the new member should be able to get up to speed quickly.
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+1000
 
#44
The suggestion has been made to make a CD of all our tunes. This would give everyone an opportunity to review arrangements, etc. in the right key and keep the need to get together for formal band rehearsals to a minimum. The rehearsals then would be for purposes of new material.
 
#45
Band #1: We generally rehearse 2 to 4 times a month for about 2 hours at a time. Sometimes a member will bring in a 'new' song, and we will learn it on the spot. I quickly write a chart while another secures the lyrics. If there is a monster break in it, that person will learn the break by the next rehearsal.

Band #2: Every Thursday for two hours, we learn the set list for the coming Sunday. charts and Cd's are handed out beforehand (most of the time), so everyone has practice time in.

Band #3: Never. Rest home gig that requires no practice.

Band #4: 2 or 3 times a month. We really just play for fun, so yes sometimes we all leard a song at rehearsal.
 
#46
Once a week for 2-3 hours tops never more. We do originals and covers. If we have a gig coming up we go over tricky songs or newer added ones. If we are between gigs we ad new material. We come prepaired and do our homework. Even thou we dont practice much or for long we come across as a well polished,tight band at our shows. We expect this and demand this out of each other...we are a team.
 
#49
My new band has so far rehearsed once a week. But we're throwing a second one in tomorrow, and im meeting up with the guitarist on saturday to go over the tunes a little more. Ive been in the band just under 3 weeks as of now. Ive pretty much got a majority of the material down, about 11 songs or so.
 
#50
We get together on Sunday evenings and an occasional Tuesday if we can all swing it.

Our problem is that the singer/guitar player wants everything to be "automatic" before we get into any serious gigging. Right now we've got around 40 songs. Most are in the "automatic" range but a few require a bit of concentration or paying extra attention to hit the changes. No big deal--we nail them around 90+% of the time. The drummer and I are getting itchy to start gigging. In fact, we've both started checking around to see what we can find. I'm sure the guitar player will relax a bit once we've got a few gigs under our belt. So far we've played a few parties but that's it.

And +1 on recording. I've got a Zoom H2 and I record most of our practice sessions. Email the songs or burn them to disc. That way we can listen or play along during our off time. It really helps.
 
#51
Cover bands that I throw together for a one off gig = one rehearsal, runthrough

For the "original" band I'm in we rehearsal once a week with the full band.
Singer-Songwriter/Guitarist and lead guitarist will get together to get passages/licks down... when a new song is introduced all but the drummer will learn the song(s) then will introduce during the full band rehearsal.

Generally during the rehearsal it's going over the shaky songs, we cap off the night with a complete run through (if time allows). Week of a gig, we set up on a stage and run down the set list.

Most rehearsals run about 3 - 4 hours. (longer if we just start jamming out and fly off the planet)
 
#52
I'm in a 6 man all original rock band. We practice as a band once a week from 1-9 with a one hour break for dinner. Thats plenty of time for us.

I think its more important to record than to rehearse. There's alot of things band members dont notice each other are doing until you put together a solid recording.

Everyone does it differently, there's no right or wrong practice/rehearsal schedule.
 
#53
Well, you mentioned something, (Old Cats With Jobs). That can make a lot of difference. I'm 44 and looking to start a band very soon and my situation is such that I'm lucky that my job is pretty much under my own control and I have a good amount of time to work on my music. But I know it's not going to be easy finding people with my same situation and can devote a lot of time to rehearsal. I think rehearsal at least twice a week is good, and really using that rehearsal time to work on and fine tune the music, and not a lot of passing time with chit chat. The more you rehearse together as a group the more you will learn eachother and the tighter your music will be. So in general I say twice a week but use whatever time you get to the fullest.
 
#55
I play in a classic rock trio (B,G,D) and we play 1-2 times a month. We rehearse every Wednesday for 3 hrs except the week after a gig.We come in with charts and CD's.. I think having a set day helps. I would like to know what others are playing ( songlists) that do similar gigs. please PM
 
#56
seanm said:
In note-for-note cover bands I have always wondered how you handle endings? It seems a large number of songs just end in a fade. Do you actually do the fade or do you change the ending?
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I've pointed this out before. Unless you are doing a 'throw together' kind of cover band then face to face rehearsal time is going to be necessary to work out endings background vocals and harmonies.
 
#57
thisSNsucks said:
I'm in a 6 man all original rock band. We practice as a band once a week from 1-9 with a one hour break for dinner. Thats plenty of time for us.

I think its more important to record than to rehearse. There's alot of things band members dont notice each other are doing until you put together a solid recording.

Everyone does it differently, there's no right or wrong practice/rehearsal schedule.
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Recording all rehearsals, run throughs, get togethers is extremely helpful. I use my Zoom H4 all the time, set it up on a tripod or mic stand and record, after the session I either email or transfer the files to flash drives (also helpful... usually ask the musicians/band members to bring one)
 
#58
I'm in a nine piece cover band with a full horn section and five lead singers. On top of that the two female lead singers also switch off to percussion, alto and bari sax and one even plays drums on a song and acoustic guitar on another. The main thing for us when we work on material is arranging the horn stack and harmony vocals so we often times have sectionals with the horn section, vocal section and even the rhythm section. I don't play a horn but I'm often involved in helping to arrange them so I usually end up attending most sectionals we have.

As far as how much we rehearse, if we are working on new material we will rehearse twice a week with one of those rehearsals often times dedicated to a sectional. If we aren't working on new material we will practice once or twice before any gig just to brush up on things. If we have a pretty steady gig schedule, we don't rehearse at all because, in my opinion, playing a gig is the best form of rehearsal and the quickest way to make a band better.

I do find it amusing when someone says your not serious if you don't rehearse at least 3-4 times a week or if someone says rehearsing that much is a waste of time. To me it all depends on the situation. With a band as large as I'm involved in right now, we would be stupid to rehearse less than what we do now but I've played in smaller combos in the past and rehearsing as much as I do now would have been a waste of time. It's really a case by case situation.
 
#59
Joe Nerve said:
A band needs to practice as much as they need to practice to get the job done. Some bands have to do it 3X a week, some none. Some take weeks, some months, some one or no rehearsals. My feeling regarding this is that less experienced musicians need to put the time in. For many years I practiced with the bands I was in 2 or 3 times a week. I think that investment carries over in most of the musicians I know. In the past few years I've played with a number of bands that don't rehearse at all (unless it's original stuff). It's not unheard of for guys to meet for the 1st time on stage. I did it this past saturday.

A great deal depends on how much people can accomplish on their own, how organized they can be, and how accustomed to playing with other musicians they are.
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i was going to say the same thing but joe made it come out nicer that i think i could of
 
#60
When I first started up the classic rock cover band we rehearsed 3 times ..... that was three years ago and we have only rehearsed twice since then. The last rehearsal was to go over cuts and endings with a new drummer ..... ;)

We add between 2 & 3 new tunes for each gig, it's up to all of us to know the tunes when we get to the gig. We spend a few moments talking about the start-stop of the song, and then we play it somewhere in the 1st set. If it's a decent tune, we'll keep it in the rotation for the next gig.

We are all older, former full-time musicians with primarily jazz and funk backgrounds. We all read music, we all sing lead and harmony, and we can all transpose on the spot. For us, rehearsals aren't necessary for the music we play. But we're just playing older, very commercial classic rock covers .... if the music was a bit more challenging we would likely maintain a regular rehearsal schedule .... :cool:
 

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