Maybe I'm the *******???

[NickFromNY]

short story.. i have been a working drummer for 20 years. Played big shows with big bands. have a nice network of great musicians that I call friends and play with. Not currently in a full time band. My dad was a bassist and I have always wanted to play bass in a band. I have been moving more towards bass over the past few years, mostly self taught (i work as a music teacher) and I actually started taking some lessons recently with a great teacher via skype. I get calls to play bass in bands pretty regularly, but it is always the same story... we rehearse every week. My question is always why???? The parts and arrangements are already written... just learn them. One or 2 run throughs and away we go. Want to work in transitions? fine, tell them to me and we can run through them a couple of times. I am tired of the "we need to get tight" response. Good musicians can sound tight. I just got a gig of 14 Wed nights in a row during the summer with a group of guys who won't say hello to each other before downbeat of song one at that first gig. We all have the songlist and we will all come prepared. I did a run of gigs in Key West with a group of guys who all live in different parts of the country and met on stage at night 1 of a 7 night run, 4 hours straight each night, no breaks. If you are in an original band and working out new material and have to actually write your own parts, then I get it. Cover bands are not going to re-write Brown Eyed Girl. Harmonies? simple.. you take high, I go low. Work out yor parts at home and come prepared. Rehearsals are not where you learn songs. I am not anti-rehearsal... just anti rehearsing for the sake of thinking being in the same room makes us tighter. But hey, maybe I'm the *******..

 

[Lesfunk]

You are looking at this from a professionals point of view

 

[charlie monroe]

Well, you are from Long Island

 

[NickFromNY]

You are looking at this from a professionals point of view

maybe. I have a full time job and family. I don't consider myself a full time professional musician. I realize that I need to "pay my dues" on bass if I want to make the switch to being more of a bassist than a drummer, however I value my time away from my family. I don't need an excuse to get out of the house each week for beers. That's great if you do, but be honest about what you are doing then

 

[Lesfunk]

Your thoughts on the matter are truthfully how actual pros do it in th real world

 

[RichardW]

I think this is what the kids call a "humblebrag."

 

[mrcbass]

short story.. i have been a working drummer for 20 years. Played big shows with big bands. have a nice network of great musicians that I call friends and play with. Not currently in a full time band. My dad was a bassist and I have always wanted to play bass in a band. I have been moving more towards bass over the past few years, mostly self taught (i work as a music teacher) and I actually started taking some lessons recently with a great teacher via skype. I get calls to play bass in bands pretty regularly, but it is always the same story... we rehearse every week. My question is always why???? The parts and arrangements are already written... just learn them. One or 2 run throughs and away we go. Want to work in transitions? fine, tell them to me and we can run through them a couple of times. I am tired of the "we need to get tight" response. Good musicians can sound tight. I just got a gig of 14 Wed nights in a row during the summer with a group of guys who won't say hello to each other before downbeat of song one at that first gig. We all have the songlist and we will all come prepared. I did a run of gigs in Key West with a group of guys who all live in different parts of the country and met on stage at night 1 of a 7 night run, 4 hours straight each night, no breaks. If you are in an original band and working out new material and have to actually write your own parts, then I get it. Cover bands are not going to re-write Brown Eyed Girl. Harmonies? simple.. you take high, I go low. Work out yor parts at home and come prepared. Rehearsals are not where you learn songs. I am not anti-rehearsal... just anti rehearsing for the sake of thinking being in the same room makes us tighter. But hey, maybe I'm the *******..

Not all musicians - even regularly gigging ones - are strong enough to not need rehearsals or dedicated enough to do work at home. Yes there are plenty of bands that can get away with this, but you need every member of the band to be top notch and responsible. And even if they are all strong enough and responsible enough, there are a lot of little options that need to be ironed out to really get tight - I know I never have my part 100% finished until I've worked with the band in question on it.

Unfortunately, I'm in a band that is neither strong enough or dedicated enough to even consider no rehearsals. I don't mind rehearsals (somewhat of a social thing for me), but I do hate showing to unprepared people even when specific songs were identified the week before. That's what I dislike.

 

[QweziRider]

But hey, maybe I'm the *******

Nope. You're not. Just being professional. I, too, have a gig where we all live in different corners of the country, show up when told to, do the gig, have no "tightness" issues, and go home. Even the occasional sub never gets a rehearsal with us. We'll cover some questions with the newbies in sound check, but that's about it. Show up, know your role, do the job, go home happy.

Hell, even the local gig I have rehearses twice a year.

 

[NickFromNY]

Not all musicians - even regularly gigging ones - are strong enough to not need rehearsals or dedicated enough to do work at home. Yes there are plenty of bands that can get away with this, but you need every member of the band to be top notch and responsible. And even if they are all strong enough and responsible enough, there are a lot of little options that need to be ironed out to really get tight - I know I never have my part 100% finished until I've worked with the band in question on it.

Unfortunately, I'm in a band that is neither strong enough or dedicated enough to even consider no rehearsals. I don't mind rehearsals (somewhat of a social thing for me), but I do hate showing to unprepared people even when specific songs were identified the week before. That's what I dislike.

I think that is what I dislike as well.

 

[micguy]

I play in churches, where every weekend is an ad hoc performance. Sure, we play a lot of the same songs, but arrangement, keys, and feel all vary from one week to the next.

In some places, we have a Thursday night rehearsal, and a couple run throughs on Sunday morning. Mostly those are to iron out exactly what arrangement and feel we're going to go with - the chord structures of the tunes we all know cold. In others, it's just Sunday morning - a couple times through, again focusing on the arrangement and feel.

If everyone comes prepared (which happens 99.9 percent of the time), it goes well, but I do think a rehearsal/run through or two before you hit an audience is a good idea. If a band needs to get together for 6 months on a weekly basis before they're ready to do a couple sets of covers, either you're not putting in the time, or the band isn't very skilled. Often, both.

 

[EastCoastThump]

I don't mind rehearsals (somewhat of a social thing for me), but I do hate showing to unprepared people even when specific songs were identified the week before. That's what I dislike.

Right. I enjoy rehearsals, when there's strong players, a clear need, and explicit goals. I'm less enthusiastic about rehearsals that are only called because the BL's nervous ahead of a date (hire the right players, then). Or because someone couldn't be bothered to practice, especially when that shows.

 

[two fingers]

short story.. i have been a working drummer for 20 years. Played big shows with big bands. have a nice network of great musicians that I call friends and play with. Not currently in a full time band. My dad was a bassist and I have always wanted to play bass in a band. I have been moving more towards bass over the past few years, mostly self taught (i work as a music teacher) and I actually started taking some lessons recently with a great teacher via skype. I get calls to play bass in bands pretty regularly, but it is always the same story... we rehearse every week. My question is always why???? The parts and arrangements are already written... just learn them. One or 2 run throughs and away we go. Want to work in transitions? fine, tell them to me and we can run through them a couple of times. I am tired of the "we need to get tight" response. Good musicians can sound tight. I just got a gig of 14 Wed nights in a row during the summer with a group of guys who won't say hello to each other before downbeat of song one at that first gig. We all have the songlist and we will all come prepared. I did a run of gigs in Key West with a group of guys who all live in different parts of the country and met on stage at night 1 of a 7 night run, 4 hours straight each night, no breaks. If you are in an original band and working out new material and have to actually write your own parts, then I get it. Cover bands are not going to re-write Brown Eyed Girl. Harmonies? simple.. you take high, I go low. Work out yor parts at home and come prepared. Rehearsals are not where you learn songs. I am not anti-rehearsal... just anti rehearsing for the sake of thinking being in the same room makes us tighter. But hey, maybe I'm the *******..

Hear! Hear!!!!!

I have been saying this here for YEARS!!!!

If you have all been playing for more than half a dozen years, there is NO REASON to have more than a couple rehearsals and then GO PLAY!!!

Maybe one rehearsal for each set. Then, if you're being super detail oriented, MAYBE one more to hit the "hard" songs. But even that last one is a little excessive.

From that point on, if you want to add a song, email or text each other the name of the song and the key. Run that sucker in sound check (if you must). Other than that, click the sticks four time and PLAY it.

Half a dozen or more rehearsals or more for a bar band playing from the first couple hundred pages of the Bar Bamd Hymnal is ridiculous.

Want to start a band? Settle on the members. Settle on the set list. Book a show for about one month out. If you have the right members, the band will be ready.

There is one exception. If your band is the kind of band that likes to hang out as much as play gigs, by all means, get together once a week and have "card night" with geetarz. In other words, if your band is more about the hang than the paycheck, fine.

But no band of good players NEEDS a ton of rehearsals to be show ready. If you ain't "tight" after a couple of jam sessions, you ain't gonna be.

I'm with you!

 

[rtslinger]

short story.. i have been a working drummer for 20 years. Played big shows with big bands. have a nice network of great musicians that I call friends and play with. Not currently in a full time band. My dad was a bassist and I have always wanted to play bass in a band. I have been moving more towards bass over the past few years, mostly self taught (i work as a music teacher) and I actually started taking some lessons recently with a great teacher via skype. I get calls to play bass in bands pretty regularly, but it is always the same story... we rehearse every week. My question is always why???? The parts and arrangements are already written... just learn them. One or 2 run throughs and away we go. Want to work in transitions? fine, tell them to me and we can run through them a couple of times. I am tired of the "we need to get tight" response. Good musicians can sound tight. I just got a gig of 14 Wed nights in a row during the summer with a group of guys who won't say hello to each other before downbeat of song one at that first gig. We all have the songlist and we will all come prepared. I did a run of gigs in Key West with a group of guys who all live in different parts of the country and met on stage at night 1 of a 7 night run, 4 hours straight each night, no breaks. If you are in an original band and working out new material and have to actually write your own parts, then I get it. Cover bands are not going to re-write Brown Eyed Girl. Harmonies? simple.. you take high, I go low. Work out yor parts at home and come prepared. Rehearsals are not where you learn songs. I am not anti-rehearsal... just anti rehearsing for the sake of thinking being in the same room makes us tighter. But hey, maybe I'm the *******..

We are a Classic Rock band and we do not see each other till the gig. Never a practice or rehearsal and we have been rocking since 2003. We communicate mostly through group text or emails. We decide what we are going to do and learn our parts. What I tried to do though which is helpful, is find the live version of the songs we are covering, so any intro or endings not on the original album are covered. As long as you surround yourself as I did with dedicated prof. players, this is a workable solution.

 

[DWBass]

I'm with you. NOT a fan of endless rehearsing. If you ain't got it, you'll never get it. Learn the damn songs. My main band rarely rehearses unless we're working in new tunes but most times we run them during the show. My other band, BL likes to rehearse but he's the one that screws up the most.

 

[sean_on_bass]

Rehearsing too much can be the detriment of a band. Only so many people can stick with a weekly rehearsal schedule for so long. Stack gigs on top of it and it's even worse. Someone is going to quit that poopie eventually.

 

[LBS-bass]

I think the problem is that you're assuming everyone else will work at home to tighten their parts. They won't.

 

[buldog5151bass]

Some people play because they just enjoy playing. Also, not as many bands gigging every week.

But I agree. If you give me the tunes tolearn, a couple of rehearsals should be enough to get you ready to play as a band.

 

[LBS-bass]

Some people play because they just enjoy playing. Also, not as many bands gigging every week.

But I agree. If you give me the tunes tolearn, a couple of rehearsals should be enough to get you ready to play as a band.

Honestly, I'm of two minds about this. I do my homework, learn my parts etc., etc. And I do a decent job when I'm asked. But I recently heard some tapes from an old band I was in in the 1980's when we were actually gigging 4-5 nights a week. To say it was tight didn't begin to do it justice. There's a level you can achieve when you play together a lot that is hard to describe. But I realize not many opportunities are left out there to get this tight. And I also realize that a lot of players need something other than that to remain interested. Even I'm getting bored practicing the material I already know for the gig I have on Friday. So I think there's no clear answer, unless you're getting paid decent money. If you're getting paid, work your butts off.

 

[petrus61]

I totally respect your point of view, OP. I was discharged over the summer from a band because I wasn’t willing to adhere to a schedule of showing up to constant practices that I didn’t need just so the older people in the group could have a chance to get out of the house a few times a month to flex their rock fantasy muscles. A shame because the gigs and the dollars were there, but I found myself in a position where I was musically superior (red flag) and that just isn’t what I want to be surrounded by. I’m a supporting player, I need to be challenged, and that’s what I do. I was lured in by the local popularity and income of said act, then was deflated by the childish approach and phony camaraderie in the guise of faux professionalism. Some bands are out there more for the sake of gigging and getting a few bucks for their corny slush funds then they are for preserving their dignity with quality product, and if that makes me an a-hole, so be it.

 

[FronTowardEnemy]

I am in a Tribute band and we gig regularly. We might rehearse once every other month or so just to go over new material and some transitions between songs and such.

Our philosophy is, you better know your stuff, it’s paint by numbers anyways. No excuse there.