New band is a hot mess

[Bullitt5135]

I'm new to this... I just started playing again after many years away, and I've never been in a band before. I met a experienced drummer who is putting together a gigging classic rock cover band. He's been doing this for a long time, but his approach seems to be pretty seat-of-the-pants. We seem to play a lot of phone/email tag, and try to scribble down notes and song lists after rehearsal. This leads to (individually) practicing the wrong material and not being very prepared for rehearsal.

How do you like to keep things organized -- stuff like song lists, rehearsal times, band goals, upcoming gigs, etc. Do you use software or websites? Our goal is to put together a 40-song list (seems like the magic number). I'm thinking about creating a master spreadsheet of the songs, with columns to indicate if each individual knows his part, if it's a work-in-progress for the band, or if it's gig-ready.

I'd love to hear how others keep it all under control.

 

[meycom]

We use a gmail account, with calendar for gig and rehearsal dates. Also use Google docs for setlists and other stuff. All free. We also pay to put up all our songs(MP3's)
on a site so everyone is on the same page. 40 songs seems a little short for 2-3 sets.
We're a classic rock cover band too and we have over 60. We expect everyone to come to rehearsals knowing their parts, period. We then have time to work on vocal harmonies, endings, etc.

 

[hrodbert696]

40 songs would be the minimum to play a gig, but you'll want a repertoire of more than that eventually so that you can rotate songs in and out to keep things fresh, or just to adapt your set to the particular gig. A gmail account or yahoo group are useful to keep communication centralized.

Pick one weekly rehearsal time and place that everyone can commit to. You're never going to get it together if you're at a different time or place every week, or if you're not having regular weekly practices.

Pick three or four songs to work on initially and then see how many new songs the group members can really commit to learning each week -- probably two or three at most unless they're really committed or already have lots of songs they can pull out of a sack fast. If you stick to a schedule, you should be ready to gig after three or four months.

It's a good idea to pick one person to be group coordinator if not outright group leader. The coordinator emails everyone each week to make sure everyone knows what songs to come prepared with, etc., and any other issues that need communication. My band doesn't have a real leader but I think having one is a good idea -- doesn't need to be the band Hitler, and doesn't need to be the same person as the frontman, but just someone who can be the final decision-maker about whether a given song fits the concept of the band or not, what song goes where on the set list, what style to play in, etc.

 

[GenXos]

Someone else posted this a while back but it is pretty good for keeping organized:

http://www.gigdonkey.com/

 

[Bullitt5135]

All great suggestions -- keep them coming!

I agree, 60 songs is way better than 40. At this point, I'm starting from scratch -- I'm learning everything for the first time. It's looking like I will be the weakest link in the band (due to inexperience), so I'm trying to be very deliberate about which material we are working on as to not waste my time learning songs we'll never cover in the band. We've already scrapped a couple of song lists due to changing personnel. I want the drummer to commit to a core of 20 just to lay some groundwork. It makes sense to have newcomers adjust to our core song list rather than learning their material just for an audition/jam session (which is how it seems to have gone so far). The drummer likes to see/hear a player's best material so he can see what they're made of, but it's really hard on me to learn stuff on short notice.

 

[mottshoople]

I'm going thru a very similar experience. I've just joined my first band. Within weeks of joining and learning a bunch of keyboard based songs, the band fired the keyboard player. They guy was a bit nuts, showed up almost an hour late every week and then kept stopping us in mid song to tell stories. I was ready to quit, and expressed this to the rest, when they decided to cut him loose. Now we are learning a bunch of new songs. Even though I'm the new guy, and it's my first band (I'm 47, haha), I have been around bands most of my life. I am trying to get things on track. The point about learning two or three songs a week is key. We all have families and jobs. This is for fun. Trying to jam in too many songs at once can cause a lot of unnecessary pressure. Also, you may not get them tight as a group because you are trying to squeeze in too much. I think if you do a two a week, and add on as you get more comfortable, you will grow your list much quicker.
Also, I try and make sure that either I make a list of the songs and update as we add, or I ask somone else if they can. We are in constant email contact. Communication is key, imho.
My only problem is the one guitarist just booked us a gig for Friday night, without asking any of us first. I personally don't think we're ready. But, he seems to be bent on doing this. It's at a dive bar where there will be hardly anyone in the crowd, so I'm going along with it. Shame is, I think with another month of good rehearsals, we'd have been really ready.
Good luck Bullitt. It sounds like you have the right idea. get it organized. Take the lead if you're comfortable in it. just don't be a tyrant (especially if it's a hobby gig).

 

[Gearhead17]

Make an Excel spreadsheet and send it out to everyone through e-mail. Google Calender is a good way to organize along with following the advice posted here already. Someone needs to be the leader or just take control of a couple of areas if no one else will.

When deciding what songs to do, make sure you tell everyone which version you are doing. Album, live in concert, live at a late night show, single version, re-mix and so on.... Try to send a youtube video of it along with: band, album, what year, and song length. Modern music seems to have 4 different versions of a song. We have gotten things screwed up so many times because of this. So I took control of this myself, guess what? Glad I did, we are all on point during practice.

 

[bluewine]

I'm new to this... I just started playing again after many years away, and I've never been in a band before. I met a experienced drummer who is putting together a gigging classic rock cover band. He's been doing this for a long time, but his approach seems to be pretty seat-of-the-pants. We seem to play a lot of phone/email tag, and try to scribble down notes and song lists after rehearsal. This leads to (individually) practicing the wrong material and not being very prepared for rehearsal.

How do you like to keep things organized -- stuff like song lists, rehearsal times, band goals, upcoming gigs, etc. Do you use software or websites? Our goal is to put together a 40-song list (seems like the magic number). I'm thinking about creating a master spreadsheet of the songs, with columns to indicate if each individual knows his part, if it's a work-in-progress for the band, or if it's gig-ready.

I'd love to hear how others keep it all under control.

Here you go;

White Board

The resources to send songs out to each member and a date they are expected to learn them.

Be a leader

Diplomatically let the members know what is exceptable and what is not.

 

[geoff_in_nc]

We use Dropbox for our songs. We keep MP3's in one folder which are songs we're definitely doing, and doing that version, and keep another folder for suggested songs, or things we haven't decided on yet. We also keep things like setlists, a few pictures, our logo, etc. on there so everyone has access to it.

We also have a band calendar on cozi.com. Its designed to be a family calendaring thing, but it works for the band. The only thing I don't like about it is there's only one password for everyone who's got access to the calendar. We block out dates and put practices and gigs on there too. Oh, and since its designed for families, we get ads for b*tchin coupons on laundry detergent on there too... LOL.

 

[Dekker]

Google has all the tools you need for this sort of collaboration.

Everyone has their own google/gmail account, then someone sets up a Google Docs account and shares a folder (they now call it a collection) with all other bandmates. Put all your MP3s and videos and setlists in that folder.

Then you can also setup Google Calendar and share a "band calendar" with dates and events and availability (mark of such-and-such week due to vacation).

Google also has a free website builder, that you can use to tie the pieces together for your bandmates.

Works for us!

 

[bassjnky1]

I agree with the great advice given previously but may I inject something that has become my own pet peave - and that is, people showing up to rehearse without a way to take away notes. Personally, I use a digital recorder so that I can review everything and rehearse the worked out versions of the tunes. Some folks like to write things down - too slow for me and not accurate enough. It is everyones individual responsibility to show up with their own method of taking notes. Otherwise, you end up spending valuable rehearsal time just trying to remember what you decided to do at the last rehearsal.