Noodling/Showing-off between songs

[addylewis]

I remember once we did a charity gig - nothing wrong with that, but the guys in the band were accusing me of being unprofessional by noodling during soundcheck...now I can cope with not noodling to be professional, but when we're a practically unknown cover band donating our time for no pay I don't see the issue, to a certain extent I'm thinking - you guys want me to be professional? Get me a PAYING GIG and I'll be professional...there was nobody there at soundcheck anyway so it annoyed me a bit that they were going on about it, I kind of wasn't in the mood anyway somehow...

 

[rtslinger]

The drummer and I do just before the sound check just away of getting our grove I could not care less who it bothers before we play because, when we start rocking the bottom together we are tight and fills,accents and rolls are right on the $

 

[Saen Naen]

I was in this hardcore/metal band once. We had original songs, and we would make setlists. One show we decided to add this really heavy breakdown that we had been using as a practice drill between two of the songs. We planned to end one song and then just start the breakdown. Whenever it ended we'd just go to the next song.

Well...we got to the end of the first song, got all primed and siked to bust in with this heavy truck of a breakdown, when our guitarist steps up to a mic and says really shyly "uhh...ok...we're just going to try something really quick..."

Totally killed the vibe and made us all feel extremely lamed out. We played it out anyway, but it didn't have the same effect. It was totally unecessary to have to notify the audience that we were about to play an unfinished section of a song for the first time. They don't know our old songs to begin with.

Why can't people just shut it sometimes?

 

[coreyfyfe]

the band were accusing me of being unprofessional by noodling during soundcheck...

I can understand noodling on soundcheck when you're the only band on a bill, it's not like you were wasting time in front of a crowded room mid set or during sound check on a multi-band bill that has already started.

 

[chump stain]

I hate it when there's silence between songs, especially if it's more then a few seconds. I also don't want to hear story time. So between songs, if there's a space, I'll do some volume swells in the key of the next song, or do a drone on the bass synth pedal. But no noodling...forbidden!

 

[jarrhead]

I can understand maybe running a scale at the end of the song. A lot of big bands do it too. But between songs you should be silent and/or let your frontman do all the noise.

 

[Kaa]

I was in a band where our lead player would play the lead break to the next song, between songs. Every time. without fail. We dubbed them "preleads."

 

[Devo-lution]

even more annoying... when you're rehearsing and someone can't stop noodling... I was in a band where the drummer just kept on doing technique exercises when not playing. Even when the rest of the band was songwriting or havig a discussion about the structure of the song..

And if I yelled at him, he would just start hitting harder, so he couldn't hear me.

Then I came up with the suggestion that everytime he did it, we would instantly start throwing tennis balls at him (there are quite a lot where we rehearse for some odd reason)....

 

[Kaa]

i admit it. i noodle. i usually hit the mute button, and I won't do it if we are doing something productive. but sometimes i just wanna groove with the drummer, and the band I'm currently in is not very groove oriented....
if you noodle with a groove, is it noodling? i've been working on a solo bass piece, and i think this drummer and i are going to record it sometime.

in any case, I try not to noodle at full volume ever, and especially not when we are being productive.

I have the same problem. Well, not a problem per se, but our drummer and I are always trying to get into more groove-ish stuff, and our guitarist wants to primarily play 3 chord rockin tunes. Nothing against that, but I'd like to stretch just a little.

 

[EastCoastThump]

I can understand noodling on soundcheck when you're the only band on a bill, it's not like you were wasting time in front of a crowded room mid set or during sound check on a multi-band bill that has already started.

Soundcheck noodling would only bother me if it were holding up soundcheck. But in that case the problem isn't noodling so much as being oblivious to the program--no different, say, than novice bands that want to play/practice a full song when the sound engineer's trying to line check the drum mics.

I'm not saying, BTW, that addylewis was doing this. I'm just stating the obvious that--even with no crowd-- there's business to take care of during soundcheck too.