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Ramping Up With Your New (working) Band
- Thread starter bluewine
- Start date
Well, it's not really about your standards. It's about your band's. If you have a gig coming up in a week, you need to learn all 50 songs in a linear fashion, as in get the basics of all 50 first, then go back and work on the note for note part one at a time.
It's more important to get the groove and the basic line right than to nail every fill. At least then you can get through the gig. Based on your timeline, you sound to me like you might drive yourself nuts trying to get one song perfect and wind up blowing the other stuff.
There are songs that should be done "note for note", like Rush or Kansas, and there are songs where you need to capture the original groove, but even the original player didn't play it the same exact way every time, like Brown Eyed Girl or Stuck In The Middle... Then there are songs where you just need to know what key their in... like Elvis, Chuck Berry, or blues. Stuff like AC/DC or CCR you just need to hear once or twice to nail.
You can either play or you can't. Striving to be perfect is admirable, but will ultimately hold you back. Nobody will notice or even care if you missed a chromatic run up to the C while playing "Move It On Over". Not even your band. It's better to miss a fill than screw it up.
I would also bet after playing certain songs for about 6 months, thinking you were doing them note for note, that if you were to go back and revisit them you find little things you missed or forgot. No matter how hard you worked on it the first time.
Relax and just play, dude. This is supposed to be fun.
It's more important to get the groove and the basic line right than to nail every fill. At least then you can get through the gig. Based on your timeline, you sound to me like you might drive yourself nuts trying to get one song perfect and wind up blowing the other stuff.
There are songs that should be done "note for note", like Rush or Kansas, and there are songs where you need to capture the original groove, but even the original player didn't play it the same exact way every time, like Brown Eyed Girl or Stuck In The Middle... Then there are songs where you just need to know what key their in... like Elvis, Chuck Berry, or blues. Stuff like AC/DC or CCR you just need to hear once or twice to nail.
You can either play or you can't. Striving to be perfect is admirable, but will ultimately hold you back. Nobody will notice or even care if you missed a chromatic run up to the C while playing "Move It On Over". Not even your band. It's better to miss a fill than screw it up.
I would also bet after playing certain songs for about 6 months, thinking you were doing them note for note, that if you were to go back and revisit them you find little things you missed or forgot. No matter how hard you worked on it the first time.
Relax and just play, dude. This is supposed to be fun.
Holy crabpuffs, another peeing contest on TB. Awesome.
Anyway, I probably fall between Bluewine and Jarrett. I CAN learn 40 in 2. But I won't. I don't enjoy it. That is why I am not a pro, but a very good amateur. I ask to do 10 per week, so 40 in pocket by end of week 4, and 2 weeks of polish and vocals, gig at 6 weeks.
Anyway, I probably fall between Bluewine and Jarrett. I CAN learn 40 in 2. But I won't. I don't enjoy it. That is why I am not a pro, but a very good amateur. I ask to do 10 per week, so 40 in pocket by end of week 4, and 2 weeks of polish and vocals, gig at 6 weeks.
Jarrett said:
Yes, it's a great thread very informative and useful for a lot of TBers.
Unfortunately his methodology is not for me.
My thread is to hear about other methods, some of what the guys have posted resonates with me and I agree with them.
I'm in that situation now. Just joined a band and had first rehearsal last night. Gig is Dec. 3. Good thing is I already know about 85-90% of the band's songlist. Worst part is sorting out the vocals since someone is already singing parts I used to sing in other bands.
Well, I haven't read the Jive thread, but I'm sure it's got lots of provacative and useful suggestions.
So, to the point of your question, the last time I had to learn an evening's worth of music short-notice, I literally partitioned the songs into simple, medium, and very challenging. I then partitioned the amount of time I spent on each accordingly. I made notes using TAB and chord progressions. I tried to only use TAB for difficult licks, runs, or sections that were hard to remember, only on select songs and never the entire song. As time went on, I weaned myself off of as much of the notes as possible. I only kept the notes for the most challenging material, or the stuff that just wasn't sinking in for some reason. I think by the time the first gig came around I was down to just a few notes per set, which I typed out and printed in as large a font as possible, so that I could see them from the floor (I try to avoid music stands, your and your band's standards may vary).
It worked out very well. The band was really impressed (and relieved), the show went great. I hit a few clams over the course of three sets, but recovered so quickly that few heard them. No train wrecks. I didn't play the songs as well as I would eventually, but it did the trick to the satisfaction of everyone else.
This is one example, but the philosophy is the same: You gotta have a strategy that will be effective for you and get you over those first few gigs to everyone else's satisfaction until you can eventually get the songs the way you like them.
When I joined the band I'm currently in, there was no audition.
Their then-bassist (now the lead guitarist) was a friend and former bandmate who had been recruiting me for awhile. He asked me to come out to one of their gigs, I sat in on a few songs and a few weeks later I sat down over a beer with the BL, asked a few questions and I had the gig. We did two rehearsals, mostly focusing on the BL's originals which I had already learned on my own and by the BL's admission knew better the first time I played them than anyone else in the band. As far as the covers, I knew about 75% of the tunes already, and the rest I just hunkered down with my bass and YouTube, learned to the best of my ability and then adapted on the fly the first few shows as I got a better feel for how they interpreted them. It was very organic, laid back, there was no drama and after less than a month of me joining people were saying the band sounded better than it ever had before.
Now granted mine was a slightly different situation... joining an established band rather than a whole new band coming together from scratch... but my point is that you can't sit in your basement forever trying to get everything note perfect. Likewise, if you're replacing a member, you can't put gigs on hold for six months waiting for the new guy to get everything "just so". You've got to get out and start playing for real audiences (and pay) reasonably soon or players are gonna lose interest and move on. At least I know I would.
Their then-bassist (now the lead guitarist) was a friend and former bandmate who had been recruiting me for awhile. He asked me to come out to one of their gigs, I sat in on a few songs and a few weeks later I sat down over a beer with the BL, asked a few questions and I had the gig. We did two rehearsals, mostly focusing on the BL's originals which I had already learned on my own and by the BL's admission knew better the first time I played them than anyone else in the band. As far as the covers, I knew about 75% of the tunes already, and the rest I just hunkered down with my bass and YouTube, learned to the best of my ability and then adapted on the fly the first few shows as I got a better feel for how they interpreted them. It was very organic, laid back, there was no drama and after less than a month of me joining people were saying the band sounded better than it ever had before.
Now granted mine was a slightly different situation... joining an established band rather than a whole new band coming together from scratch... but my point is that you can't sit in your basement forever trying to get everything note perfect. Likewise, if you're replacing a member, you can't put gigs on hold for six months waiting for the new guy to get everything "just so". You've got to get out and start playing for real audiences (and pay) reasonably soon or players are gonna lose interest and move on. At least I know I would.
No band has ever given me a method on how to learn material. What they have given me:
Original Bands: Recordings of their songs. Usually a CD. I listen to it to familiarize myself with the material, then I get to wood shedding to learn how to play all of it.
Cover Bands: I get a list of the songs they want to play. Then it's pretty much the same thing as above. I listen to the material, then I learn how to play it.
Sometimes I'll try to knock out the easiest songs first, usually multiples in one sitting. Then I'll work on the tougher stuff by charting it out.
Original Bands: Recordings of their songs. Usually a CD. I listen to it to familiarize myself with the material, then I get to wood shedding to learn how to play all of it.
Cover Bands: I get a list of the songs they want to play. Then it's pretty much the same thing as above. I listen to the material, then I learn how to play it.
Sometimes I'll try to knock out the easiest songs first, usually multiples in one sitting. Then I'll work on the tougher stuff by charting it out.
We're going to be replacing our drummer in a couple of months cause our current guy is moving away.
The guy I hope we'll get as our replacement is a close friend of mine who has been playing drums for almost as long as I've been alive (I'm 45). And I played with him for 5 years in a previous band. For anyone in my band to presume we need to give a guy like that guidance on getting up to speed for our first gig would be absurd, insulting and counterproductive. We'll give him a songlist, a live recording of our show, a CD of our BLs originals and give him a month or so to prep the way he feels is best. A couple of rehearsals (at the most) with him before he plays our first gig and off we go.
The guy I hope we'll get as our replacement is a close friend of mine who has been playing drums for almost as long as I've been alive (I'm 45). And I played with him for 5 years in a previous band. For anyone in my band to presume we need to give a guy like that guidance on getting up to speed for our first gig would be absurd, insulting and counterproductive. We'll give him a songlist, a live recording of our show, a CD of our BLs originals and give him a month or so to prep the way he feels is best. A couple of rehearsals (at the most) with him before he plays our first gig and off we go.
- Jan 27, 2010
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- Endorsing Artist: Genz Benz Amplification
I have no problem being given a list of songs and showing up to do the gig. I do like to do one rehearsal beforehand if the band has a lot of unique arrangements, but if the tunes are done in the typical way it's not a big deal. The way I see it, if I take the gig knowing the requirements it's my responsibility to fulfill them. My abilities and time management aren't the responsibility of the guys who hired me.
Nope. The guy sat in with us on a gig a couple weeks ago and in the course of 3 songs he sold the whole band. He had already gotten the green light from me and the lead guitarist (whose opinion the BL gives more weight than anyone else), so unless he gets cold feet between now and then the gig is pretty much his.
What I'm hoping is that we can have one rehearsal where the new drummer is there and playing but the departing drummer is there as well just to answer any questions on specific tweaks our band does to some of the songs. The two drummers know and respect each other so I don't think there would be any weirdness in that situation.
I'll tell you what, it is a whole lot easier recruiting a great player to an established, regularly gigging outfit than it is to find that kind of player willing to commit to a start-up.
