Time frame for a band to improve?

[Herbal]

We've been playing since late may this year, started off pretty rough with the guitar players, but me and the drummer are locking in really well.

So far its just jamming and finding ideas and starting to work on songs we've written, we all have some experience but being new to each others playing is there a rough time frame to when you go "Oh that sounds loads better!"

A year, more?

 

[Jloch86]

Record yourselves playing a basic blues in A. In six months, do the same thing. Compare the two recordings and if you like what you hear, I'd stick around.

 

[RustyAxe]

It depends on the players' abilities and/or work ethic, doesn't it? In some cases, it's a matter of individuals working on the their chops before the combined band can be better. In other cases, things ought to sound better the second time the song is played in rehearsal.

 

[bigboy_78]

How long is a rehearsal? You should sound better by the end of each rehearsal.

If each player already has a decent command of their instrument, you should sound “good” by the second rehearsal.

Even in an original band I like to run through a heap of covers the first few times together, just to see how everyone clicks.

 

[Octaves]

Just remember, the music needs space to breathe, eg, not all instruments should be playing at once, all the time. And, secondly... the frequency spectrum... do not step on each other's frequencies. Eg, keys on same frequency as rhythm guitar does not seem necessary.

 

[jive1]

It depends on what your current level is and where you want to be. If you're beginners and serious about improving, then you should notice results in months. But, it doesn't mean that you'll sound like professionals. It will take years to get to that point. The beginning is where you see the most improvement because you will go from playing nothing to something. However, with any endeavor, you will experience moments of great growth only to plateau and feel like you're not improving. But, if you can work and wade through it, you can experience another resurgence of growth. On the other hand, if the plateau makes you give up trying, it's only a matter of time until regression occurs.

If any of you guys have had band experience, especially professional, you should be able to tell a lot from the first jam. If it hits from the beginning, then you should expect gradual improvement given that people put in the work required. If you don't see improvement, it's usually because folks aren't putting in the work. If the band doesn't hit from the beginning, it might be worth a couple more tries to see an upward trend. If not, then it's usually due to a lack of talent, fit, or effort. Time to re-evaluate.

 

[Herbal]

It depends on what your current level is and where you want to be. If you're beginners and serious about improving, then you should notice results in months. But, it doesn't mean that you'll sound like professionals. It will take years to get to that point. The beginning is where you see the most improvement because you will go from playing nothing to something. However, with any endeavor, you will experience moments of great growth only to plateau and feel like you're not improving. But, if you can work and wade through it, you can experience another resurgence of growth. On the other hand, if the plateau makes you give up trying, it's only a matter of time until regression occurs.

If any of you guys have had band experience, especially professional, you should be able to tell a lot from the first jam. If it hits from the beginning, then you should expect gradual improvement given that people put in the work required. If you don't see improvement, it's usually because folks aren't putting in the work. If the band doesn't hit from the beginning, it might be worth a couple more tries to see an upward trend. If not, then it's usually due to a lack of talent, fit, or effort. Time to re-evaluate.

We all have some experience in bands or just jamming, I had played guitar for 12 or so years until I took up bass, guitar has played for 6 years, drummer played for a long time.

I think the answer then is keep going until it/something happens..

 

[delta7fred]

+1 to recording all your practice/rehearsal sessions, edit out the individual songs (best version if you played it multiple times) and circulate them round the other members. It is amazing how much quicker you improve when you hear what you played/sang rather than what you thought you did.

I record rehearsals with a Tascam DR-40, edit the wav files with Audacity (on a Linux PC), mp3 them with Sound Converter, and put them on a shared DropBox folder.

I stop the recorder and restart it every few songs to limit the size of the files so they load quicker when editing, and keep a log of what songs are on what file so it is easier to edit them later. Usually the last play through is the best version so I start with the last file and work backwards until all songs are extracted.

 

[Herbal]

+1 to recording all your practice/rehearsal sessions, edit out the individual songs (best version if you played it multiple times) and circulate them round the other members. It is amazing how much quicker you improve when you hear what you played/sang rather than what you thought you did.

I record rehearsals with a Tascam DR-40, edit the wav files with Audacity (on a Linux PC), mp3 them with Sound Converter, and put them on a shared DropBox folder.

I stop the recorder and restart it every few songs to limit the size of the files so they load quicker when editing, and keep a log of what songs are on what file so it is easier to edit them later. Usually the last play through is the best version so I start with the last file and work backwards until all songs are extracted.

We do record, but only on our phones which sounds rather awful when played back, guitar guy has some better recording equipment which he says he will bring...

 

[delta7fred]

We do record, but only on our phones which sounds rather awful when played back, guitar guy has some better recording equipment which he says he will bring...

Yes, phones are not always the best quality.

I find that the drummer is the biggest problem when recording, the snare in particular often overloads the recorder (the DR-40 clips the top off the transients when it overloads so I let it as long as the overload light isn't on too much). I usually try and put an acoustic baffle between the recorder and the drums ( a padded chair back) and point the mic at a PA cab to get the best of the vocals (and the bass - I DI at rehearsals). The sound is amazingly good for a single mic. I run the recorder in mono to keep the wav file sizes down, and to speed up the uploading to DropBox over my crap internet connection. I also apply a bit of compression which brings up the overall level and compresses the drum transients.

 

[Renaissance]

+1 to recording all your practice/rehearsal sessions, edit out the individual songs (best version if you played it multiple times) and circulate them round the other members. It is amazing how much quicker you improve when you hear what you played/sang rather than what you thought you did.

I record rehearsals with a Tascam DR-40, edit the wav files with Audacity (on a Linux PC), mp3 them with Sound Converter, and put them on a shared DropBox folder.

I stop the recorder and restart it every few songs to limit the size of the files so they load quicker when editing, and keep a log of what songs are on what file so it is easier to edit them later. Usually the last play through is the best version so I start with the last file and work backwards until all songs are extracted.

I do almost exactly the same. I'd never thought of working from the end. Good idea!

To address the OP: I give a new band 4 rehearsals before I really start thinking about pulling the plug or not. Within that time frame I've given everyone the opportunity to show their true selves. You'll know how does their homework, who is flaky, who has real potential, etc. You can usually tell after the second rehearsal but I'm a benefit of the doubt kind of guy.

 

[delta7fred]

I do almost exactly the same. I'd never thought of working from the end. Good idea!

It took me a few months to realise that there was an easier way than sifting through several songs to get to the best one. Keeping a note of what songs are in which file is useful to me because I cannot remember when we played what and often saves opening some files because there is only earlier duplicates on them.

 

[Herbal]

To address the OP: I give a new band 4 rehearsals before I really start thinking about pulling the plug or not. Within that time frame I've given everyone the opportunity to show their true selves. You'll know how does their homework, who is flaky, who has real potential, etc. You can usually tell after the second rehearsal but I'm a benefit of the doubt kind of guy.

One guitar player has already quit, because he wasn't good enough(in his opinion).

 

[bassbully]

Hard question to answer. Your practices and abilities will be your best guide. Also some people no matter what their experience level is just can't gel together as a band.
If you are taking the hey lets jam till we find something that sounds good approach then you are doing it all wrong. You need direction, a written song or musical piece someone in the group has already fleshed out.

 

[40Hz]

Depends on the band and the people.

In my case, I expect continuous improvement from the get go.

I'll usually give it about three rehearsals for things to seriouly start coming together. My experience has been, if it's going to jell, it's gonna happen fairly quickly or not at all.

My days of "wishin' and hopin'" over the course of six months for things to click are long past.

 

[hrodbert696]

I've been trying to get a cover band going since last fall. Everyone in it has gigging experience, but honestly after nine months I feel we're still pretty clunky and the guitarist said as much to me after the last gig. But then some guys that I've been doing originals with over a shorter time frame (maybe four or five months) decided to throw a set of covers together for a benefit gig at my church. Two weeks with the set list, ONE rehearsal, and boom - played a great set, everyone locked in and had their parts, it went great. ONE rehearsal. That really put the nine-month band in a much harsher light.

 

[bassplayer2014]

Depends on the band and the people.

In my case, I expect continuous improvement from the get go.

I'll usually give it about three rehearsals for things to seriouly start coming together. My experience has been, if it's going to jell, it's gonna happen fairly quickly or not at all.

My days of "wishin' and hopin'" over the course of six months for things to click are long past.

Agreed! A band gels quickly in the course of a few get together. If not, it's a group of people jamming. Jamming is fun too.

 

[40Hz]

Agreed! A band gels quickly in the course of a few get together. If not, it's a group of people jamming. Jamming is fun too.

Agree. Jamming is great. As long as the goal isn't to start a band!

Note: I once wasted close to a year in in the mid '80s as part of a prog-rock "project" that started out as five proggers working on a concept album. As time went on, it slowly morphed into nine players and three vocalists developing a prog-rock influenced musical - and then towards a pile of people sitting in the studio while we played, all groovin' to the vibe and having religious experiences. Shades of Pete Townshend's Lighthouse project right?

Then they got some crazy lady as a financial backer - and the whole thing started feeling like some weird church service, with candlelight and buffets in the studio, and some of the ladies doing some admittedly 'interesting' dance moves while wearing costumes they had come up with for each of the dances (I didn't mind that part too much. Even my GF acknowledged these ladies were "limber.")

When they started to have people talking (actually more like testifying) about all the "seriously cool" and "spooky" things that were happening in their lives since they started hanging out with us, and how their whole lives were starting to revolve around our weekly sessions, I decided to bail. I certainly didn't want to start a church. Or become some cheap local version of the Dead for the area Goth/Wicca/Deadhead crewes.

So I jumped ship and swore never again, even if I knew I'd miss getting to watch some of those dancers for a while.

Like my GF said: Limber.