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Tips and techniques for practicing

#3
Just a couple of tips:

1. Practice with a metronome. We use one with a flashing red light, which we place on a music stand in front of our drummer. He then sets the tempo, I play bass off his hi-hat, and the guitarists play off me. We've been doing this for a couple of months now, and it's incredible how tight we're becoming!

2. Don't be afraid to experiment. Solos, basslines, backing vocals, whatever. Practice is the time to try things, and if it works, you keep it, if not, you ditch it.

3. Don't just practice songs. Run a "dress rehearsal", where you pretend you're actually playing a gig. Transitions between songs, onstage banter, stage clothes, etc.

4. Go over this thread. Lots of great pointers for all bands, not just original bands.

Hope this helps.
 
#4
I haven't read much on this subject, but in our cover band, we need to write stuff down. A sort of common cheat sheet. Tempo's, intro's, notes of backup vocals, guitar or bass solo's we add, stuff like that, endings etc. We don't use it during the gig, but in practice if somebody starts coming in early, or starts singing a different back up line from last week, if you agreed at the last rehearsal on something and its written down you avoid a lot of "hagling" over things.

The words are written out and then you can make your remarks at that point in the music.

Without it, we tend to have the same problems that we fix over and over again.
 
#6
Get a white board and outline each rehearsal agenda. Make notes about what's done/to do.
Send out an email after each rehearsal containing the notes and make the agenda for next week's rehearsal.
Possibly set up a separate vocal practice/rehearsal.

Here are a few links to check out:
If I only knew then...
Best musical advice

~Reheasals
Wearing ear plugs
Band rehearsal/headphones

Learning band set list
Learning songs quickly
1 Rehearsal tips
2 efficiency
3 how often?

Check out the link in my sig. below for more great TB info.
 
#8
Work on vocals..allot! I have been told this more than once by many good bandleaders and its great advice.

The other importent thing to always work on is good intro's to songs and getting out of songs cleanly everytime. This makes you look polished and professional, know your breaks in a song and this will also make the band tight.
 
#11
Mvaladao said:
What are some ideas that help with band practice?
Besides showing up and going through a set list. Maybe some practice techniques?
Click to expand...

IMO, gotta analyze your set list first?

Is your goal to gig? How soon? Which venues?

What music is being played by other bands at the venues you want to gig at?

Do you have your own PA? Who own's it? Need to buy one? Who'll pay for it?

Does everyone have giggable rigs?
 
#12
I'm actually going to bring some of this stuff to my band practices. This is good stuff.

Get a gig simulator. Which is pretty much a friend comes in and does stuff that can happen at gigs (unplugs your instrument throws stuff at the "stage" every so often, untunes your instrument, etc.) It'll help you work on the fly.
 
#13
Mvaladao said:
That's great stuff! I was just getting an idea for what other people might do. The whiteboard idea is key!
Click to expand...

For originals, use the whiteboard to write down the chords/structure of the song you're working on, at least during the learning/writing phase. Nothing is more irritating than hearing "OK, this song is ACDECDABD#BFGDCA. OK got it? Lets go..."

Also, for any band, TURN DOWN!!!!!! If the guitarist complains about needing his amp all the way up for that great tube tone, kick him. You can't learn anything if you can't hear anything, and you don't need a 100W Marshall full stack dimed out to play a 9X13 room.
 
#17
I keep seeing this practice versus rehearsal distinction here...this is one of those things where someone made a statement on the forum and it just keeps getting repeated.

That's great if making an "individual versus group" distinction between the words practice and rehearse functions as a device to help remind people that it's a good idea to learn and prepare for group practice sessions, but there is no real basis for this distinction in fact.

The distinction between practice and rehearsal is that rehearsal has a denoted purpose beyond proficiency, not how many people are involved. Even taking into account denoted purpose, all rehearsing is, by definition, practicing (the Webster's definition of rehearse is to practice), while practice may or may not be rehearsal.

So, as applied to what people may choose to call rehearsal, the words are interchangeable.
 
#18
In a band context, there is an important distinction between practice and rehearsal imo. Some musicians do not like solo practice, and choose instead to practice their parts at rehearsal :rollno:. Practice should be where you learn your part, and rehearsal should be where the band puts the learned parts together. I know this is semantics, but I cannot think of a better way to make the distinction.
 
#19
Marley's Ghost said:
In a band context, there is an important distinction between practice and rehearsal imo. Some musicians do not like solo practice, and choose instead to practice their parts at rehearsal :rollno:. Practice should be where you learn your part, and rehearsal should be where the band puts the learned parts together. I know this is semantics, but I cannot think of a better way to make the distinction.
Click to expand...

I say this with no antagonism intended whatsoever and I understand what you mean, but you are choosing to make a personal distinction in the way YOU prefer to see something...and it's somewhat arbitrary. You could have very well decided that in your connotations, some other word signified individual preparation for practice as a group. Again, specifically in band context, group sessions can completely interchangeably and correctly be called rehearsal or practice.

There's nothing wrong with you choosing to make a distinction for yourself. It would be silly of me to have a problem with others having their own connotations, but I've noticed in some instances (your post only brought them to mind) where posters have been chastised and "corrected" for calling band practice "practice."

It would be like me deciding for some reason of my own that there is an important distinction between "eating dinner" and "dining," in that dining is done in a restaurant and eating dinner is done at home. That would be fine for me. It wouldn't make it right for me to "correct" someone who says that they're "eating dinner" at a restaurant using my connotation.

If people tended to acknowledge that this is a personal preference that serves as a reminder to prepare for group sessions rather than something that is right and universal, I don't think I would have really taken much notice of it.

You call it rehearsal. Nothing wrong with that. I call it practice. Nothing wrong with that. I don't feel the need to call band practice something else to understand that it's good to learn songs and practice them before we practice as a group. There's also nothing wrong with that.
 

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