How often (if at all) does your band rehearse ?

Rigsby

This subject came up as an "off topic" in another thread. It was interesting and I thought it deserved a thread of it's own.
Some people dismiss rehearsals as a chore and a waste of time. They just want to get on with gigging.
Personally, I think rehearsals maybe once a week are a must for any band. While a lot of the music some bands play is basically easy, I think a rehearsal helps the band to gel and play well together. It's definitely a must if the music being played is more complex. Don't get me wrong, I believe gigging experience is very important, but you must crawl before you can walk IMO. Some say you can do your rehearsal on stage, but is this fair to a paying audience ? It's my belief that too many people are in a hurry to become the next ( insert you favourite band name here ) without putting in the ground work first.

starterband

I couldnt agree with you more!

Savman

Hmmmm....it's all relative to the band itself, no 'one size fits all' method. Young bands obviously need the rehearsal time whereas experienced heads won't.

I'm of the opinion that performing on stage is not something you can actually 'rehearse' for, all things considered.

Rigsby

Savman wrote: »

Hmmmm....it's all relative to the band itself, no 'one size fits all' method. Young bands obviously need the rehearsal time whereas experienced heads won't.

I'm of the opinion that performing on stage is not something you can actually 'rehearse' for, all things considered.

Would you think experienced players would need to rehearse new material, or just be told "we are doing xxxxx at tomorrow's gig" ? Again, it would possibly depend on how complex the music is.

Savman

Rigsby wrote: »

Would you think experienced players would need to rehearse new material, or just be told "we are doing xxxxx at tomorrow's gig" ?

Little bit of both tbh. If you do your homework and everyone is tuned to the same wavelength, it's not really all that difficult. Not that I'd encourage young bands to do that, christ no, practice practice practice...

froosh69

we (instruments, not singer) get together one evening midweek to write new music and kick out the jams and generally iron out any kinks.

then on the weekend, singer comes down, we play the new music we came up with, he offers an opinion/advice, records it roughly and works on it during the week (him writing melodies/lyrics).

then we spend a few hours goin over the old stuff, or, if our singer has written a song during the week, work on that.

so we rehearse twice a week, once with singer, once without, but the singer is sent home with homework each week!

Rigsby

froosh69 wrote: »

we (instruments, not singer) get together one evening midweek to write new music and kick out the jams and generally iron out any kinks.

then on the weekend, singer comes down, we play the new music we came up with, he offers an opinion/advice, records it roughly and works on it during the week (him writing melodies/lyrics).

then we spend a few hours goin over the old stuff, or, if our singer has written a song during the week, work on that.

so we rehearse twice a week, once with singer, once without, but the singer is sent home with homework each week!

That all sounds reasonable and prudent to me.

froosh69

yeah,it seems to be working out...we're a very new band, but we've written alot in the short space of time and doing it this way means that everyone contributes to the music...ive seen many bands in which the singer writes everything and it all sounds the same...we've about 7 songs written that im very proud, workin on a few more to bulk up the set-list and we havnt even discussed covers yet.

although this system works for us,there is no one size fits all...some bands just dont need to rehearse as much as others!

Malice

Pretty much every band I've ever been in practiced once a week and my current band is the same. I would generally also play a couple of hours a week by myself writing new material, going over difficult parts of current songs or just noodling aimlessly .

One thing that annoyed me about past bands was when it was blatantly obvious that members hadn't done any practicing between rehearsals. If someone is making the same mistakes for a month it's a sign they need to put some more time into whatever's causing the problem. Rehearsal time should be about the band getting locked in tight as a unit. not an opportunity for someone to start learning to count in 3/4 time!

Bitsie

I think rehearsing at least once a week is also good just for the band to gel and get to know each other better, its a social thing too as well as learning tunes. I think if the band is learning a new tune or tunes for a particular gig then they should meet at least once before the gig for a run through to make sure we all play it right together instead of experimenting with it on stage.

Rigsby

malice_ wrote: »

Rehearsal time should be about the band getting locked in tight as a unit. not an opportunity for someone to start learning to count in 3/4 time!

I agree. A rehearsal should be about bringing together what everyone has practiced privitely before hand, otherwise it seems a bit pointless.

Royale with Cheese

We rehearse once a week, but only for about 3 hours. If we've something coming up then we'll get together on a weekend. We're not the most prolific songwriters so that's probably why we don't practice so often.

Irishcrx

Depends whats on really, I mean if a band is just starting then practice, practice , practice if we have 9 or 10 songs and are gigging them once or twice a week then we'd do that for a few weeks before going back and changing/writing etc...

Malice

Rigsby wrote: »

A rehearsal should be about bringing together what everyone has practiced privitely before hand, otherwise it seems a bit pointless.

I have had some interesting jam sessions in the past where we just met up, picked a couple of chords and went for it but that's probably the exception rather than the rule.

Also I wouldn't rehearse or jam for much more than 3 hours. I find that at that stage my hands and my head are usually very tired and I'm liable to become even more cranky than usual!

Rigsby

malice_ wrote: »

I have had some interesting jam sessions in the past where we just met up, picked a couple of chords and went for it but that's probably the exception rather than the rule.

Also I wouldn't rehearse or jam for much more than 3 hours. I find that at that stage my hands and my head are usually very tired and I'm liable to become even more cranky than usual!

I think there is a difference between a jam session and a rehearsal. The former can be fun asthere is usually no pressure to learn songs for a gig ect. People can just relax, play and see what develops. A rehearsal can and should be fun also, but usually there is an ultimate goal involved.

I agree about the three hours time span, I also find I lose concentration if I go any longer.

insinkerator

We practice once a week, usually a friday evening for about three hours, but lately with two of our lads doing the LC, practice is becoming more and more sporadic...

We usualy set pracice for about 3 hours. 6 to 9. But by the time we all get there(late obviously) set up, piss arse about for a bit, have a break in the middle for biscuits, we usually only actually play for about an hour and half, maybe 2. It suits us fine though. Also if we have a gig, we would usually run through the set beforehand just to be sure

jarain

Generally 2 or 3 times a week, depends on whether we are gigging that week as well. We usually do Mon/Wed/Fri with one of those days a pure jamming/songwriting session. The other two days are used for tightening up specific parts of songs and backing vocals and all the little things that add to a song.

Last hour or so on Friday we just rock it out...... bit of stress relief!!

Spicy Lauren

Yeah it all depends if you're in a band for the fun or if you actually want to get into the business. Personally I think 2 times a week is the bare minimum and I wouldnt play a gig without having practiced the night before. But that's just me, I'm the fussy kind. I'd have the guys practice ever single day if I could!

Burst yeh!

Yeah I agree not over doing the whole practice scenario if you are a band who has not gigged a lot and is playing complex edgy material. You could end up in the position of my old band - practicing and jamming 2 or 3 times a week for 5-6 hour stretches trying to get the right sound for your gigs but never really doing many. The point I,m trying to make here is that you must have a good balance , practice as much as it takes even if it is over 3 hours just go for it so the songs are literally burned into your head! Then have gigs every few weeks (obvious to stop for a couple of months at some point to write material and plan bigger and better gigs) this attitude of practicing songs live never really works, as the old musicians saying goes "your only as good as your last performance".

Frusciante

Myself (the guitarist) and the singer meet up at least once a week, just the 2 of us, to learn new songs and jam out old songs, work out all the kinks in them, and we try to meet up one more time with the whole band to jam our new songs, and the old ones so we can try and get tighter. at least one jam a week with the whole band is what you need to maintain a good band

froosh69

Frusciante wrote: »

Myself (the guitarist) and the singer meet up at least once a week, just the 2 of us, to learn new songs and jam out old songs, work out all the kinks in them, and we try to meet up one more time with the whole band to jam our new songs, and the old ones so we can try and get tighter. at least one jam a week with the whole band is what you need to maintain a good band

thats pretty interesting. we do it totally differently. I reckon that if just the guitarist and singer write most of the stuff, then things will start to sound the same.
Your right, though, it is important to rehearse with everyone at least once a week, but I'm of the opinion that the new music should be jammed out with the whole band (minus the singer probably) so everyone can have an input.

The two main reasons for this are:
1 So all music is varied and the band members feel valued and appreciated, which leads to a better atmosphere.

2 If someone starts playing something you don't like, you learn to tell him. I think its important for band mates to be honest and frank with each other. If I dont like something our guitarist or drummer plays, I'll tell him, and vice vearsa. Its awkward at first, but yiu get used to it. Many songs have been imporoved in this way.

but of course, different strokes for different folks.