Rehearsing

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The rock band I'm in wants to rehearse on SATURDAYS. Is this mentalism? It's the weekend, something is always going to come up.

Does your band rehearse? How often, and when?

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 19 October 2005 20:34 (nineteen years ago)

Also, Taking Sides: "rehearsal" vs. "practice"

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 19 October 2005 20:34 (nineteen years ago)

Unless we have a big show coming up or extenuating circumstances, we PRACTICE (not rehearse) twice a week: once on Tues or Weds evening, and once on Sunday afternoon.

― n/a (Nick A.), Wednesday, 19 October 2005 20:38 (nineteen years ago)

You guys have a strong work ethic. I'm going to try to get rock practice switched to Sunday afternoons, but a weeknight would be even better.

The brass band never rehearses, except for the week before we're going to record an album.

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 19 October 2005 20:45 (nineteen years ago)

I think "rehearsal" sounds a little stuffier, but it sounds like you're getting ready for something big rather than just "practicing" the same stuff.

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 19 October 2005 20:46 (nineteen years ago)

Strong work ethic = no social life, in a band with my girlfriend.

― n/a (Nick A.), Wednesday, 19 October 2005 20:55 (nineteen years ago)

if its at a time on saturdays that's convenient, sure, why not? but if you're like me, saturdays are usually booked solid with errands/meetings, so its not a possibility. thats why most bands ive been in practice sundays and wednesdays.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Wednesday, 19 October 2005 21:09 (nineteen years ago)

also, ive rehearsal in conjunction with describing the space.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Wednesday, 19 October 2005 21:10 (nineteen years ago)

ugh, that should read:

"ive used rehearsal..."

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Wednesday, 19 October 2005 21:30 (nineteen years ago)

once a week (a vast improvement from the once every 2 to 4 weeks we used to do) on a monday or tuesday evening.

― vacuum cleaner (electricsound), Thursday, 20 October 2005 01:12 (nineteen years ago)

Oh, don't get me started. We're having a bit of an issue with this at the moment.

Once a week is pretty standard in most bands I've been in - I've been in some that rehearsed twice a week, but either they were mentalists, or had a free practise place.

Sunday afternoons was always a good time for me. Now we're doing weeknights, which is not idea. I like to be relaxed before I go to rehearse. Which is hard when you've been wound up from a day of work.

― Paranoid Spice (kate), Thursday, 20 October 2005 10:23 (nineteen years ago)

Well we pay monthly rent for our space, so it makes sense for us to use it as much as possible.

― n/a (Nick A.), Thursday, 20 October 2005 13:02 (nineteen years ago)

Plus we really start to suck unless we practice very regularly. We aren't pros.

― n/a (Nick A.), Thursday, 20 October 2005 13:02 (nineteen years ago)

everyone OTM about sunday/wednesday practice schedule!

hey maria - do you know of any practice spaces around arlington/DC?

― petesmith (plsmith), Thursday, 20 October 2005 14:06 (nineteen years ago)

See, I'm confused by this difference between practising and rehearsing. To me, practising is something you do by yourself. When I sit in my room and play scales on the guitar to limber up my fingers (mind you, I don't do this very often these days) - that's practising.

Rehearsing is when you get the whole band together and run through your set a couple of times. Because you're rehearsing for a gig or a show.

― Paranoid Spice (kate), Thursday, 20 October 2005 14:16 (nineteen years ago)

nope, i dont know anything. i live in philly! :) however, you might want to try posting on board.crewcial.org about it -- there's a lot of DC folk that read it and could give you better advice.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Thursday, 20 October 2005 14:18 (nineteen years ago)

My bandmates are very anti-rehearsal. I have learned what the "sweet spot" with them is, which is basically two rehearsals in the week before a show. Enough for everyone to remember how the songs go, not too much for people to get bored. Exceptions are made when there are new songs.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 20 October 2005 14:49 (nineteen years ago)

But what I really want is a band where we practice for like four hours a day maybe 4 or 5 days a week. That seems like it would be a lot of fun and allow us to reach new levels of awesomeness.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 20 October 2005 14:51 (nineteen years ago)

But what I really want is a band where we practice for like four hours a day maybe 4 or 5 days a week. That seems like it would be a lot of fun and allow us to reach new levels of awesomeness.

spending that much unecessary time with your bandmates is a guaranteed way to cause a break up.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Thursday, 20 October 2005 15:04 (nineteen years ago)

Well, it's good practice for being on tour.

One thing about going on tour, is you come back with amazing "chops" (argh, I cannot believe I used that word) because you've been playing together 2 or 3 hours a day, every day.

― Paranoid Spice (kate), Thursday, 20 October 2005 15:09 (nineteen years ago)

Hot chops!

― Jordan (Jordan), Thursday, 20 October 2005 15:29 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah man, we were TIGHT!!! (I want to spell that TITE!!!)

― Paranoid Spice (kate), Thursday, 20 October 2005 15:31 (nineteen years ago)

Btw, this reason this dude I'm playing with doesn't want to rehearse on weeknights is that the rehearsal space doubles as his studio, so he's already been there all day teaching lessons and working on the record. It's true that on the one weeknight we did rehearse he seemed really fried, fucking up his own tunes, but I fear that if we have to do it on Saturdays we'll never rehearse again.

― Jordan (Jordan), Thursday, 20 October 2005 15:33 (nineteen years ago)

Hot chops!
I'm hearing James Brown saying this phrase in my head, over and over.

― k/l (Ken L), Thursday, 20 October 2005 15:34 (nineteen years ago)

The key to rehearsing at the weekend is to do it during the afternoon. The earlier the better - that way you can get it out of the way before going on to your partying. And if it goes well, you're psyched and in a good mood for the rest of the day.

― Paranoid Spice (kate), Thursday, 20 October 2005 15:37 (nineteen years ago)

But what I really want is a band where we practice for like four hours a day maybe 4 or 5 days a week. That seems like it would be a lot of fun and allow us to reach new levels of awesomeness.

Beware Chris! You may go from this, to this!!

I must admit, I find practicing/rehearsing a bit of a drag, mainly because practice rooms are always a bit grotty.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Thursday, 20 October 2005 15:39 (nineteen years ago)

Our space is swanky, here is the view: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v207/naamme/IMG_0595.jpg

― n/a (Nick A.), Thursday, 20 October 2005 15:45 (nineteen years ago)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v207/naamme/IMG_0595.jpg

The United Center is back behind that chimney somewhere.

― n/a (Nick A.), Thursday, 20 October 2005 15:46 (nineteen years ago)

Our rehearsal space is our gardens...

http://static.flickr.com/23/34858681_edc37c74c4.jpg?v=0

― Paranoid Spice (kate), Thursday, 20 October 2005 15:49 (nineteen years ago)

i really like rehearsing at surreal sound studios:

http://www.surrealsoundstudios.com/

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Thursday, 20 October 2005 16:04 (nineteen years ago)

We sometimes get in a run of doing one a week for a few weeks if we need to get new material sorted. If we are doing a series of gigs, like we are now, we don't tend to rehearse between them unless we want to bring a load of new songs in for a particular gig. Ideally I would rehearse every week without fail, as I would prefer to have a bigger pool of songs to choose from. I could handle twice a week, but with everyone's other commitments it's not really on.

We tend to record rehearsals if there's new material to learn, so that people don't forget what worked and what didn't. I play along with these at home to try and get new ideas for parts, but I'm not sure that everyone else bothers.

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Friday, 21 October 2005 09:30 (nineteen years ago)

The only really good bands I've been in practiced five or more times a week. We'd have everything set up and just come in for a set most days. A few days, when we had more time, we'd write/learn new songs so we didn't have to play the same shit over and over again. The short practices were between work and food (important to have a central location for rehearsal space) and we didn't do anything but tune, make a setlist, and play it. Our shows were tight and good and we didn't get stale when we had a lot of shows in a row. Everybody's skills were sharp and it kept us away from distracting ourselves with lots of outside projects -like when everybody's in two different bands and gets ambivalent- and it reminded us every day that we were musicians (even if we spent most of our days at our stupid jobs).

― steve ketchup, Sunday, 23 October 2005 17:07 (nineteen years ago)

But what I really want is a band where we practice for like four hours a day maybe 4 or 5 days a week. That seems like it would be a lot of fun and allow us to reach new levels of awesomeness.

-- Casuistry

Chris, should you ever feel the need to move to Seattle (or should I ever end up in Portland), I think I can help you with that.

I love to play, even if it's "just" practice.

― martin m. (mushrush), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 18:31 (nineteen years ago)

Right now I'd settle for rehearsing once a week. :-(

It's been three weeks since we last rehearsed properly and I'm feeling very frustrated.

I think rehearsing every day is excessive if you're just going over the same material, you can suck the enjoyment, and therefore the spirit out of something if you rehearse it too much. If you're going to rehearse more than once a week, it should be to learn/write new material, play around on covers, "jam" (I hate that word, but improvisational playing is a very good way for musicians to get to know each others' styles.)

― Paranoid Spice (kate), Wednesday, 26 October 2005 07:52 (nineteen years ago)

Before there were rock stars, most musicians were workers who worked almost every day. The good ones innovated and developed to keep the grind from sucking the spirit and enjoyment out of it. I wonder if the spirit that can be threatened by playing "too much" isn't a bit too precious and maybe shallow in the first place.

― steve ketchup, Thursday, 27 October 2005 04:54 (nineteen years ago)

my band practices generally three times a week... TuThSa, but if we have a show coming up then we practice every day for the week leading up to it. this is probably the reason we don't have many songs; we only write songs in practice, unless the singer and i (laptop/drums) come up with something on our own and bring it in (we're roommates so it's easier, plus our bassist is somehow gifted enough to come up with awesome shit almost immediately given anything at all to work with)

― nervous (cochere), Thursday, 27 October 2005 06:45 (nineteen years ago)

three months pass...

Revive!

OK, next rehearsal question - how do you book your rehearsals? Do you have a regular day - i.e. you rehearse every Saturday afternoon and/or Tuesday night? Or do you reschedule rehearsals every week, depending on your other schedules?

Almost every band I've ever been in has done the former - usually because we're paying for a space, and it has to be scheduled in blocks.

Now we're doing the latter, which is driving me BATTY. No exaggeration - but over the past 2 days, we've exchanged over 30 emails between 5 people, and I still don't know when we're rehearsing.

The only bands I have ever been in (and I've been in DOZENS of bands) that haven't had blockbooking or a "rehearsal day" have been:

-The first band I was ever in. Me and my best friend were both students, and we just rehearsed whenever we got together.

-A band where 4 out of the 5 members lived together.

-A couple of fake ego project bands that were comprised entirely of session players. The songwriter rang round and booked rehearsal after consulting the session players' diaries.

I just want to know how other bands handle this, so I don't feel like I'm bashing my head against a brick wall.

― The Late Fear And The Potato Fear (kate), Friday, 3 February 2006 14:12 (nineteen years ago)

We practice/rehearse/plot and scheme on Friday nights, 7.30pm until we cannot take the strain anymore, on a disused industrial estate. They are the rules. No one breaks the rules. Not even for a social life.

In the beginning, people would have things going on on a Friday night, distractions and so, but eventually the greater call of the music took hold and now no member of the band has any social life to speak of. Soon we will all move into an abandoned warehouse together, where we will live without outside contact or influence. Later, we will merge conciousness. This is how it must be.

― tissp! (the impossible shortest specia), Friday, 3 February 2006 14:22 (nineteen years ago)

See, the Lollies used to rehearse on Sundays. That was it. This lasted through several different incarnations, though different jobs and freelancing, etc. etc. The only change we ever made was when we moved from Sunday at 10am to Sunday a 1pm.

If one person couldn't make it, sometimes we cancelled it - if we had enough notice - sometimes the rest of the bandmembers went through stuff without the absentee.

To me, that was perfect.

― The Late Fear And The Potato Fear (kate), Friday, 3 February 2006 14:27 (nineteen years ago)

Fugue State used to share a rehearsal space with 2 other bands. So I think everyone had 2 weekday evenings and one block of weekend or 3 weekday evenings. Not all of us rehearsed at every single opportunity (there were lots of times when the drummer or pianist would come in to rehearse by themselves) but it was very, very regular.

― The Late Fear And The Potato Fear (kate), Friday, 3 February 2006 14:28 (nineteen years ago)

Regularity is key. With regularity, people know they shouldn't make plans. Consistency Breeds Contentment.

― tissp! (the impossible shortest specia), Friday, 3 February 2006 14:40 (nineteen years ago)

We have a rehearsal day - it's the only way to do it. At the moment it's Tuesday 7-11pm. It's sort of a new yrs resolution to book rehearsals waaay in advance and stick to them come hell or high water. We have not always been as disciplined about it in the past, but I hope we can stick to it. The rule is that if someone is unavailable we just carry on - we have a drum machine (hate them!)when the drummer's not around, or at one place we use studio owner's 15yr old son sits in!

― Dr.C (Dr.C), Friday, 3 February 2006 15:22 (nineteen years ago)

When2Meet saved my life when we couldn't find a recurring practice time.

(Mike Watt says, over and over, "Actors rehearse, musicians practice.")

― Paul Eater (eater), Friday, 3 February 2006 17:16 (nineteen years ago)

we rehearse, never practice

― senseiDancer (sexyDancer), Friday, 3 February 2006 17:53 (nineteen years ago)

Mike Watt says a lot of things.

― martin m. (mushrush), Friday, 3 February 2006 18:36 (nineteen years ago)

i think you've got to set days and stick by it...

we practice tuesday nights from 7:30 till a little after 10...then saturdays from 4-7....

usually....except, like this week for example, we played last night and have another show a week from today, so we're skipping saturday practice and just practicing tuesday...

something I think is mental and I know people that do: practicing the set before the show! that freaks me out...i always feel like it's a jinx.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Friday, 3 February 2006 20:36 (nineteen years ago)

I don't know how you guys can practice on weekends. That seems difficult to adhere to. We've practiced on Tuesday & Thursday nights for the last 4 years. Seems to work.

― darin (darin), Friday, 3 February 2006 21:19 (nineteen years ago)

We have a pretty firmly established Sun. afternoon practice and a weekday night practice that's usually Tues. or Weds. depending on schedules. Sarah and I live together and our drummer doesn't usually have much going on so it's pretty easy to figure things out.

― n/a (Nick A.), Saturday, 4 February 2006 02:45 (nineteen years ago)

I've never found practicing the set day-of to be a jinx, and sometimes it makes the show much better.

But generally we just do different days every week -- it's easy cause there's only three of us, we have 24-hour access to our space, and two of us live blocks from each other.

― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Saturday, 4 February 2006 06:33 (nineteen years ago)

we fight and argue and flake on it until we have a show booked, then we rehearse twice and hope we sound ok. usually we do

― kyle (akmonday), Saturday, 4 February 2006 18:21 (nineteen years ago)

I find that warmups the day of a gig are helpful, but that's more to do with vocals, and making sure that your vocal chords are ready.

I feel like the sodding grinch, but I've sent out an email to everyone saying "from now on, rehearsals are on Wednesdays, end of story."

No one has answered yet. And we've got a gig in a week... sigh!

― Press Rip And Give Me The MP3 Out Of It (kate), Monday, 6 February 2006 11:40 (nineteen years ago)

It's amazing how you can have three people who express how down they all are to practice and then how hard it is to actually get them all together.

― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Monday, 6 February 2006 15:55 (nineteen years ago)

You need more draconianism. Come on, it's the cool thing to do nowadays.

― tissp! (the impossible shortest specia), Monday, 6 February 2006 16:41 (nineteen years ago)

We practice on Monday and Wednesday night, although lately we have been thinking that it might be good to rehearse on a weekend afternoon, maybe once a month, just so we don't have to worry about maximizing the three hours we have to work with on weeknights. (Also: people get tired by the end.)

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 6 February 2006 16:45 (nineteen years ago)

Twice a week!

― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 6 February 2006 16:45 (nineteen years ago)

If you don't want to go to rehearsal, Jordan, you know what you can do.

― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Monday, 6 February 2006 20:22 (nineteen years ago)

Tell that to our new drummer- Hurting!

― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Monday, 6 February 2006 20:33 (nineteen years ago)

haha

― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 6 February 2006 20:34 (nineteen years ago)

Phew, we've sorted this out. We're rehearsing on Saturday afternoons, for now and every more, amen. Hallelujah!

― She's In Parties (kate), Wednesday, 8 February 2006 11:36 (nineteen years ago)

The rock band I'm in wants to rehearse on SATURDAYS. Is this mentalism? It's the weekend, something is always going to come up.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 9 February 2006 09:41 (nineteen years ago)

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