Members totheengravers Posted November 10, 2012 Members Share Posted November 10, 2012 First - what would you do with a band member who has become too busy with life & work that they are only able to maybe guarantee making one practice a month? (This would be a band who's goal is to record and play shows at least once-twice a month and of course practice 1-2 times a week.) Second - if you were said band member and you told your band they are welcome find a replacement if it's not working out, and the band asked around but hadn't mentioned it to you as they were unsure what they wanted to do and you heard about it through the grapevine and not from the band, how would you feel? Betrayed? Demeaned? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rangefinder Posted November 10, 2012 Members Share Posted November 10, 2012 Originally Posted by totheengravers First - what would you do with a band member who has become too busy with life & work that they are only able to maybe guarantee making one practice a month? (This would be a band who's goal is to record and play shows at least once-twice a month and of course practice 1-2 times a week.) Replace him. Second - if you were said band member and you told your band they are welcome find a replacement if it's not working out, and the band asked around but hadn't mentioned it to you as they were unsure what they wanted to do and you heard about it through the grapevine and not from the band, how would you feel? Betrayed? Demeaned? Annoyed, because I was being straight with my band, and they weren't being straight with me.BTW, unless I'm missing something, these don't seem like difficult questions... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jw10 Posted November 10, 2012 Members Share Posted November 10, 2012 Look to Replace him but tell him how it's going down. Be ultimately respectful of the bands interests but also respectful of your own integrity and others integrity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted November 10, 2012 Members Share Posted November 10, 2012 A band is a business. If any member isn't able to participate enough to meet the goals of the band, then they have to be replaced. Or you "downsize" the goals of the band (the business) to work around that member. There is no middle ground, pretty obviously. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GCDEF Posted November 10, 2012 Members Share Posted November 10, 2012 Originally Posted by totheengravers First - what would you do with a band member who has become too busy with life & work that they are only able to maybe guarantee making one practice a month? (This would be a band who's goal is to record and play shows at least once-twice a month and of course practice 1-2 times a week.)Second - if you were said band member and you told your band they are welcome find a replacement if it's not working out, and the band asked around but hadn't mentioned it to you as they were unsure what they wanted to do and you heard about it through the grapevine and not from the band, how would you feel? Betrayed? Demeaned? First, I never understand bands that want to rehearse every week but gig once a month. But if I were in a band and it had a member whose schedule wasn't compatible, or if I was that member, I would expect to be replaced.If that member told the band it's okay to find a replacement, he shouldn't be hurt or surprised if they do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wesg Posted November 12, 2012 Members Share Posted November 12, 2012 Rehearsing once a week until you have your show together seems pretty reasonable. Afterwards it should only be necessary IMHO if you're trying to add a bunch of new material or you aren't playing much. Rehearsing twice a week, OTOH, unless the band members don't have jobs is probably too often. It suggests to me that people are practicing at rehearsal. I expect other band members to practice on their own time, come to rehearsal knowing the new songs, and the we rehearse them, making/trying arrangement changes, etc. I figure 10-20 hours of practice time between rehearsals to be reasonable. That dictates in turn how many (and which) new songs are going to be rehearsed, and how frequent rehearsals can be. How do others view this? My frame of reference comes from when my younger self was playing saxophone in a "big band", but I've kept the same work ethic with other projects, including my rock band, and it works for me. One of my biggest peeves is players showing up at rehearsal to practice. It really gets on my nerves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Hoppy Shimko Posted November 12, 2012 Members Share Posted November 12, 2012 Beat up the player not coming to rehearsal, then tell him " either show up when I tell you or you get another beating" That's what I do and NOBODY misses rehearsal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members New Trail Posted November 12, 2012 Members Share Posted November 12, 2012 Originally Posted by wesg Rehearsing once a week until you have your show together seems pretty reasonable......Rehearsing twice a week, OTOH, unless the band members don't have jobs is probably too often. ..... Some bands like to rehearse, they like the cameradie. Originally Posted by wesg ....... I figure 10-20 hours of practice time between rehearsals to be reasonable....... We practice once a week learning new material and there's NO WAY that I CAN spend, or even NEED to spend, 10-20 hours of individual practice time between rehearsals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wesg Posted November 12, 2012 Members Share Posted November 12, 2012 Really? If I don't play at least 10 hours a week, my fingers and brain start to atrophy. I try to play at least an hour of *just scales* between rehearsals. But, if that's what it takes for me to be any good.. then so be it. I have lots of weaknesses in to correct before I will have mastered my instrument. Then usually I spend an hour or two listening to and transcribing recordings, a couple of hours learning parts, trying out solos etc, and the rest of the time working on whatever points of technique I think need working on that week. Last week it was legato playing without damper. Depending on the tunes we're doing, I will also spend an hour or two auditioning patches, organ settings, listening to last week's rehearsal, that sort of thing. In an ideal world I would work 40-50 hours between rehearsals, but this pesky job thing keeps getting in the way. Now, that's not to say that I can't play without spending an hour per tune, I get along just fine at jams with the chords called out 2 milliseconds before the four-count. But I play a lot better, with bits lifted off the album that I like, when I spending the time working on a tune. 99% of the time when I'm asked to learn something new, I've *heard* the song but have never really *listened* to it. My current band mates are pretty good, I don't actually know how much time they spend practicing, but we seldom have major issues the first time we run a tune. Usually when we do it's because there is some key bit on the recording that we don't have the instrument for, and we didn't discuss who would pick up that part. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members totheengravers Posted November 13, 2012 Author Members Share Posted November 13, 2012 Interesting perspective, wesg. I don't think I've ever been in a band where members spend much time out of rehearsal practicing. Even myself I'd generally give it maybe 2-3 hours, but then again I'm the principal songwriter, so I know the songs and feel comfortable being able to play them accurately at a rehearsal. I've been in situations, even recently where I expect people in my band to learn songs outside of rehearsal and practice them, but generally that hasn't worked out, which does get frustrating. I do like a balance of camaraderie mixed with business and all the guys I'm in a band with right now I'm more or less friends with. Not good friends, but friends nonetheless. It's fun to hang out and be dudes, but if you only got a limited time per week to practice, you should be expected to show up and not call/text an hour beforehand for the past month of practices saying, "oops sorry I can't make it, something came up." Especially when we pay for a place to practice at and store our gear and then we can't even have a full rehearsal. So if you say you can make it, then last minute bail, guess what? You're going to get replaced haha. Especially since the goal of the band is clear & defined and if dudes are not pulling their weight. So, unfortunately I'm at the point where I've gotta send a member packing, when one already just opted out due to their schedule. The good thing though is that the guy who opted out realized he shouldn't have felt betrayed when one of my mates casually asked around, since we knew his time with the band was coming to a close. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wesg Posted November 13, 2012 Members Share Posted November 13, 2012 FWIW - I spent less time practicing outside of rehearsals for my last project, specifically because it *was* an originals band. With that group, the leader would hand out a chart of lyrics + chords, talk about the feel he wanted and then we would just go. Since it is was an originals project, I got to make up my own parts, and only had to be true to myself and the overall vision, not some iconic recording. That's a double-edged sword: it meant I was always playing in my comfort zone and hence at my best without needing to practice much, but I was never stretching my comfort zone. The thing that drove me crazy with that group is that half the night was spent bitching about whether or not we should tweak this chord or that lyric, then "socializing", then re-running the tune but forgetting the changes we'd just agreed on.... ARGH. Rehearsals wound up being 4 hours long but only 30 minutes of work. My current project rehearses at my place at 6:30pm, the guys show up around 6:20 and we are normally done by 9:00 or 9:30. We spend about 30 minutes socializing in the middle, the rest is work. I really like this tempo, we are getting a lot of stuff done in a short period of time. And we're all stretching our comfort zones, because one of the goals is to play a lot of tunes we've never done before! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Tullsterx Posted November 14, 2012 Members Share Posted November 14, 2012 First: It depends. . . If your goal is only to play once or twice a month. . . When we're playing steady we don't practice at all. I guess if you're in a start-up/retooling stage then it would be a big deal. But, it depends on the guy. We might inquire about making other practice arragements if there are issues related to travel, practice space, etc. Second: Get over it. You're the one telling the band you might not have time. They're just trying to cover their bases and might be worried about you deciding to just not show up one day. Plus, they may have been shopping around before you said anything. . . hmmm. . . I'd ask them about it but I wouldn't be upset about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jimiv Posted November 14, 2012 Members Share Posted November 14, 2012 Originally Posted by totheengravers Interesting perspective, wesg. I don't think I've ever been in a band where members spend much time out of rehearsal practicing. I would not play in a band which "practices" at rehearsal. Practice is not rehearsal. Rehearsal is where you bring the material you have already prepared (practiced) to the group to arrange starts, stops, vocal harmonies and other such group stuff. People who show up to rehearsal unpracticed is a giant time-suck for the rest, disrespectful to the others who have done their work and extremely annoying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members vablows Posted November 15, 2012 Members Share Posted November 15, 2012 Pretty simple, dude- the writing is on the wall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Kramerguy Posted November 15, 2012 Members Share Posted November 15, 2012 Originally Posted by jimiv I would not play in a band which "practices" at rehearsal. Practice is not rehearsal. Rehearsal is where you bring the material you have already prepared (practiced) to the group to arrange starts, stops, vocal harmonies and other such group stuff. People who show up to rehearsal unpracticed is a giant time-suck for the rest, disrespectful to the others who have done their work and extremely annoying. I wholly agree, but I think totheengravers was referring to wesg's comments about spending 10-20 hours between rehearsals, practicing material. I personally could never spend that much time, and don't need it. The longest I've rehearsed between practices was about two hours a couple of weeks ago because we were learning 4 new covers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wesg Posted November 16, 2012 Members Share Posted November 16, 2012 I wish I was good enough not to need to practice between rehearsals. 25 years in, I'm still fixing basic technique problems. Of course, I'm a much more serious player the last couple of years than I ever was..by leaps and bounds. Adding Hammond organ a year ago was a particularly big change for me, I really feel like I've finally found my instrument. I have played in bands with guys who did not practice at all between rehearsals. If I was even a slightly less bit socially adjusted than I am now... let's just say the phrase "my fingers are sore, I haven't played in a week" makes me want to give a fretboard enema every time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Kramerguy Posted November 16, 2012 Members Share Posted November 16, 2012 Originally Posted by wesg I wish I was good enough not to need to practice between rehearsals. 25 years in, I'm still fixing basic technique problems. Of course, I'm a much more serious player the last couple of years than I ever was..by leaps and bounds. Adding Hammond organ a year ago was a particularly big change for me, I really feel like I've finally found my instrument.I have played in bands with guys who did not practice at all between rehearsals. If I was even a slightly less bit socially adjusted than I am now... let's just say the phrase "my fingers are sore, I haven't played in a week" makes me want to give a fretboard enema every time. lol .. I too struggle with those who do NEED to practice and don't. I think we all do to some degree. I've been doing this for years, and always had a good ear for technique and can dissect a song pretty quick. Learning so many covers (probably have around 800-1000 covers under my belt, and probably forgot most of them), I've picked up most common styles and structures, so when I go to learn a new song, it's almost always familiar and all I'm really learning is the arrangement, which is also usually a very common i/v/c/v/c/b/c/o scenario. (and don't pick on me ppl for displaying a song in that format- over the years, I've developed my own version of musical short hand, now shorter hand lol). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.