Members Ku'Yleh Posted August 4, 2012 Members Share Posted August 4, 2012 Ever have an off night rehearsal and absolutely nail everything to the wall? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rog951 Posted August 4, 2012 Members Share Posted August 4, 2012 Hmmmm. I'm gonna go get a second cup of coffe then come back and re-read. I'm sure I'll get what you are saying then! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 992gnt Posted August 4, 2012 Members Share Posted August 4, 2012 Yep. Something about changing up the routine gives a spark? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members KeysBear Posted August 4, 2012 Members Share Posted August 4, 2012 not exactly, but sometimes what seems like totally wasted rehearsal time turns out great at the gig, and the other way around because perfect rehearsals sometimes means you've peaked for that week and it can only go downhill from there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members martyr40 Posted August 4, 2012 Members Share Posted August 4, 2012 There's a fine line between being prepared and being over-rehearsed. Some of our best gigs have been after we've been off for a few weeks and haven't rehearsed together at all. The trick is to know your stuff, but not be overconfident in knowing it. the spectrum runs like this; Not enough rehearsal = don't know what you're doing - trainwreckEnough rehearsal = you know your parts, but not so well that you check out and stop paying attention - solid gigOver-rehearsed = because you feel so confident in what you're playing , you stop paying attention - trainwreck But that's just my experience Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SpaceNorman Posted August 4, 2012 Members Share Posted August 4, 2012 I find that preparing for a musical performance is very similar to preparing for an athletic contest. To be successful at either you have to develop your ability to time your physical and emotional peaks to occur at the point in time you want it to. Personally, I quietly hope for a somewhat "bumpy" last rehearsal before a gig ... something about the final rehearsal being a little sloppy seems to serve as a motivator for me. I'm also very much about my "gig day" routine - I virtually always spend a little time reviewing material (I think of it as something comparable to the "morning workout" on game day.) I always try to get my gear loaded early enough that I've got time to grab a nap and a shower before heading off the gig. I always try to leave myself enough time for a somewhat liesurely setup (primarily because I want a little contingency time in the even I run into any problems). My musical performance is influenced in a BIG way by my state of mind just before ... and being stressed by issues encountered during setup is NOT a positive stress for me - so anything I can do to avoid it is good. Even what and when I eat comes into play. A reasonably sized meal that doesn't include fried food 2 hours before a gig and I'm at my best. I also need a good warmup - immediately before we play. I usually shoot for 15 minutes with my earbuds (usually spent "visiting" the songs in the first set ....) shortly before we start. Mess with my routine - and my performance invariably suffers .... it's no different than my prep for hockey games or back in the day, bicycle races. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members n9ne Posted August 4, 2012 Members Share Posted August 4, 2012 On those rare occasions where we rehearse during the week leading up to a gig, the gig performance will typically be the exact opposite of the rehearsal. If the rehearsal sucks and feels like a complete wasted of time, we'll end up having a great show that weekend. But if we're hitting on all cylinders at rehearsal and really groovin', we'll end up having a lousy gig. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Lee Knight Posted August 5, 2012 Moderators Share Posted August 5, 2012 I look at preparing for performance a little differently maybe. While I have experienced the phenomenon of great practice/{censored}ty gig, that was usually having more to do with lack of prep. Less prep, the more susceptible you are to the winds of chance. Of course, the more prepped you are, the more susceptible you might be to drifting off or phoning in the performance. You might. But you don't have to take that second one lying down. I love working every aspect of my personal and band performance to the finest degree. And... I found that when you learn to LET ALL OF THAT GO at the performance, you're much more able to let magic happenstance occur as well. One band I played in had the motto, "Anything is allowed to happen at any time". We rehearsed a lot. We also encouraged each other to ignore any of that and we'd have your back. That's risky, but the more rehearsed you are, the easier it is to know where to land. So, I love overworking the material to allow me the luxury of ignoring it all that when the creative spark strikes. The other thing is, even if you're sticking closely to what's rehearsed, if you've also worked on your personal groove skills, there is never any reason to phone it in or let yourself mentally wander away. You take something very well rehearsed and you mindfully inject your mindless groove into it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ku'Yleh Posted August 6, 2012 Author Members Share Posted August 6, 2012 To be more clear - it was one of those nights when everything just works really well and the energy is flowing. Comments to the effect of "we should really be onstage" were said more than once. Songs that have been giving us trouble, or new stuff we are working on, it all went perfectly. Theres a solo bit in one song that goes 4 measures... at the end of 4 measures the lead player was still in what "felt" like the middle of the solo, so we took it an extra two, without anyone really cueing or otherwise indicating it, we just did it. One of those nights. Really wish we had been onstage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rog951 Posted August 6, 2012 Members Share Posted August 6, 2012 To be more clear - it was one of those nights when everything just works really well and the energy is flowing. Comments to the effect of "we should really be onstage" were said more than once. Songs that have been giving us trouble, or new stuff we are working on, it all went perfectly. Theres a solo bit in one song that goes 4 measures... at the end of 4 measures the lead player was still in what "felt" like the middle of the solo, so we took it an extra two, without anyone really cueing or otherwise indicating it, we just did it. One of those nights. Really wish we had been onstage. OHHH! Okay, it was the "off-night" comment that threw me off. You meant "non-gigging" night and I was thinking you meant you had a bad rehearsal which seemed to be at odds with the rest of the post. D'oh! Anyway, yep, we've had a few like that: just perfect rehearsals where we wished someone was there to witness it, or at least wished we'd recorded it! Of course, we've also had a few terrible rehearsals and then had great gigs immediatly following. Last night was a terrible rehearsal - working in a new PA and lots of technical gremlins. We've got one more rehearsal before our the gig, I hope it'll go better and build our confidence back up. None of us feel too great after last night! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members KeysBear Posted August 6, 2012 Members Share Posted August 6, 2012 now that the OP has clarified the question I would say very rarely do we sparkle in rehearsal. Since we pay for studio rehearsal space we're under the time pressure of setting up quickly and getting out in two hours so we tend to work on beginnings, endings, and pieces of songs so it's hard to feel a groove. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Lee Knight Posted August 6, 2012 Moderators Share Posted August 6, 2012 To be more clear - it was one of those nights when everything just works really well and the energy is flowing. Comments to the effect of "we should really be onstage" were said more than once. Songs that have been giving us trouble, or new stuff we are working on, it all went perfectly. Theres a solo bit in one song that goes 4 measures... at the end of 4 measures the lead player was still in what "felt" like the middle of the solo, so we took it an extra two, without anyone really cueing or otherwise indicating it, we just did it. One of those nights. Really wish we had been onstage. Which was exactly what I was referring to in my response above. But rather, how to you get to the point where those moments are less a serendipitous surprise and more of a choice within your control. There will always be those happy accidents of everything aligning, but with some work, there can also be a more consistent output with more and more performances reaching that point of firing on all cylinders. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Kramerguy Posted August 6, 2012 Members Share Posted August 6, 2012 For me being able to relax leading into the gig is the deciding factor. If I get nervous, I make mistakes. One of the reasons I started drinking (2-3 beers and a shot or two prior to start) when playing out- I used to have tragic stage fright, would jitter so badly that I couldn't enunciate a note without bending to hell and out of key lol. Broke a lot of string back in the day... The drinking lubes me up enough to relax and I can usually nail it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Potts Posted August 6, 2012 Members Share Posted August 6, 2012 I'm not a fan of insane amounts of rehearsals. The last band wanted to rehearse twice a week for months before we started playing out. Nope. You've been playing your entire life- learn the tunes on your own and practice a few times and go. I'm sure there's more than a few here that joined a band, learned 50 tunes in 10 days and played successful gigs. That's just me though. I simply don't have the time to be sitting in the basement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Lee Knight Posted August 6, 2012 Moderators Share Posted August 6, 2012 I'm not a fan of insane amounts of rehearsals. The last band wanted to rehearse twice a week for months before we started playing out. Nope. You've been playing your entire life- learn the tunes on your own and practice a few times and go. I'm sure there's more than a few here that joined a band, learned 50 tunes in 10 days and played successful gigs. That's just me though. I simply don't have the time to be sitting in the basement. Totally agree. Learning a tune is quick. Playing it as a band is quick. Sometimes though, you want to take time on things like medleys, or alternate grooves, or trading 8's 4's and 2's and 1's then harmonizing. In other words, there still can can a lot of cool stuff to practice even though for covers everyone learns on their own time and you run it down once or twice at practice. Over practicing when everyone should just learn it and burn it is different. But working on things less obvious than just a new tune is well worth putting lots of time into. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Potts Posted August 6, 2012 Members Share Posted August 6, 2012 Totally agree In other words, there still can can a lot of cool stuff to practice even though for covers everyone learns on their own time and you run it down once or twice at practice.Over practicing when everyone should just learn it and burn it is different. But working on things less obvious than just a new tune is well worth putting lots of time into. +1...There's nothing to argue or debate with your comments! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members davebols Posted August 10, 2012 Members Share Posted August 10, 2012 (?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nchangin Posted August 10, 2012 Members Share Posted August 10, 2012 On the other side of the coin have you ever taken a test at school or did a presentation that you thought you exceled at and then afterwards the gradingfeedback produced results that were opposite of what your perception was? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members joshmac Posted August 10, 2012 Members Share Posted August 10, 2012 Spacecakes before practice......duhhhh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Flying_Milkman Posted August 10, 2012 Members Share Posted August 10, 2012 My musical performance is influenced in a BIG way by my state of mind just before ... I can't emphasise enough how true this is. I had a (now ex) girlfriend that used to pick a fight before every gig I would play, some of the worst 6 months of gigs in my life... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members stratotastic Posted August 11, 2012 Members Share Posted August 11, 2012 There's a fine line between being prepared and being over-rehearsed. Some of our best gigs have been after we've been off for a few weeks and haven't rehearsed together at all. The trick is to know your stuff, but not be overconfident in knowing it. the spectrum runs like this;Not enough rehearsal = don't know what you're doing - trainwreckEnough rehearsal = you know your parts, but not so well that you check out and stop paying attention - solid gigOver-rehearsed = because you feel so confident in what you're playing , you stop paying attention - trainwreck But that's just my experience Stated perfectly. Same experience here. There's definitely a fine line between knowing something well, and knowing it so well you take it for granted. Like Norman said above, a bad rehearsal is a good way to snap yourself back to attention for the gig. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Potts Posted August 11, 2012 Members Share Posted August 11, 2012 On the other side of the coin have you ever taken a test at school or did a presentation that you thought you exceled at and then afterwards the gradingfeedback produced results that were opposite of what your perception was? NO.. I'm 43 and just nailed a 4.0 for the summer session. LOL...Sorry- I'm just being a dick. I had to find a way to share my enthusiasm. I just got my grades and nobody's home to be excited with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ku'Yleh Posted August 13, 2012 Author Members Share Posted August 13, 2012 So last night was the first time onstage since the ultra great rehearsal, and we played probably the worst show we have done yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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