What makes a good rehearsal?

[Al Koehn]

Since I work with many different bands, I'm often asked to attend rehearsals and make suggestions on how these can be improved. This leads to my question: what are your rehearsals like?

Is the singer having to yell because the drummer and other instruments are turned up to "11"?

Do you just play through your set a couple of times and let it go at that?

Do you allow girl/guy friends and fans to attend?

Are you rehearsing or performing?

Is your rehearsal space conducive to getting the most done?

Are there rules about being late or missing?

What are your opinions about what makes a good rehearsal. What works for you? What doesn't?

Al

[Bajazz]

- Often the drummer sets the volume. If he ain't able to play soft, get earplugs or IEM
- Somtimes we play tru sets and work with the bad sposts after. Other times we pick a couple of songs to work on.
- Fans, kids, wifes OK, but it's a bit boring for them when we repeat the guitarsolos on "The Trooper" 8 times.... after all....
- It's practice, not a concert.
- We are very productive. All are family guys, with small kids so we are used to being effective with our rare spare time
- 5 minutes late OK, any more needs a phone call
- A good practice is when we face even the smallest problems and work constructive on solving it. That way you feel your doing something that is 100% joy and none burden

When I leave home and family and have a couple of hours quality time, there's gonna be quality!!

[cherri]

Is the singer having to yell because the drummer and other instruments are turned up to "11"? We have good moitor coverage in the rehearsal space. If the guys get cooking and play more loudly, I maintain the same volume. If they say they can't hear me, I just shrug and put on the face of a singer who doesn't have a clue.

Do you just play through your set a couple of times and let it go at that? We have a four hour show and a two hour practice. We start with a warm up jam, then hit songs noted from the last show that need work. Then we do the most recent additions to the set lists. Then we hit the running list of songs that we are working up. Or we noodle and jam at the end, to see what cooks up.

Do you allow girl/guy friends and fans to attend? There's no rule against it, but it's boring for them. We remain very focused at practice.

Are you rehearsing or performing? Rehearsing. Stop songs and work on hot spots, re-do songs, re-do song sections, put the instruments down and sing acapella on harmony parts.

Is your rehearsal space conducive to getting the most done? Yes I am happy with our set up. We work in the round, facing each other, with monitors at each corner, music stands available but not allowed at performance.

Are there rules about being late or missing? We are all professional adults and we all have cell phones. We communicate these things.

What are your opinions about what makes a good rehearsal. What works for you? What doesn't? I don't really have opinions, because what works for us may not work for another group of people. We worked two hours last night, polished several songs that had been rough, and I gave everyone the next list of 7 songs to learn while we have a couple weeks off.

[careful now]

having the singer show up on time and sober is always a good start. :poke:

[WowieZowie]

Since I work with many different bands, I'm often asked to attend rehearsals and make suggestions on how these can be improved. This leads to my question: what are your rehearsals like?

Is the singer having to yell because the drummer and other instruments are turned up to "11"? This does happen from time to time, but listening is a very big part of being a part of our team. If you can't listen, then you best be moving on. People pick up on this pretty quick. I have been in bands where it is just a free for all. I have worked rather hard to make that not true with the group I am in now.

Do you just play through your set a couple of times and let it go at that?
We agree to work on a few songs per session. People are supposed to come ready to ask questions, and provide answers. People take notes. We talk via email about how it went, and what we want to happen next practice.

Do you allow girl/guy friends and fans to attend? I love this question. No, we don't. I have some funny stories, as I am sure we all have regarding this aspect of being in a band.

Are you rehearsing or performing?
I do perform when we rehearse. I really can't shut that off, nor do I want to. They are kinda meshed together. I play. We try to bring it everytime. When we are going over and over a certain part, I still try to bring it.

Is your rehearsal space conducive to getting the most done? It could be a lot better. Really need to have internet, youtube, etc, right there to utilize. But we do have quiet, safe place, and that is way cool.

Are there rules about being late or missing?
Yes. They are unwritten, but they are there just the same. Don't be disrespecting your bandmates. (that kinda thing.)

What are your opinions about what makes a good rehearsal. What works for you? What doesn't? A good rehearsal is when everyone is moving forward. This usually comes as a result of knowing the differance between practice and rehearsal. Practice you do on your time, rehearsal we do together. (amazing how many people don't understand this concept.)

Al

Thanks again for this great post.

[ChristianRock]

Al Koehn? I've bought a bunch of your stuff in the 90s. Funny you should be the one asking :) I'll start with the last question...

What are your opinions about what makes a good rehearsal. What works for you? What doesn't?
Rehearsals, IMHO, are most of all to make sure everybody is tight and knows what to do, and to improve interaction between band members... if you try to think too much about it, or if you're too philosophical about it, you won't have fun and you'll probably produce less.

Is the singer having to yell because the drummer and other instruments are turned up to "11"?
I've had that problem with pretty much every band I've been in. Live it's usually not a problem though.

Do you just play through your set a couple of times and let it go at that?
My approach, if I'm the one leading the thing, is to make sure a song sounds good before we go to the next one. Usually the instrumental gets a lot more attention than the vocals when it comes to practicing.

Do you allow girl/guy friends and fans to attend?
As long as they're fine with being ignored, they can come all they want. But stay in some corner and be quiet.
I've had people tell me they felt "desrespected" at one of my band's rehearsals because we wouldn't play "for them". Whatever :rolleyes:

Are you rehearsing or performing?
A little bit of both, depending on the stage the song is currently in - still trying to find our way through, or just trying to hammer out a great performance. It's wise to always cut back a little bit on the vocals when rehearsing, though. No need to ever strain yourself if it's not worth it.

Is your rehearsal space conducive to getting the most done?
That varies with each band I've played with... currently I think it's one of the best settings I've had so far. We had a couple line-up changes this year that left a void (no more full time keyboard player other than me doing a bit of things here and there) and a new drummer, but it's worked out for good, we sound a lot tighter now.

Are there rules about being late or missing?
Yes, if you get there late you're castrated.

[SpacedCowboy]

Is the singer having to yell because the drummer and other instruments are turned up to "11"?

We have monitor wedges at our rehearsals and my voice is pretty loud anyway, so volume usually isn't a problem for us...if it is, I just stop and say "fellas, I can't hear myself...we need to fix this". The guys know I'd rather go home than blow my voice out in rehearsal, so wherever the volume problem lies, we fix it and then move on.




Do you just play through your set a couple of times and let it go at that?

We used to do whole set runs...now we usually just run through the newest songs we've learned/written a few times, and then if somebody has a problem with a song we've already been doing, we run through that one as well. If we ran through our entire 3/one hour sets every time we rehearse, it would be the equivalent of getting beaten with a ballpeen hammer.




Do you allow girl/guy friends and fans to attend?
Rarely, and that's only after the work is done. But, we've broken that rule a few times, too.




Are you rehearsing or performing?
Yes.




Is your rehearsal space conducive to getting the most done?
Depends...if a certain person's phone isn't ringing every 5 minutes wondering why so-and-so doesn't call anymore, (or some such) then we get some serious work done...when personal lives can't be left at the door, that's when the shite hits the fan.






Are there rules about being late or missing?
We have a hard and fast rule about lateness/unattendance...if you have to be late or can't make rehearsal, and we all can't stress this hard enough...let people know as far in advance as you can!

If it's an emergency, life or death situation that happens at the last minute, that can't be helped, but it's rare that something is so traumatic that everyone can't be notified in enough time so that people aren't already in their car driving toward rehearsal.

Another hard and fast rule we have is...if we're scheduled to have rehearsal and you just don't show up, no notice of any kind...well, if you're not in the hospital or dead...you may very well be if/when we see you again.:mad:




What are your opinions about what makes a good rehearsal. What works for you? What doesn't?

When everyone has listened to the rehearsal cds/mp3's/tapes and already know their parts so that all we have to do is polish things up and find our groove, then that's a killer rehearsal.

If someone has listened to their parts, but there's something they can't quite get their head/hands around, that's one thing.

If they say, "uh, well, huh huh...I uh, didn't really get a chance to listen to it, can we listen to it a couple of times??" And then we have to slow rehearsal down to a grinding halt because someone was too lazy to learn their part? That makes me want to punch somebody.:mad: