More band frustrations

[Nicko]

I started a new band with a guitarist in December.  By  mid January we had a full line up, and we have been working on building a setlist.  Everything is going well you might think.  Except getting everyone together is proving difficult.  For various reasons it looks like Wednesday or Thursdays are preferred practice nights, but no one seems to commit to putting a reguar day in the diary and cancelling if they have something else they really need to do so we end up agreeing a date week by week and finding that we have no chace of getting a rehearsal room.  We met once in March, once in April and its looking like once in May is all we can manage. 

Although they're talking about gigging and have been offered a slot at a pub the set list is not long enough and with one practice a month none of the songs are particularly polished to a standard thats giggable.

I was on the verge of quitting when we met last time but I really enjoyed it  when we got together that I feel I'd be cutting off my nose to spite my face if I walked away.  I understand that work and family commitments have to come first but I'm beginning to wonder what the point of the band is.

 

 

[steantval]

44 minutes ago, Nicko said:

I started a new band with a guitarist in December.  By  mid January we had a full line up, and we have been working on building a setlist.  Everything is going well you might think.  Except getting everyone together is proving difficult.  For various reasons it looks like Wednesday or Thursdays are preferred practice nights, but no one seems to commit to putting a reguar day in the diary and cancelling if they have something else they really need to do so we end up agreeing a date week by week and finding that we have no chace of getting a rehearsal room.  We met once in March, once in April and its looking like once in May is all we can manage. 

Although they're talking about gigging and have been offered a slot at a pub the set list is not long enough and with one practice a month none of the songs are particularly polished to a standard thats giggable.

I was on the verge of quitting when we met last time but I really enjoyed it  when we got together that I feel I'd be cutting off my nose to spite my face if I walked away.  I understand that work and family commitments have to come first but I'm beginning to wonder what the point of the band is.

 

 

All the warning signs are there, it ain’t gonna happen.

Edited May 9, 2019 by steantval

[ambient]

I’ve never really understood this weekly practice thing that so many bands seem to have. Surely people should just learn their part at home, then maybe a couple of rehearsals prior to a gig, just to ensure everyone’s singing from the same sheet.

[uk_lefty]

11 minutes ago, ambient said:

I’ve never really understood this weekly practice thing that so many bands seem to have. Surely people should just learn their part at home, then maybe a couple of rehearsals prior to a gig, just to ensure everyone’s singing from the same sheet.

For me weekly practice covers lots of ground. Developing a style together, understanding how each other plays, learning each others likely flip ups and how to cover for them, working on backing vocals, fun and social aspect, practicing without the backing track as a crutch or prompt, playing around with arrangements, working on song endings, testing your gigging kit, getting your finger stamina up, probably loads more reasons too. I see lots of advantages to it and would prefer this to ad hoc meeting up to polish before a gig. 

[Krysbass]

I'm going through a similar problem with a band I started, except that in my case the difficulty isn't so much rehearsals as getting all 5 band members in the same venue at the same time for gigs.

The worst offender is the singer, closely followed by the keyboarder who between them have ensured that after a gig we'll be playing on 15th June, we are unavailable for any gigs until mid September at the earliest. 

I feel a calm but earnest conversation coming on in the near future essentially saying that unless their availability improves there's no point in the band continuing.

That will be a shame as we've been getting great feedback from the gigs we've played, but having had a gutfull of problems with others who have come and gone since we formed in 2016; I no longer have the patience to replace them and then wait for the new members to be up to speed on our repertoire. 

Edited May 9, 2019 by Krysbass
More detail

[ambient]

1 minute ago, uk_lefty said:

For me weekly practice covers lots of ground. Developing a style together, understanding how each other plays, learning each others likely flip ups and how to cover for them, working on backing vocals, fun and social aspect, practicing without the backing track as a crutch or prompt, playing around with arrangements, working on song endings, testing your gigging kit, getting your finger stamina up, probably loads more reasons too. I see lots of advantages to it and would prefer this to ad hoc meeting up to polish before a gig. 

Yeah, I guess. Me though, I don’t like the social aspect, but I understand most do.

 Does it really take weeks or months to work on endings? My gigs have always tended to be either dep type where I’ve never met them before, I just turn up after being given a set to learn, or I’m given a pad of charts to read. The others tend to be where I’ve known the guys for ages anyway.

[Lozz196]

18 minutes ago, ambient said:

I’ve never really understood this weekly practice thing that so many bands seem to have. Surely people should just learn their part at home, then maybe a couple of rehearsals prior to a gig, just to ensure everyone’s singing from the same sheet.

We rehearse every week, irrespective of gigs, writing new material etc. For one we just love the band so it’s not a chore, we enjoy it, but secondly it gives us that tightness to our performance that many praise us on. And lastly, purely from a personal point, as a non-natural singer, I need to be rehearsing my vocals with the band every week, I shudder at the thought of what would come out if I didn’t. And with our music it’s not possibly to rehearse said (poor) vox at home, they’re too loud for that.

[Coilte]

It's the age old problem with bands..i.e. people not being able or willing to commit. From my experience this has all the hall marks of coming to an abrupt end.

For the OP's sake, I hope I am proved wrong.

[Stylon Pilson]

Last year I walked from a band, the primary reason being that owing to everyone's unavailabilities we were only doing one rehearsal a month, and 3 gigs a year.

If you want this band to have a chance of surviving then you need to identify the person (or people) who are having the biggest problems with scheduling conflicts, and replace them. Have you talked to your co-founder guitarist about your concerns?

Edit: also, if agreeing dates week-by-week is meaning that you are struggling to get a rehearsal room, then the solution is simple - start planning rehearsal dates a month in advance. And if anyone says "I don't know which nights I'm going to be available that week" then show them the door, because I can guarantee you that they'll be the death of your band otherwise.

S.P.

Edited May 9, 2019 by Stylon Pilson

[redbandit599]

We try and block book 3 or 4 rehearsal dates in whilst at rehearsal - so everyone checks their diaries there and then and if the dates are free it gets booked. Sure, we do have the odd cancellation (life happens) but once the dates are in it's easier to arrange life around them.

Regular practice is essential for a gigging band imho - I've seen plenty of talented players get to together to form scratch bands or who 'don't need to rehearse' - they are undoubtedly much better natural players than me but there's always something a bit 'jam like' about those performances and often the chemistry isn't quite 'on it.'

[ambient]

Remember it doesn’t necessarily have to be a full band that rehearses. You could get together with just the drums and guitar, maybe the vocalist?

[uk_lefty]

2 hours ago, ambient said:

Does it really take weeks or months to work on endings? My gigs have always tended to be either dep type where I’ve never met them before, I just turn up after being given a set to learn, or I’m given a pad of charts to read. The others tend to be where I’ve known the guys for ages anyway.

It doesn't take months to work on endings but they do need work to make it tight. 

On the odd occasion I have depped the rest of the band have known each other so it's easier for me to follow them, if we were all strangers it would fall apart quickly I think. 

I respect what you do, but prefer the regular rehearsal approach myself. Though sometimes I think I would love it if my band could work on a few rehearsals pre-gig given challenges we are having at the moment!

[AndyTravis]

2 hours ago, ambient said:

I’ve never really understood this weekly practice thing that so many bands seem to have. Surely people should just learn their part at home, then maybe a couple of rehearsals prior to a gig, just to ensure everyone’s singing from the same sheet.

I enjoy the social element too - I like getting together, we all know our parts - but I’ve always enjoyed the fun aspects too.

[Quilly]

26 minutes ago, AndyTravis said:

I enjoy the social element too - I like getting together, we all know our parts - but I’ve always enjoyed the fun aspects too.

Agree, I'm in my 40's now as are some of my band mates, so there a 'Mens-shed' aspect to it for us LOL!. Even if you know the nut and bolts of the songs there's no substitute to playing with other musicians to get  the cohesion down, and tweaking your sound, technically. I cant understand why musicians beach and moan about rehearsing, like its a big chore. surely you like playing music as much as possible even if its just for reherasal? 

 

Beach and moan - very clever BC.

Edited May 9, 2019 by Quilly

[Stub Mandrel]

Rehearsals are about getting better at playing together, and sorting out arrangemens  - "OK, which of the four different ways the original band played this do you want me to do?" 🙂

The second band I was in we wrote all our songs together as well - somone would bring a riff, progression or even a vocal line and we would take it from there.

The third one, the guitarist wrote lots of original stuff and we leahd to learn and arrange these together as well.

But you shouldn't be learning covers at rehearsals, unless you need other folks to help with some parts.

[AndyTravis]

Tell you what I love listening back to rehearsals too since we’ve started taking a zoom handy recorder

[mr4stringz]

2 hours ago, Stylon Pilson said:

Last year I walked from a band, the primary reason being that owing to everyone's unavailabilities we were only doing one rehearsal a month, and 3 gigs a year.

If you want this band to have a chance of surviving then you need to identify the person (or people) who are having the biggest problems with scheduling conflicts, and replace them. Have you talked to your co-founder guitarist about your concerns?

Edit: also, if agreeing dates week-by-week is meaning that you are struggling to get a rehearsal room, then the solution is simple - start planning rehearsal dates a month in advance. And if anyone says "I don't know which nights I'm going to be available that week" then show them the door, because I can guarantee you that they'll be the death of your band otherwise.

S.P.

This. Totally.

Me and the drummer in our last band (who I’ve played with on and off for 20 years) got to point of frustration with the singer and guitarist over non-commital (and it was ‘their’ bloody band) that we both quit.

We’re at the point, for now at least, that we can’t rely on anyone other than us so we’re doing a 2-piece thing. No hiding places and only us responsible for the whole thing. It’s refreshing to say the least. Challenging too!

[Wylie]

1 hour ago, ambient said:

Remember it doesn’t necessarily have to be a full band that rehearses. You could get together with just the drums and guitar, maybe the vocalist?

I think this is a good solution, among others. For my trio, the most important thing for what we play--mainly jazz standards--is practicing often enough that we really get the tunes down, not for the sake of perfection, but to get to the point where we can LISTEN to one another. That's when the music really happens.

[Nicko]

56 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

But you shouldn't be learning covers at rehearsals, unless you need other folks to help with some parts.

To be honest this is the first band I've been in where people come to rehearsals having properly learnt the songs, but playing as a band is IMHO the only way to elevate it from a jam to a good band.

 

1 hour ago, Quilly said:

Agree, I'm in my 40's now as are some of my band mates, so there a 'Mens-shed' aspect to it for us LOL!.

Less so with this band as its two guys and two girls.

[dmccombe7]

Current band were all playing in other bands and this was a project they all wanted to do but other commitments in the diary meant rehearsals in the first year were few and far between altho we had 22 songs sorted in 18hrs of rehearsals which were spread over one 3 hr slot a month kind of thing we found it hard to gel and to remember what we agreed on for endings.

Now we record everything we do at rehearsals. That helps a lot. We also block book rehearsals now and if we can't manage a Sun afternoon because someone's either working or they know they are on a late Sat night gig we will move the rehearsal to mid week 9-12pm. 

The singer and guitarist have agreed this band is more fun and could be financially well worthwhile and have dropped their other bands. Singer still does solo act with backing tracks around the clubs as a Glam rock artist and he's still quite busy with that but many are Sun gigs. Drummer also doing other band gigs so its first in the diary at the moment altho he can see the potential in this band too.

Its not easy keeping up your motivation and enthusiasm under those circumstances but this is a band i've always wanted to do and the guys are genuinely great to get along with. 4 off us started the band together and we've been held up a fair bit bringing in keys players. Jury is still out on whether we need or want a keys player but we'll see how it develops 

If its the kind of band you want to be part off and know there's a good future with them then it can be worthwhile sticking with it and as things develop your band becomes the focal point and the gigs become more frequent. For me its been worth sticking with it. That's not for everyone tho. Historically if a band wasn't gigging within a max of 12mths i was out of there. That was usually the Prog type bands with original material. The covers bands are usually anywhere between 3 weeks to 3 mths depending on how well i know the songs when i join.

I reckon a good pub covers band should be up and running within 3-6mths absolute max. If not you need to make that decision whether its worthwhile or not.

EDIT :- we all learn the songs before coming to a rehearsal so its generally just playing it as a band and sorting out arrangements for keys as many of our covers had no keys and endings.

Good luck and hope it works out for you. 👍

Dave

Edited May 9, 2019 by dmccombe7

[Guest oZZma]

5 hours ago, Nicko said:

 I understand that work and family commitments have to come first 

 

I don't.

[taunton-hobbit]

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Posted 9 minutes ago

  5 hours ago, Nicko said:

 I understand that work and family commitments have to come first 

 

I don't.

It depends - IF this is supposed to be a serious earner, it takes serious amounts of time.

If it's a 'sort of' paying hobby, then 'as & when' will (probably) do............

The choice, as they say, is up to you.................

😎

[Stub Mandrel]

1 hour ago, AndyTravis said:

Tell you what I love listening back to rehearsals too since we’ve started taking a zoom handy recorder

I got sent a link to a recording of one of our rehearsals  - just from a couple of condensor mikes up on the ceiling.

Put it like this, you can hear the snare really well, until the singer starts then you can hear the singer really well. Everything else is effectively inaudible.

[uk_lefty]

3 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

I got sent a link to a recording of one of our rehearsals  - just from a couple of condensor mikes up on the ceiling.

Put it like this, you can hear the snare really well, until the singer starts then you can hear the singer really well. Everything else is effectively inaudible.

The zoom devices are great, you can just set up for ordinary volumes and balance, put the recorder in the middle of the room on a stool or mic stand and off you go. Really worth doing, you can analyse your playing a lot better and see how fills and so on are working out. And you can prove to others that their backing vocals are really, really, REALLY out of tune.

[Skinnyman]

31 minutes ago, uk_lefty said:

The zoom devices are great, you can just set up for ordinary volumes and balance, put the recorder in the middle of the room on a stool or mic stand and off you go. Really worth doing, you can analyse your playing a lot better and see how fills and so on are working out. And you can prove to others that their backing vocals are really, really, REALLY out of tune.

Agreed. The Zoom recorders are excellent for this and give surprisingly good results. They also highlight situations where the whole band - or even just one offender - are/is too loud.