Looking for good apps for organising band practice?

[Yan_Huriey]

Hi everyone,

 

Organising band practice with our lot is like herding cats, does anybody know any good apps that the band members can share, is ideally free, and isn't a pain in the wrong-un to view/use/understand?

 

Cheers.

[fretmeister]

Just share a google calendar with the band members.

[Stingray5]

+1 for Google Calendar although Doodle is also worth a look. https://doodle.com/en/

[warwickhunt]

+2 Google Calendar... be prepared to kick anyone's ar5e that doesn't put in dates they aren't available (the drummer)!

 

[steve-bbb]

Probably an app out there somewhere for herding cats 🤔

[TimR]

We just have a WhatsApp group purely for gigs and a WhatsApp group for general chat. Ask if anyone is available on certain date in the general chat group, and when a gig is booked stick the details in the gig group and go from there. 

 

Getting amatuer musicians to be organised is like, well, as we all know, herding cats. 

[warwickhunt]

59 minutes ago, TimR said:

We just have a WhatsApp group purely for gigs and a WhatsApp group for general chat. Ask if anyone is available on certain date in the general chat group, and when a gig is booked stick the details in the gig group and go from there. 

 

Getting amatuer musicians to be organised is like, well, as we all know, herding cats. 

 

We tried that approach but when you get offered a gig on a certain date it is dead easy to look at an online calendar which 'should' have everyone's holiday dates, shift patterns etc on.  Alternative was to post the date we'd been offered in the group and you could guarantee every other gig someone would be busy and you'd need to go back to the venue for alternative dates... which you offer back to the group.  LOL  ...or is that just my bands? 

 

[fretmeister]

The single biggest problem is the same on every app.

 

Humans.

 

Every app works - up until the point where a band member doesn't use it properly.

 

As soon as those japanese sex robots can be programmed to play guitar and drums I'm putting a band together.

 

Edited September 6, 2021 by fretmeister

[DiMarco]

Whatsapp + Spotify is all we use.

If people don't show up for practice, toss them out of the band.

 

Edited September 6, 2021 by DiMarco

[TimR]

22 minutes ago, warwickhunt said:

 

We tried that approach but when you get offered a gig on a certain date it is dead easy to look at an online calendar which 'should' have everyone's holiday dates, shift patterns etc on.  Alternative was to post the date we'd been offered in the group and you could guarantee every other gig someone would be busy and you'd need to go back to the venue for alternative dates... which you offer back to the group.  LOL  ...or is that just my bands? 

 

 

You need to start off by compiling a list of dates where people aren't available. 

Calendars are a bit overkill for us as generally we are looking for Saturday night gigs. And they rely on people updating them without being prompted. If you have to prompt them, you might as well just ask in the first place if there are any additional dates since last time you asked. 

Edited September 6, 2021 by TimR

[SteveXFR]

Is it not possible to book the same time and day every week or every fortnight?

[neepheid]

Does the application of my boot to band members' backsides count?

[Yan_Huriey]

58 minutes ago, SteveXFR said:

Is it not possible to book the same time and day every week or every fortnight?

We all work alternating shifts, honestly its a miracle we do anything. We gell really well though so its worth persuing.

[Nail Soup]

1 hour ago, SteveXFR said:

Is it not possible to book the same time and day every week or every fortnight?

That can make it easier to get a rehearsal room too. It’s not just band members who can be unavailable.

[SteveXFR]

39 minutes ago, Nail Soup said:

That can make it easier to get a rehearsal room too. It’s not just band members who can be unavailable.

 

Not only that, some rehearsal rooms do block booking discounts. 

[Lozz196]

2 hours ago, SteveXFR said:

Is it not possible to book the same time and day every week or every fortnight?

That’s what we did in my last band, a rolling booking only changed by us if we were unable to do it for whatever reasons.

 

Re flakey band mates, well the last band was great but a few bands ago we had the typical musician. Send a message out asking if available for a gig on Sat 11th. Invariably a reply would be received on Tue 14th saying yeah, I’m up for that. 🤦🏻‍♂️

 

 

[TimR]

2 hours ago, Yan_Hurei said:

We all work alternating shifts, honestly its a miracle we do anything. We gell really well though so its worth persuing.

 

If you're working shifts then you're probably all pretty rock solid at keeping diaries. 

 

As suggested before share a Google calendar. 

If you all have smartphones you can have multiple calendars in the same app, and get them just to show 'busy' in the shared calendar when you add to your own. 

 

You can share Google calendar with an iCal. If everyone has iPhones iCal might be the better option. 

 

You'll still need to check people are free, but if it's blocked out you can avoid it. 

Edited September 6, 2021 by TimR

[uk_lefty]

We use Time Tree so that, in theory everyone puts up their holiday dates etc so if you're talking to a venue about a gig you can whip out the calendar and start pencilling in dates that we should in theory all be able to do. Everyone gets notifications of new events added, etc. 

 

As already noted, its worse than herding drunk three legged cats through water. People don't put up their holidays etc. OR they agree to gigs without considering key members of the band might be away AND IT SAYS SO IN THE CALENDAR. Or they suspect that being away for 3 days for a wedding is too long, so of course you can do the gig... Not realising travel up might before, go to wedding, stay the night, travel back next day.... People, eh? 

Edited September 7, 2021 by uk_lefty

[Painy]

[Killed_by_Death]

 

Tell those folks to get their practice at home, so that they're prepared for rehearsal.

 

[Supernaut]

Shift workers i.e. let's practice at the weekends. 🤮

[SumOne]

Doodle is an easy way of checking when people are available- people just need to follow the link you set up and tick boxes for the dates they are available https://doodle.com/en/

And Teamup is a shared calendar once you have the dates organised  https://www.teamup.com/

Edited September 8, 2021 by SumOne

[Paul S]

On 06/09/2021 at 16:08, fretmeister said:

The single biggest problem is the same on every app.

 

Humans.

 

Every app works - up until the point where a band member doesn't use it properly.

 

 This.  I've tried all the apps mentioned and this is the recurring theme.  About the best was Doodle, mainly because it demands an actual active response and doesn't require people to remember/bother to fill in things on a regular basis.  Of course it does mean that someone needs to take charge of it but that is OK generally.

[Supernaut]

The dreaded blue tick no reply scenario... 

[tauzero]

Bandwerkz (bandwerkz.com) is pretty broad ranging but I've never managed to get 100% of a band to use it. It also allows integration of the Bandwerkz calendar with Google calendar and iCalendar.