How was Your rehearsal last morning or night ?

[FretsOnFire]

Well tonight was a first for me as I've never jammed with a guitarist and a drummer before as we've had a challenge finding one to group up with (my brother in law is a drummer which is handy and together we've been practicing for about 5 months)

 

Think I held my own to be honest but I did have sheets for each song on my iPad in eyes view and had an issue with my clip on tuner but apart from that it went great and certainly something to work on.

 

9 full songs in the bank with Eyes of a Panther by Steel Panther a firm band favourite.

Edited February 20 by FretsOnFire

[Franticsmurf]

It was my third jam/rehearsal with a new line up last night. The Hulla band is still going strong but only do about 6-8 gigs a year and I want to play a bit more frequently. So I answered an ad at the beginning of Feb to join a local band and got the slot. The line up is drums, electric guitar, acoustic guitar and me on bass. We're all getting on well (a prime requisite for me) and we're all keen to avoid the standard pub set list as much as is possible given that we'll be out to entertain others. All three sing rather well (and I can sing a few simple songs) so the potential for vocal harmony is quite exciting. Last night we picked songs at random from the list we'd compiled in the previous two jams and it was sounding pretty good.

 

We practice in a room at the drummer's house and it's all through headphones (the drummer is using an electric kit), which is a great way to get the work done in a relaxed environment (there are cups of tea on hand 😀) and at an ear-friendly volume. It also means that we can record at the push of a button and get a decent record of the evening's work.

 

As the room is relatively small, I'm using my Ibanez SHB1000s into my Ampeg pre-amp/DI pedal which is sounding great. I can see a new small pedal board being created as the songs develop and I nail down the sounds I want for each song.

[colleya]

A bit of a schlep over to Liverpool last night for what seemed like the only available rehearsal room in the north west. 30 miles in 90 mins 🤢🤢

 

And it was totally worth it. We've got our first gig next month so there's some added focus. Plus we're finding our style and getting used to playing together more. 

 

Finally, the new songs we brought last night just seemed to fit. Silent (ish) practice with everything through the desk lets us record and listen back. I've never done that before and it's great to be able to be objective about what worked and what didn't.

 

For the gear spotters I took my Sandberg Cali VM5 into a HX stomp, then a GR one 350 head (I seem to get a better sound than just with the stomp straight to the desk). No cab.

 

Here are a couple of the new tracks we tried. Raye into Prince. Got to have a bit of fun with chorus & octaver towards the end. This was only the second or third time through so be gentle.

 

Edited February 22 by colleya

[Richard R]

Just back from sitting in on band practice for this Sunday's service in church. I'm not playing then, but it's been a hard week and I really didn't feel like sitting at home alone this evening as the wife is away.

 

Several new songs, the drummer feeling rough, I kept stepping on the tuner mute button, everyone made mistakes and it was all a bit chaotic. However lots of laughter, lots of energy -  we got most of the way there in the end and it blew the cobwebs away.

Hooray for live music!

 

Edited February 22 by Richard R
minor grammatical error

[Bluewine]

3 hours ago, colleya said:

A bit of a schlep over to Liverpool last night for what seemed like the only available rehearsal room in the north west. 30 miles in 90 mins 🤢🤢

 

And it was totally worth it. We've got our first gig next month so there's some added focus. Plus we're finding our style and getting used to playing together more. 

 

Finally, the new songs we brought last night just seemed to fit. Silent (ish) practice with everything through the desk lets us record and listen back. I've never done that before and it's great to be able to be objective what worked and what didn't.

 

For the gear spotters I took my Sandberg Cali VM5 into a HX stomp, then a GR one 350 head (I seem to get a better sound than just with the stomp straight to the desk). No cab.

 

Here are a couple of the new tracks we tried. Raye into Prince. This was only the second or third time through so be gentle.

 

 

 

Nice job!

 

Daryl

[solo4652]

Very first jam with potential new band last night. Line up: Myself on bass, drummer, lead guitar, rhythm guitar/keys, lead vocals. Nobody had played with anybody else before, so odds stacked against us. Lead vocals couldn't make it because of her husband's poor health. Maybe we shouldn't have met up, but drummer (who is self-appoointed band leader) decided we should. He pressurised/bullied lead guitarist into singing, and guitarist was pretty unhappy to do so, becoming visibly upset towards the end of the session. Guitarist's playing and singing were not good at all. I stood off to one side watching all this unfold. At one point I said to drummer - "I think we're asking an awful lot of [guitarist] - I have the 6 songs here on my laptop - why don't we play over the top of them and in that way have some lead vocals to guide us. That'll help [guitarist] to focus on his playing" Drummer: "No. I want to hear the instruments clearly, even if it means we have to imagine the vocals in our heads (sic)" In the car park afterwards, I told the drummer I wasn't happy and that I'd speak to him today.

I suppose the obvious way forward is for all five of us to meet up and see how we get on with the lead vocalist there. Take things from there. 

Edited February 22 by solo4652

[nilorius]

15 minutes ago, solo4652 said:

Very first jam with potential new band last night. Line up: Myself on bass, drummer, lead guitar, rhythm guitar/keys, lead vocals. Nobody had played with anybody else before, so odds stacked against us. Lead vocals couldn't make it because of her husband's poor health. Maybe we shouldn't have met up, but drummer (who is self-appoointed band leader) decided we should. He pressurised/bullied lead guitarist into singing, and guitarist was pretty unhappy to do so, becoming visibly upset towards the end of the session. Guitarist's playing and singing were not good at all. I stood off to one side watching all this unfold. At one point I said to drummer - "I think we're asking an awful lot of [guitarist] - I have the 6 songs here on my laptop - why don't we play over the top of them and in that way have some lead vocals to guide us. That'll help [guitarist] to focus on his playing" Drummer: "No. I want to hear the instruments clearly, even if it means we have to imagine the vocals in our heads (sic)" In the car park afterwards, I told the drummer I wasn't happy and that I'd speak to him today.

I suppose the obvious way forward is for all five of us to meet up and see how we get on with the lead vocalist there. Take things from there. 

Hmm...looks like the drummer was guiding to the wrong side.

[Franticsmurf]

13 hours ago, Richard R said:

...it was all a bit chaotic. However lots of laughter, lots of energy...

Sometimes, when it's obviously not going right, the best thing is to make light of it and enjoy what there is. I'm sure we've all had rehearsals like that. Personally I like them, as long as they're not too frequent, as it helps to bring the band together - sharing adversity and the exact opposite of pointing fingers and laying blame. We had a similar session with the Hulla band a couple of weeks ago. Everyone was tired after busy and/or stressful days and while we were ok with the songs, there was no polish, plenty of little mistakes and missed cues. But we had a laugh (I got the keyboards player to play my bass on one song with only two notes to fret - she's never played any kind of guitar before and she did it well enough that the singer didn't know until the end). 

[nilorius]

Just got home from my bands rehearsal. Me on bass, lead, rythm guitar and vocal, drums. Played all 6 songs we new, practicaly without any mistake and learned 3 new. Was a good rehearsal.

[Franticsmurf]

My rehearsal with the Hulla band for tonight has been cancelled because of the amber rain warning. Last time I travelled that way in this kind of rain, the water was up to the headlights in several places along the route.

 

Bored now. 🙂

[asingardenof]

Meant to post this last week but as is often the case life got in the way. We'd been unable to get into our usual rehearsal place, Eiger in Leeds, so decided to try the Old Chapel down the road.

 

The place was very well appointed and had loads of equipment supplied for free thanks to the charity that helps fund it (apparently Kaiser Chiefs do as well as they maintain their own rehearsal facilities there), so I had the hilarious situation of putting my Elf through an Ashdown 8x10 cab, which looked ridiculous (I'll get a photo next time) but sounded amazing.

 

On our breaks we got chatting with another group who were there, one of whom asked who was playing the bass and then complimented me, which was nice. We also had a good chat with the young woman running the place that day, and overall we really liked the place and have decided to move our rehearsals there.

[rwillett]

I had joined a local band just before Xmas. Well when I say band, we had a good drummer, a very good singer and then me. I moved back to the skinny strings as it didn't really work with just bass, drums and a singer, but that was fine. I just wanted to have fun.  We'd agreed a couple of up tempo jazz and blues covers to get going. Two sessions later, singer pulled out citing too much stuff in her life and somethings had to go. These things happen.

 

So the drummer and myself had a session to try and work out what to do. She can sing, I didn't try as my voice dropped eight octaves when I was about 12 and hair appeared in odd places. 

 

We messed around with some covers, didn't really work, so I suggested she choose a beat/tempo she likes on the drums and I'll jam something, anything but it'll probably be blusey in nature 😊

 

Well 45 mins later, I put the guitar down, she put the sticks down and we smiled. We actually played properly as a duo. We clicked on timing and it just worked. I wouldn't quite say it was Ginger Baker and Eric Clapton at the Albert Hall but I thought it sounded great. We were tight and just knew when to start and finish. 

 

I suspect most other people who play in a band think I'm wittering on, but I was over the moon. It's been a loooong time since I've played with anybody and this felt great. 

 

I'm going to try and write something original so we have 3-4 songs that we can sing or more likely she can. AI technology has not moved fast enough to make my voice sound good, perhaps another ten years or so. 

 

I know many of you play gigs all the time but for me, this was a big step forward. 

 

Rob

 

 

[AlexDelores]

9 hours ago, rwillett said:

I had joined a local band just before Xmas. Well when I say band, we had a good drummer, a very good singer and then me. I moved back to the skinny strings as it didn't really work with just bass, drums and a singer, but that was fine. I just wanted to have fun.  We'd agreed a couple of up tempo jazz and blues covers to get going. Two sessions later, singer pulled out citing too much stuff in her life and somethings had to go. These things happen.

 

So the drummer and myself had a session to try and work out what to do. She can sing, I didn't try as my voice dropped eight octaves when I was about 12 and hair appeared in odd places. 

 

We messed around with some covers, didn't really work, so I suggested she choose a beat/tempo she likes on the drums and I'll jam something, anything but it'll probably be blusey in nature 😊

 

Well 45 mins later, I put the guitar down, she put the sticks down and we smiled. We actually played properly as a duo. We clicked on timing and it just worked. I wouldn't quite say it was Ginger Baker and Eric Clapton at the Albert Hall but I thought it sounded great. We were tight and just knew when to start and finish. 

 

I suspect most other people who play in a band think I'm wittering on, but I was over the moon. It's been a loooong time since I've played with anybody and this felt great. 

 

I'm going to try and write something original so we have 3-4 songs that we can sing or more likely she can. AI technology has not moved fast enough to make my voice sound good, perhaps another ten years or so. 

 

I know many of you play gigs all the time but for me, this was a big step forward. 

 

Rob

 

 

Really nice read that Rob! Glad you’ve found something that clicks.

[zbd1960]

All three music things I currently do (two choirs and an orchestra) did not meet last week due to half term.... I have NEVER understood this nonsense. Almost no-one in any of the groups has school age children. OK one group rehearses in a school, so I get that one, but the others? What's the obsession with working around school term dates, it's not the C19th? Mutter, mutter, drifts off into corner...

[rwillett]

4 hours ago, zbd1960 said:

All three music things I currently do (two choirs and an orchestra) did not meet last week due to half term.... I have NEVER understood this nonsense. Almost no-one in any of the groups has school age children. OK one group rehearses in a school, so I get that one, but the others? What's the obsession with working around school term dates, it's not the C19th? Mutter, mutter, drifts off into corner...

 

Half term hits everything, what’s worse is that different parts of the country have half term at different weeks, so the impact of it lies a week before and a week after as well as half term. Also many orgs have their holiday year from April 1st to March 31st so people take even longer off at half term.

 

Feel free to mutter in the corner

Rob

[Staggering on]

I finally pushed a bit at our seven piece swing band rehearsal last night.  One of our members is a music teacher and we can use the music room in her school for rehearsals for free but we almost always leave things where they are in the room to avoid moving the drums. Lately that has had me (DB with my own amp) and the keys at the front of the room

and the drummer about 30 feet away at the back of the room with the horns set up between us. It is a terrible way to set up and means that the rhythm section can't hear each other but last night I strongly suggested ( not normal for me) that we should make the effort to move things and it made a huge difference. We have been gigging for about 8 years together and this was the best rehearsal in a long time, when we gig we set up like this so it makes sense to rehearse that way. Glad I raised the issue and so was our guest vocalist who really liked that she could hear the band the way it would sound on a gig. I used to dread these rehearsals but I'm looking forward to next week and will make sure we will set up the same way. 😊

[AndyTravis]

The new project grows pace…

 

some great recordings 

 

https://on.soundcloud.com/nTbHLV3RQyq8TwDR8
 

https://on.soundcloud.com/bi3nZqsL6Mu1848n9
 

https://on.soundcloud.com/fvfTnizZ2UcLVnMz8