How was Your rehearsal last morning or night ?

[Woodinblack]

1 hour ago, asingardenof said:

I'm not saying that everything by Oasis is a banger because that's demonstrably untrue, however there are some of their catalogue that would be extremely popular were we to play them, however it's just a flat no.

 

Yep, it would be for me too, but there are plenty of other great party songs to do. 

[Stub Mandrel]

2 hours ago, knirirr said:

We've been preparing for a jazz gig in the centre of Oxford at the beginning of June. The set is pretty much sorted out now, and other than a few wrong notes (this is jazz, though) and a flying drumstick everything was sounding good.

Some effort has been spent trying to find varied arrangements, with different structure and number/order of solos, which is something we usually do for gigs - see https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/324449-jam-nights-cliquey/page/8/#comment-5458986 for why I mention that...
 

 

Good Jazz bands do. I've seen established ones with long reputations that don't...

[dmccombe7]

Got a rehearsal booked for tomorrow afternoon 11am - 5pm with the Glam covers band to go over some new songs we fancy trying out.

We'll also run thru some songs in the set that we feel need a polish up or that we haven't played for a while.

We'll also discuss the usual band issues which this time around is how we manage the PA ie who controls the desk and do we go for PA hire at every gig rather than use our own. Most gigs are clubs varying from 80-200 people.

Always look forward to a rehearsal. We only have them 3-4 times a year more so when things are slow. (less than 2 gigs a month)

Dave

[Lo-E]

On 25/04/2025 at 09:54, Lo-E said:

Tonight I’ll be rehearsing with a different band in Brooklyn for a show on the 3rd.  Their studio is a dump and a nuisance to get to so it will be a very different experience than last night’s. They’re nice folks, though, so it’s all good. I’ll stick with the Rickenbacker until both shows are over so my brain doesn’t break. 

I neglected to mention that the band in Brooklyn also prioritizes drinking and smoking at rehearsals….   a further nuisance. 
 

The rehearsal actually went quite well. We have a new drummer (better than the last and an old friend of mine with whom I’ve played many shows) and that put the rest of the band on their best behaviour. There was no drinking and only one smoke break. It’s f’in amazing how much more productive a rehearsal can be when everyone is sober and paying attention! I still smelled like cigarettes when I got home but it was better than usual. 

 

I’ve known these guys for years and shared bills with them when I played in other bands. I’m fairly new to the group and the drummer just joined but we sound tighter than I remember them sounding in a long time. I think the 3rd will be a good show. 
 

I played the Ric, as planned, and plugged straight into the PA as the bass amp in the room wasn’t working. 
Shockingly, the PA did a pretty respectable job of amplifying the bass so it wasn’t a struggle. The Ric still feels weird. I have a week to get re-acclimated. 

[Bluewine]

1 hour ago, dmccombe7 said:

Got a rehearsal booked for tomorrow afternoon 11am - 5pm with the Glam covers band to go over some new songs we fancy trying out.

We'll also run thru some songs in the set that we feel need a polish up or that we haven't played for a while.

We'll also discuss the usual band issues which this time around is how we manage the PA ie who controls the desk and do we go for PA hire at every gig rather than use our own. Most gigs are clubs varying from 80-200 people.

Always look forward to a rehearsal. We only have them 3-4 times a year more so when things are slow. (less than 2 gigs a month)

Dave

 

Nice!

 

Here's how our rehearsals work for new material.  Last night at The Ziegler Winery during the 2nd set. The band leader just goes into Allman Brother's

"Midnight Rambler". We've never played it before. We're expected to follow her. Lol

 

Daryl

[Franticsmurf]

15 hours ago, Bluewine said:

We've never played it before. We're expected to follow her.

Yes, been there - not with your band leader, obviously 😀 - but in a pre-Covid band it became increasingly the case that a new (to us) song would appear in the set as the singer/guitarist uttered the classic "It's in 'C', follow me". Often it wasn't in 'C'. We realised after a few months that he was introducing songs from his solo set into our set. Shortly after, we all left him. 😂

[Lo-E]

On 26/04/2025 at 11:39, Bluewine said:

 

Nice!

 

Here's how our rehearsals work for new material.  Last night at The Ziegler Winery during the 2nd set. The band leader just goes into Allman Brother's

"Midnight Rambler". We've never played it before. We're expected to follow her. Lol

 

Daryl

I played in a band that worked that way, more or less. The bandleader had a binder with about 80 songs in it and he mostly knew all of them but he didn’t really know any of them. He didn’t like to rehearse and the band had a revolving lineup anyway so even if we rehearsed there was little guarantee that the people who rehearsed would actually be playing the show. 
 

He would call out songs, we’d be expected to know them - in whatever slightly wrong iteration he played them - and if we didn’t know it he usually didn’t notice. I got increasingly frustrated until the guitarist, a good friend of mine from outside the band, told me: “You’re thinking about this all wrong. Just jump in and hang on. The audience is having fun. They don’t care. Play, get paid and go home.”

 

He was right, of course. We ended up playing every Saturday at a club in Harlem. It wasn’t a really big room but we always had a good crowd, they always had fun and we always left with some money in our pockets. I lasted the summer before deciding I’d rather play with a band that actually sounded tight but I got a lot of good ear training while I stuck around. 
 

 

[Franticsmurf]

12 hours ago, Lo-E said:

I played in a band that worked that way, more or less. The bandleader had a binder with about 80 songs in it and he mostly knew all of them but he didn’t really know any of them. He didn’t like to rehearse and the band had a revolving lineup anyway so even if we rehearsed there was little guarantee that the people who rehearsed would actually be playing the show. 
 

He would call out songs, we’d be expected to know them - in whatever slightly wrong iteration he played them - and if we didn’t know it he usually didn’t notice. I got increasingly frustrated until the guitarist, a good friend of mine from outside the band, told me: “You’re thinking about this all wrong. Just jump in and hang on. The audience is having fun. They don’t care. Play, get paid and go home.”

 

He was right, of course. We ended up playing every Saturday at a club in Harlem. It wasn’t a really big room but we always had a good crowd, they always had fun and we always left with some money in our pockets. I lasted the summer before deciding I’d rather play with a band that actually sounded tight but I got a lot of good ear training while I stuck around. 
 

 

Yes, reluctantly and with hindsight I realised that the situation I was in actually gave me loads of confidence in my own playing in terms of ability to keep up with the B/Ls whims and mistakes and to deal with curve balls. As you say it also taught me that, for the most part, the audience don't care as long as they are enjoying what is going on. Looking back on my experiences with that particular B/L (which spanned probably 15 years on and off in various duos, trios and more) I now see it as a great learning experience which I've been able to use in the current bands I'm with. I still occasionally dep with that B/L (we remain friends) but my attitude to his gigs are purely what your guitarist friend suggested.

[Franticsmurf]

Last night was the final rehearsal with the Hulla band before our next gig on Saturday - a birthday party in the next village along. It was sounding good as this one was just a run through of the set. Usually the band leader has added, changed or removed songs between practices but only lets us know an hour or so before kick off but last night the set was the same as the previous week. It was tight, the sound was good and for the most part we knew what we were doing.

 

It was a chance for me to try out my latest acquisition - a 2nd hand Ibanez GSR205 5 string bass (my ticket out of the Gear Abstinence league) - and I was very happy with the sound and the playability. The string spacing is a small-hand friendly 16.5mm at the bridge and all the problems I've had in the past (I have small guitarist's hands) were gone. I was still making a few mistakes as a result of the extra string throwing some confusion into the mix, but overall I was very happy. My current pedalboard is just a Zoom MS60b (providing a noise gate and compressor with an option for adding chorus) and my Ampeg Classic pre-amp going into the desk. The sound of the bass was just right - punchy without being overwhelming. I even got compliments from our sound guy ("I loved the sound and turned you up a couple of times")

[Chienmortbb]

I used to play in the house band at an open mic night. We never rehearsed except alone, at home. Sometimes it did not work very well on the night but hey… it’s amateur night. What it did was teach me to listen and follow on the fly and probably did more for my ear training than anything else, especially when a player asked for bass on o song I had never played! 
 

In my current and, the Rhythm Guitarist said when I joined that we play everything exactly to the record. Like scratched record almost every time we played a song for the first time, I would say, “that’s not like the record” In the end I kept my mouth shut.

 

I get on great with the rest of the band but the RG has always been a PITA. He announced recently that he was retiring on health grounds ( heart attack last year, Self inflicted diabetes, and more) with his last gig this Saturday. We had a rehearsal as a four piece last week and it was tight, a lot of fun. Now just the prospect of a one more gig with a below below average RG that cannot keep time and likes to play loud then….relax.