How was Your rehearsal last morning or night ?

[paddy109]

I had the best rehearsal in years last night. Newish band with a few gigs in the calendar.

Had a full pa set up run through and the band sounded immense. My bass sounded the best I ever heard - very excited. 

Great musicians that have really pushed my own playing, not extremely technical just very tight. Lovely evening that was too short!

[stewblack]

1 hour ago, paddy109 said:

Stew, should get on the scooter club scene - could be lucrative. National rallies and all that. Local club as well Radstock Devils!

Yeah. That's definitely a good plan. I used to be in The More Specials and we played a load of scooter rallies 

[Franticsmurf]

Last night was a long rehearsal with the Hulla after a long day volunteering with a local wildlife charity. We're building up to a big gig in June so it's more about fine tuning the arrangements and set order rather than learning new stuff but the BL brought in a new song (One Day Like This) and so I had to sight read (I don't sight read his charts very well). It all seemed to be ok for a first run through. We'll be performing 4 songs, including that one, with a local choir and that rehearsal is in two weeks. We've worked with them before and it's always a great sound when they're on board.

 

As I hadn't gone home between day and evening events, I had minimal kit. No pre-amp, just a DI into the desk and my Spirit headless. The bass had been in the car all day and I was expecting tuning issues throughout the evening, but it only needed minimal tuning at the start. I've always found this bass t be very stable - one of the reasons it's often my back up bass. The sound was ok for the rehearsal although as I didn't have my IEM setup I couldn't hear my vocals properly (and that's the excuse I'll be sticking to if they were out of tune).

[MacDaddy]

Last night, full band: Vocalist, bass, drums, guitar, & 3 backing vocalists.

Sounded great and we all played well.

The bass sounded amazing! I was using the rehearsal room combo. I put it on mute, turned the volume down and plugged in, turned the volume up ready to have a fiddle with the EQ, but it already sounded awesome so I left it alone. Pic of combo and settings ⬇️

 

 

[Lozz196]

Just got in from rehearsal with the classic rock band. Went very well, are now working on Led Zeps Kashmir, a great song made rather more difficult when it’s played without vocals. But we’re getting there nicely with it.

On a personal point I’d recently changed strings on my MIJ Fender Mustang from Elixir steel rounds to nickel rounds and they really work with this bass. So a great evening for me.

[MacDaddy]

Rehearsal last night with the covers band. We have a full line up now, but the singer wasn't there as he has the lurgy, so we ran through stuff with the new guitarist.

I got bitten by a mozzy! 😡

[Franticsmurf]

The Hulla band organises and plays a festival each year and since I joined them I've put together a band to play a support slot at each gig. This year, it's with three of the main Hulla band members (drums, the dep bassist and the guitarist). The drummer and I are the only 'experienced' musicians - that's not to say the others aren't good, but they only play at Hulla rehearsals and gigs, so they have less stage experience and confidence. We've had five practices at which we learnt 17 songs and now we've slimmed the setlist down to 12. Last night we had the first full run through with our Hulla sound man in the critical friend role and a GoPro in the 'camera never lies' role 😃.

 

We managed to squeeze two complete run throughs in and the inexperience showed through with big, silent gaps between the songs and messy starts and finishes in the first version. I could feel the frustration as each little error contributed to the next and there was no enthusiasm in the playing. We finished and took a break to talk it through. Fortunately, everyone was aware of their own problems and it was a pretty open discussion. The sound man had some suggestions as well (I was singing in too high a register for one song, for example) so we played through the set again with these in mind. It was like a different band had taken the stage. It was tighter and after the first couple of songs, the mood was noticeably better and this translated into the playing. We ended on a high.

 

There is still work to do - mainly starts and change overs (there's an instrument swap midway through the set) but it was a great way to end a rehearsal.    

 

[vbance]

As we are without a drummer at the moment we are writing new stuff and re working some of the guitarists older material so we had a little meet at mine this morning.

Set up in the front room into interface and garageband....we enjoyed it but not sure the wife or possibly neighbours did.

 

 

 

[MacDaddy]

On 31/05/2024 at 09:53, MacDaddy said:

 

I got bitten by a mozzy! 😡

 

The swelling and itchiness have gone, but I still have a red spot over the bite mark.

[steantval]

The band nailed Fire by Jimi Hendrix by the second run through, it’s really enjoyable when tunes really gel almost immediately, it’s going to be added to our set for the gig this coming weekend. 👍

[BillyBass]

BL and me auditioned a new drummer yesterday and it went well.  Conveniently, the drummer lives on the same street as the BL and both of them have dedicated music rooms in their houses that we can rehearse in-with headphones through a laptop with a click.

 

This is all a bit new to me, I'm used to 4 blokes in a studio with acoustic drums and amps.  It's nice not to need ear protectors at a rehearsal!.

[Dad3353]

We've been asked to play in the town square for the fast-approaching Fête de la Musique, 21st June. We've done a couple of rehearsals, working out a cut-down repertoire for a 45 minutes set (no second guitar, so just the four of us...). We've been trying to find out what logistics are in place, and finally got some sort of answer last night. Apparently there will be another group (presumably pop/rock like us, but not sure...), plus a couple of local singer-guitarist or small choral ensembles. All good fun, but the 'organiser' informed us that he will install a PA. 'Good', we're thinking. 'Yes, it's 250w', he continues. What..? 250w, for an outdoor town square multi-band 'do'..? We have more than that for rehearsing, at home..! It's not important, really, for us, as we are basically autonomous, with an adequate FOH, retour, mics'n'stands etc for our modest needs, but goodness knows what the other group and participants will require. Any foldback/aux sends..? How many console channels..? Will there be lights..? It's more a sense of foreboding, that if that's what the bloke thinks will do the trick, what else will/could go wrong..? Another rehearsal next Saturday, and we'll find out 'on the day' what conditions are like. What's the weather like for end of June, and what's the back-up plan if it pours down rain in bucket-loads..? Dunno; we'll find out..! 

[nilorius]

14 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

We've been asked to play in the town square for the fast-approaching Fête de la Musique, 21st June. We've done a couple of rehearsals, working out a cut-down repertoire for a 45 minutes set (no second guitar, so just the four of us...). We've been trying to find out what logistics are in place, and finally got some sort of answer last night. Apparently there will be another group (presumably pop/rock like us, but not sure...), plus a couple of local singer-guitarist or small choral ensembles. All good fun, but the 'organiser' informed us that he will install a PA. 'Good', we're thinking. 'Yes, it's 250w', he continues. What..? 250w, for an outdoor town square multi-band 'do'..? We have more than that for rehearsing, at home..! It's not important, really, for us, as we are basically autonomous, with an adequate FOH, retour, mics'n'stands etc for our modest needs, but goodness knows what the other group and participants will require. Any foldback/aux sends..? How many console channels..? Will there be lights..? It's more a sense of foreboding, that if that's what the bloke thinks will do the trick, what else will/could go wrong..? Another rehearsal next Saturday, and we'll find out 'on the day' what conditions are like. What's the weather like for end of June, and what's the back-up plan if it pours down rain in bucket-loads..? Dunno; we'll find out..! 

Organisers can be smart, but can be Cretins, too.

Edited June 9 by nilorius

[Buddster]

58 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

We've been asked to play in the town square for the fast-approaching Fête de la Musique, 21st June. We've done a couple of rehearsals, working out a cut-down repertoire for a 45 minutes set (no second guitar, so just the four of us...). We've been trying to find out what logistics are in place, and finally got some sort of answer last night. Apparently there will be another group (presumably pop/rock like us, but not sure...), plus a couple of local singer-guitarist or small choral ensembles. All good fun, but the 'organiser' informed us that he will install a PA. 'Good', we're thinking. 'Yes, it's 250w', he continues. What..? 250w, for an outdoor town square multi-band 'do'..? We have more than that for rehearsing, at home..! It's not important, really, for us, as we are basically autonomous, with an adequate FOH, retour, mics'n'stands etc for our modest needs, but goodness knows what the other group and participants will require. Any foldback/aux sends..? How many console channels..? Will there be lights..? It's more a sense of foreboding, that if that's what the bloke thinks will do the trick, what else will/could go wrong..? Another rehearsal next Saturday, and we'll find out 'on the day' what conditions are like. What's the weather like for end of June, and what's the back-up plan if it pours down rain in bucket-loads..? Dunno; we'll find out..! 

Good luck, hope it goes well. Be sure to report back. 

[asingardenof]

Took the Siredowsky out for its first run out this afternoon and it performed admirably, I even had to turn down my Elf to accommodate it because I was, in the words of our singist, loud as fück. Despite that I struggled to hear myself at a few points, which I attribute to still having lasting after effects of this cold on top of being stood right in front of a PA speaker.

 

Our keyboardist is going to have to buy himself a new keyboard and a case for it because his pitch shifter has gone rogue and keep sending him out of tune, which can be attributed to it living in his car with no protection, so it's a bit bashed about.

 

Two Tribes is coming along as we have the core elements sorted, with just some timing and arrangement tweaks required. We've binned Boys Don't Cry, and a very rough run through of Mr Brightside showed some promise.

 

Now home to die in a corner. Pushed myself and regretting it, so thank goodness I'm signed off for another couple of days.

Edited June 9 by asingardenof

[AndyTravis]

Rushed from work to rehearsal in Friday evening gridlock.

 

Great rehearsal though - 5 new songs are really coming along now - so we’ll have 12 original tunes to pick from for upcoming gigs. 
 

New drummer is phenomenal, really musical - builds his parts and pushes the songs along. 
 

hopefully sorting the album soon - An EP with old drummer is just with mastering guy.

 

so it was decent - but Friday after work is not the one.

[JazzyJ]

Last Thursdays rehearsal was fun, we are a bunch of retired/ semi-retired guys on a synth pop venture.

We keep being let down by keyboardists giving up and last week was no exception with a no show.

BL/ vocalist steps up to the mark on such occasions but has a tendency to go off on a 'Les Dawson' tangent now and again, much to the amusement of myself and geetarist.

Another keys player this week so will see how that pans out, I am a little frustrated with it all though. 

[WalMan]

Realised I have songs to relearn / brush up on for two deps before rehearsal for one on Wednesday and gig with the other on Friday … oops.

 

Good news is the Wednesday rehearsal is with a band that runs a silent stage, so the keyboard player, who I’ve gigged with in a couple of bands over the years, was able to send me baseless tracks of them so I spent this evening watching the Grand Prix with the tracks playing from Dropbox on my iPad plugged into the TwoNotes BassRevolt aux in doing a play along on headphones so that’s one sorted 😁

 

Rehearsal with my main band tomorrow, brush up for Wednesday’s rehearsal for the dep and Friday’s gig Tuesday and Thursday…what could possibly go wrong 🫣🤪🤣

[Franticsmurf]

Last night was the penultimate full band rehearsal before our mini-festival headliner on the 22nd. It was more of a request night as I had suggested everyone should nominate songs from the set that they wanted to go through to iron out the wrinkles. As usual, only a few actually did that, but we managed a couple of hours getting the first five or six songs from the set sorted, plus a couple we hadn't played for a while. 

 

Tonight we have a reduced band workout with a local charity choir with whom we'll be performing 5 songs at the festival. We've played with them before (and a percentage of the festival takings goes to support the homeless drop-in centre they run) and it's always good to have them on board. Last year they performed 'One Day Like This' on their own and it was amazing, so this year we're playing it with them. Replacing the strings intro is our sax player and until last night I was a little skeptical of how it would sound, but he nailed it with a breathy performance. 

 

Our regular sound man wasn't there and although he's got the whole mix set up properly, we couldn't get the monitors to work. There were many faces staring at the two monitor amps - I managed to eliminate the desk as the cause but amidst much muttering and in-taking of breaths we couldn't figure out why there was no signals from amps to speakers. We ended up using the main PA alone which, to be honest, was fine but the sound was a little 'unrefined'. I expect the solution is some switch that we all overlooked.

 

We have one more full band rehearsal and a run through with the 4 piece mini band I've put together to play a support slot on the day. As there are two Dave's in the four piece, it has been christened '50% Dave'. 

[stewblack]

The Glam Band I put together recently just had it's second rehearsal.

We've now added 17 songs to the set which is pretty good going. 

I have worked with the drummer in other projects and know how good he is but seeing him at work in rehearsal - wow! This guy is quite incredible. 

Makes it a joy to be in any band if the drummer is A) a nice person and B) an amazing musician 

[msb]

You’re dead in the water if the drummer isn’t happening.

[Rosie C]

On 11/06/2024 at 14:01, stewblack said:

Makes it a joy to be in any band if the drummer is A) a nice person and B) an amazing musician 

 

True story! Though I am married to our drummer 😉 

 

After a six month break I dragged my upright to the weekly rehearsal of our community big band. Generally I was OK, some more challenging syncopation got skipped over. The band leader called 'All About That Bass' as our final number which went less well, I've not played it on upright before and there were some challenging jumps.

 

A slightly sore left hand when I woke up this morning, that'll teach me for leaving it so long!

 

[EssexBuccaneer]

First rehearsal with our very own PA tonight, went smoothly. First run through of Cars and You Shook me all night long as well, both immediately gig-ready so well pleased with our night’s work.

[WalMan]

Last night’s dep rehearsal was mainly ok and I know what to brush up on.

 

I got Mixing Station on my iPad connected to their Soundcraft Ui24 but for some reason couldn’t work out how to get  my aux added to set my IEM mix, which is odd as I’ve had no issue doing so with a different dep that has the same interface 🤷🏼‍♂️

 

Tonight was run through of songs for three sets for tomorrow night’s dep with a different band. Fingers crossed I remember and don’t spend the night catching up in bar 2 when I recognise the song and find any key changes 🤪

Edited June 13 by WalMan

[Leonard Smalls]

We managed to run through our 45 minute set for the upcoming 29th June Whitchurch gig, and write two new songs; one was an uptempo punky ska thing and the other a very slow-n-heavy rocking thing. Praps we'll get at least one sorted for our Ludlow gig which is supporting a ska band...