How often do you reherse with your band?

[gub]

I like to get together at least once a week but sometimes due to everyone having work commitments etc we only get in once a fortnight , i am on my bass most nights and days off at some stage maybe an hour or more but cant beat getting together with the rest to get evrything nice and tight ,endings and so on.

[stingrayPete1977]

Once a week with the ones that ever do any good, Once a month with the ones that want to charge full whack for a wedding and blag our way through hence my last gig with them in a couple of weeks! That said if your gigging almost everyweek then practices can be just for new ideas and any little niggles as the set should be tight.

[icastle]

Once a week to either work on new additions to the set, sort out any glitches that may have appeared in the existing material or to agree new material.

For me as an individual, I generally end up playing for a couple of hours most days.

[Lozz196]

In my last band it was once a week, and we also gigged approx every other week. It was noticeable at gigs if we had had to drop a rehearsal for whatever reasons - though we still played fine, the sharpness was just a little short of where it should have been.

[Michaelg]

it depends whats coming up. we've rehearsed for 2 weeks straight before, other times its only been twice a week. we try to get in around 3 days/nights of practice together a week. the rest of the time we practice on our own (yes we do this full time).

[BigRedX]

With the Terrortones we normally rehearse twice a week. One evening is used to write new songs with just the singer and the guitarist. The other is a full band rehearsal where we either work on new songs with the full band, test out different orders of songs in the set including transitions between songs or check that we can still play songs that aren't in the current set - at the moment we have about twice as many songs in total than we play in a standard set.

The covers band tries to get together once a fortnight, but in reality it tends to be 3 times every two months.

[Bottle]

Not very often - we're all encouraged to listen to songs in our spare time to get chord changes etc correct, then we maybe meet up as a whole team maybe five or six times a year - so far we've had one full day this year, back in January. We've got another planned for next weekend. After that, who knows?

I should say in explanation that we're a large worship team, so meeting up often is impractical for many reasons - schedules, availability of a large enough space, logistics of getting all the kit we need to the hall etc. We make do with someone sending out CD's to us every so often, along with chord sheets etc. We sometimes break off into smaller groups to run through some new stuff, i.e drums, keys, a vocalist or two and acoustic guitar.

Personal time - maybe a few hours in a week, if I'm feeling like it. Obviously I practice a bit more in the run up to any time I'm playing (I'm down on rota for the next two Sundays, then a bit of a gap). Don't feel the need to endlessly practice scales, although I probably should!!

HTH,
Ian

[Doddy]

Maybe once a year...........maybe.

[teej]

[quote name='Doddy' post='1133183' date='Feb 19 2011, 11:00 AM']Maybe once a year...........maybe.[/quote]

Excellent! I was beginning to think it was just me!

Yes, we've had maybe 6 rehearsals in as many years. We do this for a living - no one pays us to rehearse! New material gets worked on in the street, if it makes money it stays, if it doesn't it's ditched. All of our arrangements are organic/improvised, so lots of eye contact during gigs.

[JTUK]

Once a month if we are lucky....mostly once every 2 months.

But we may have a few sessions to pick new songs and we may have a get together to run through chords, keys and arangements around a house before we allow the drummer anywhere near it
No, this has more to do with the drums being too noisy for these sessions.
One rehearsal has to produce maybe 4 new songs and then that either works to be gigged or we drop it.
I think the numbers we gig are pretty strong so any new number has to hit or surpass that level.
Of course, some songs are chosen for the pace and tempo and their place in the set. It is important to let the set breathe and vary the pace and dynamic...if only so it gives people a chat and to not have the band rammed down their throat all the time.

[Deep Thought]

All three of us are shift workers, getting all of us together in the same place is a nightmare-if we manage once a month we're lucky. We have to grab practice time when we can get it, but a lot relies on everybody doing their homework, so we're all prepared when we do get together. I don't think we do a bad job considering the amount of practice we get.

[chris_b]

Rehearse?!?

I usually get a CD, MP3 or "Listen to xxx on YouTube".

Also, "Follow me" and “This one's in A" would be considered adequate info in several of the bands.

[wateroftyne]

We don't... we listen to the tunes, or get a recording of the vocal and acoustic guitar. If we're lucky, we run through it in the soundcheck to see how it lands.

[JTUK]

I made a concerted choice that this current band would be a rehearsed band.
I really didn't want to do the standards this time round. If you put the time in
at your homework then you can get a long way to limiting time that your don't or can't have, rehearsing,
but I had had enough of jamming the songs at gigs.

I get enough of that on deps and there is a place for it, but not for the regular band

[Wylie]

Once a month, if that. One of our members is a physicist who often travels the planet talking about subatomic particles; the other has at least two other band/group commitments, both out of town. I generally put the songs together, copy music if needed, and try to get the three of us in one room for a couple of hours. Reward, 15 percent, frustration, 85 percent.

[RockfordStone]

my last solid band practiced twice a week, my current band does one a week

[Truckstop]

My last band rehearsed three times a week.
Friday night, the guitarists and I would get together with some beers and try out new riffs, structures, or just go over tricky parts a few times.
Saturday mornings, full band rehearsal. We'd work solely on new stuff.
Wednesday evenings, full band rehearsal and we'd just set set set set set set set for 3 hours to get the songs tight.

Truckstop

[RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE]

Rehearsal. Now, let me see... Trying to get all band members to attend regularly on the agreed schedule.
Once other band members have to'look after the kid(s) this week', go on holiday ,
or are very sick the momentum collapses. (only my experiences tho')

I think regular rehearsals are needed,so that all band members can see how far they've progressed with the songs (or not).
If you're of a higher standard ,then regular practice is not needed as much imho

[LeftyBiskit]

[quote name='RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE' post='1133483' date='Feb 19 2011, 03:39 PM']Rehearsal. Now, let me see... Trying to get all band members to attend regularly on the agreed schedule.
Once other band members have to'look after the kid(s) this week', go on holiday ,
or are very sick the momentum collapses. (only my experiences tho')

I think regular rehearsals are needed,so that all band members can see how far they've progressed with the songs (or not).
If you're of a higher standard ,then regular practice is not needed as much imho[/quote]

Once a week/fortnight-but we do our homework in between rehearsals then at the rehearsal run through the new stuff,iron glitches etc.
new song suggestion come via email so that we all learn the same version-it works for us.

[thodrik]

Once a week is the general goal, of course several times a week would be great but schedules and the cost etc.

[Bilbo]

Annually, whether we need to or not.

[rOB]

[quote name='thodrik' post='1133529' date='Feb 19 2011, 04:09 PM']Once a week is the general goal, of course several times a week would be great but schedules and the cost etc.[/quote]

yep same here.

Both my bands try to get together once a week, more if we're coming up to a gig if we can manage it.

Rehearsals wouldn't be quite so frustrating if everyone in the covers band did their homework!

[LiamPodmore]

Usually once a week, but we havent had one for atleast a month now, we've had gigs for the past 5 weeks so fitting in band practice around school/college, gigs, basketball practice (for the other 3), and general socialising isnt that easy. We don't always need to practice though, just to add new songs and write some more originals.

Liam

[NickH]

When we first put the band together, Monday nights with acoustics round the guitarist's house for the three of us who sing, to work out arrangements and see what we like.
Then full band session on Wednesdays.

A year later and we've got a ton of material really polished, so we're doing the acoustic practice one week then the full band practice the following week. Gigging keeps us sounding good.

Winding it back has actually helped us a lot. It's less of a ballache and more something we all look forward to now. Everyone's more productive and keen.

[Gust0o]

Weekly.

Occasionally, if my guitarist isn't being a dickhead, we will meet on a weekend and work on any particulars.