How was Your rehearsal last morning or night ?

[ped]

Rehearsed for an upcoming gig but sans keyboard as his son has been in hospital in Brisbane so he’s flown out to be with him. I’m not sure he’ll be back in time for the gig and half of us aren’t up for doing the show without keys because it’s quite important for our sound and ties many of the songs together. 
 

it’s quite a small room and I couldn’t hear myself so well this time because I moved nearer the monitors which were carrying one of the guitars because the lockup where he keeps his gear was inaccessible last night. Luckily he had his pedalboard and a guitar handy but all in all it felt a bit of a bodge and I’m not sure what’ll happen next week - best case scenario the keys player is back the day before the gig, so no full rehearsal either way. 
 

Bit of a tricky one because we don’t want him to feel bad or feel like he has to rush back. 
 

 

[nilorius]

4 hours ago, ped said:

Rehearsed for an upcoming gig but sans keyboard as his son has been in hospital in Brisbane so he’s flown out to be with him. I’m not sure he’ll be back in time for the gig and half of us aren’t up for doing the show without keys because it’s quite important for our sound and ties many of the songs together. 
 

it’s quite a small room and I couldn’t hear myself so well this time because I moved nearer the monitors which were carrying one of the guitars because the lockup where he keeps his gear was inaccessible last night. Luckily he had his pedalboard and a guitar handy but all in all it felt a bit of a bodge and I’m not sure what’ll happen next week - best case scenario the keys player is back the day before the gig, so no full rehearsal either way. 
 

Bit of a tricky one because we don’t want him to feel bad or feel like he has to rush back. 
 

 

Yeah...it proves that there exist a lot of things and situations more important than rehearsals and gigs.

[mep]

Had an odd one last night. We agreed to look at bringing back Angel's, which we used to do years ago with a previous drummer. It's a great sing a long song for the audiance too. However, our singer used to change the lyrics ' a lot of love and affection' to a BJ reference (I'm sure you get the idea). This time round I told him he should drop it and gave him my reasoning. Our guitarist backed me up. Our singer didn't seem to understand our concerns and was keen to carry on and 'use his judgment' as when to leave it out. The discussion went on and was not resolved when I left. I got a message from our guitarist when I got home. He and the singer carried on the discussion and the upshot was that if he can't change the lyrics he won't sing the song. It's all a bit pathetically really and it's his loss that we won't play the song. We are all a bunch of mid to late 50 year olds just trying to have a good time gigging, not a load of sniggering teenagers.

[JazzyJ]

Well, we are back to a four piece after Thursdays rehearsal. Keys player spat his dummy out over band name suggestions. His offering was 'Bacteria' because our '80s covers are infectious and can be nasty. Err, so is syphilis. 

Second keys player to walk in six weeks, the four of us are in our 60's and get on great. Vocalist is stepping up to the mark on keys so we will be fine. 

[EssexBuccaneer]

Last night something was….off. Can’t put my finger on it. We played our first set (60 mins), then twiddled with some of the newer material ready for a gig in May, but I dunno, the whole night lacked *something*. 
 

Even watching the videos back today it sounds half-hearted. Bizarre.

[MacDaddy]

Last night was the first rehearsal with the full line up, the rest of the full line up being the 3 backing singers. 

Sounding pretty good, gonna be fun when we start gigging 🙂

[ossyrocks]

We rehearsed last night, but it was a bit different to the usual in that we are preparing to go into a studio to set up tomorrow evening and then record all day Saturday & Sunday. These will be band promo tracks, but we also have two guys filming it to sync with the studio recordings and also to edit in footage they shot of our first gig in front of an audience last week. 

 

I'm sharing lead vocal duties in this band too, so we practiced my tunes last night without singing a word of vocal, to get the band really tight, and then I will overdub my vocal later. Very strange, but I definitely played better bass when I wasn't singing at the same time.

 

I'm buzzing about this new band, we've got some nice gigs lined up, and everyone in the band gets on really well and is a great musician in their own right. I feel rather blessed.

 

Rob

[paddy109]

I had a practice tonight with my old band as I am depping for them in a couple of weeks.

The good news is I've finally found my sound that I have been striving for. 

The difference is going back to round wounds after quite a while with flats. Retrovibe T-rod, D'addario 35-95 round wounds, Evo 500 iii, Barefaced 210. 

On return home I told my news to my wife 'Ive finally found my sound' and her reply was 'good perhaps you will stop buying stuff now'. Happy times!

[MichaelDean]

I broke a bass string. For the first time ever. They've been on for about 6/7 months and needed changing, but yeah. I've been playing 23 years, never broken one. To be fair, it was a high string that's tuned up from the optimal. Just snapped at the bridge! 

 

Good practice otherwise. I think we're ready for the next gig on Friday after I get some new strings. 

[EssexBuccaneer]

On 04/04/2024 at 22:35, paddy109 said:

I had a practice tonight with my old band as I am depping for them in a couple of weeks.

The good news is I've finally found my sound that I have been striving for. 

The difference is going back to round wounds after quite a while with flats. Retrovibe T-rod, D'addario 35-95 round wounds, Evo 500 iii, Barefaced 210. 

On return home I told my news to my wife 'Ive finally found my sound' and her reply was 'good perhaps you will stop buying stuff now'. Happy times!

“Well, perhaps I’m mistaken. I might not have *quite* found my sound just yet…”

[asingardenof]

Just remembered this from rehearsal a week yesterday. At the rehearsal studios we normally frequent we're normally tucked away upstairs, but last week we were downstairs in the room next to the main area, and where you can see into the room from outside. It was a good rehearsal overall, we dropped one track because it was pretty dull and had a quick run through another we wanted to introduce, so we now have a slightly revamped setlist for our first gig of the year in May. I was made to run through Two Tribes three times in a row at tempo, after which I left the guitarist to work out her part while I regained consciousness.

 

We were outside having a break when someone from another band who was there, who had been similarly breaking while we were playing, made a point while taking his gear to his car to tell us how good he thought we'd sounded. Which was nice.

Edited April 15 by asingardenof

[Franticsmurf]

A productive rehearsal for The Hulla last night. We usually agree on a core set before our gigging 'season' and play through a selection of it each rehearsal night along with working on any new songs or changes to previous arrangements. We'll add material from our reserve list as required by the expected audience. Over three Sundays we'll usually cover the full set plus three or four new songs. Last night, apart from a couple of warm up songs, it was all new things. Four completely new songs, two new arrangements and a key change. It's rare we play through songs several times in a row (we usually play through once or twice and then break it down into the problem sections if there are any) but we played the new stuff three or four times each last night which gave me a chance to try out different bass lines.

 

We're playing a wedding anniversary in two weeks where the demographic will be older then our average audience, so some of the older 'easy listening' toons will be aired next week. 😃

[knirirr]

We got through a lot of material last night, in preparation for both a recent gig offer and the surprise need for me and our horn player to replace the pros (who have presumably been offered money to be elsewhere) at a jam coming up on Sunday.

It was also a chance to try out a new head, a TC Electronics BAM200. Everyone appeared to think that this sounded better than my Orange Terror so the latter might go up for sale (not that anyone will buy it ;-).

[MacDaddy]

1 hour ago, knirirr said:

a TC Electronics BAM200. Everyone appeared to think that this sounded better than my Orange Terror

 

😲

Would not have expected that! 

What cab were you using?

[knirirr]

52 minutes ago, MacDaddy said:

 

😲

Would not have expected that! 

What cab were you using?

 

It was an Orange OBC112.

I have a jam on Sunday and a rehearsal with a different band (and bass) on Monday. I'll have to see if it still holds up after both of those.

Edited April 16 by knirirr

[ossyrocks]

Just back in from rehearsal before our gig tomorrow night. Tomorrow will be our first gig of two full sets for the new blues band.

All a bit last minute, but a few more tunes have been thrown my way on vocals this week, so I sang 4 tunes tonight which I have not sung before with the band, and we're gigging them tomorrow.

All went ok, so I'm fairly happy.

I am concerned that I was drafted into this band for my bass playing abilities alone, they had no idea I could sing, and slowly but surely. the band leader is giving me more and more of the lead vocal duties. I'm singing 10, the lead singer and harmonica player is singing 14 at the moment. I now have the last song of the second set, and the encore too. I'm concerned that the singer/harmonica player is going to get a bit fed up. He's a great guy, and we get on. I suppose we should just keep talking, like we have so far. I really want this band to work, it's exactly what I've been looking for for the last couple of years (except for the singing bit), and now it's a reality. Maybe I'm just being over sensitive.

 

Rob

[MacDaddy]

Second rehearsal with the full line up: vocalist; guitarist; drums; bass; and 3 backing vocalists.

I was using my Boss ME-50B to experiment with dirt on the bass, I'd programmed a couple of patches that seemed to work, but I'd completely forgotten to do a 'clean' patch 😖

So some deft volume matching with the amp was called for.

Guitarist who is the BL reckons we'll be gig ready in 3 more rehearsals.

[Franticsmurf]

11 hours ago, ossyrocks said:

He's a great guy, and we get on. I suppose we should just keep talking, like we have so far.

Yes, talk it through. Let him know your concerns and maybe you can come up with a solution that works for both of you. He may well be thinking along similar lines. At the very least it gives him an opportunity to raise the issue with the BL with the knowledge that you feel the same.

[EssexBuccaneer]

Just back from tonight’s rehearsal. Whiskey In The Jar (Metallica version) went faultlessly so it’s slotting straight in the set. Played some stuff we’ve not touched for a while, but it all came together right away. All ready for our first gig of the year next week. It’s been a slog having 4 months without playing to an audience but such is life for a new band, I guess.

[Staggering on]

Busy couple of days with a rehearsal with my teacher's youth orchestra yesterday where I am one of a few adults who fill out the cello and bass sections, not enough big kids to play full size cello and bass. Lots of fun playing everything from Pachelbel's canon to a medley of fiddle tunes and we are getting ready for a May concert. I left that one a bit early to rush across town to a rehearsal for the swing band I am in, we have a show in early May. Five of the seven members have music degrees of one sort or another so it is a challenging group to play with, we have been together for 6 or 7 years and have played gigs in a lot of different venues.

This afternoon I had a three hour rehearsal with a bluegrass band that will be playing at three festivals this summer, it is our first get together since autumn, the band leader spends the winter in Forida. Lots of fun and we managed to remember most of the music and our vocal harmony was pretty good considering the long break. The banjo player is a joy to play with, he is a sensitive musician and doesn't overdo things, quite rare for a bluegrass banjoist! 

Lots of variety, I played my Shen ply bass arco for the youth orchestra, same bass through an amp for the swing band and an old beater  ply Czech bass acoustically with the bluegrass band.

For the rest of the week I will be practicing for these bands at home and prepping for my lesson on Friday, happy to be busy.😊

[zbd1960]

It was first orchestra rehearsal last night with this term's conductor in charge (we use post-grad conducting students for conductors). We looked at first and last movement of Tchaikovsky symphony #3 - I was on cello.  

 

There are a lot of notes...

[asingardenof]

11 hours ago, EssexBuccaneer said:

Just back from tonight’s rehearsal. Whiskey In The Jar (Metallica version) went faultlessly so it’s slotting straight in the set. Played some stuff we’ve not touched for a while, but it all came together right away. All ready for our first gig of the year next week. It’s been a slog having 4 months without playing to an audience but such is life for a new band, I guess.

Established bands have that too. Our last gig was NYE, next one is 11th May.

[Jackroadkill]

18 hours ago, EssexBuccaneer said:

Just back from tonight’s rehearsal. Whiskey In The Jar (Metallica version) went faultlessly so it’s slotting straight in the set. Played some stuff we’ve not touched for a while, but it all came together right away. All ready for our first gig of the year next week. It’s been a slog having 4 months without playing to an audience but such is life for a new band, I guess.

 

We play that version and I really enjoy it, even though it's not much of a workout it just sounds cool, somehow.  Our band has not been onstage since November (we changed our drummer etc etc) but we have a gig at the end of next month, so I'm looking forward to that.  We then  have another six gigs in five weeks, which will either kill us or sharpen us up nicely!  I hope all goes well for you next week.

[Gasman]

Last night's rehearsal for my band Mustang Sally was in a beautifully restored Victorian village schoolroom in the middle of nowhere, use of kitchen, sparkly bogs and a flat load in and out - it even has acoustic panels on the ceiling, so a good sound too - it made me feel good even before unpacking the bass.

 

I used the Roland Cube 100 combo and took along the new Talman shorty 5-string for a change. Three new numbers (Footloose, Maneater (me on sax) and Money for nothing). All went well until our lady singist said she didn't feel right fronting the last of these, not able to phrase the words laconically enough, and a bit low for her too. I stood next to her and sang along with her to try and help her fit the words in - big mistake! I suddenly found myself catapulted into the lead vocalist slot for this number by popular acclaim having successfully avoided it by shoe-gazing whenever this 'opportunity' had arisen before...

 

What a fool I am... have pity on me!

[Lozz196]

Just got in from a Spacewasters rehearsal, going through 3 songs for recording tomorrow. Used my fave Precision as figure best to record with the instrument you play best. Went well, all sounding good. Then we get the call that it’s had to get cancelled due to the engineer having a family problem. Shame but we’ll reschedule.

 

Edit - I should also point out that a full scale bass (both weight & size) really isn’t the right choice for me now, and although my Precision is my fave bass in all honesty my Mustangs suit the sound of the band better. 

Edited Wednesday at 21:15 by Lozz196