Rehearsals - making them pay

[Mickeyboro]

We have just had two rehearsals where things have not gone according to plan. Poor preparation. 
 

Do you have a pre-agreed agenda when you go in? How much time do you dedicate to new material? How many times do you run through problem numbers? How do you ensure the message gets across? Do you send out summaries of work done so it sticks?

 

How do you make it work for you? Hints and tips please!

Edited 5 hours ago by Mickeyboro

[Boodang]

Of course you're going to get a lot of replies along the lines of 'it all depends on...' and they won't be wrong. 

Golden rule obviously, rehearsals are not for individuals to learn a song, that should be prep work, so much as learning how to play the song as a band. Lessons learnt, I always would record rehearsals on a small Zoom H2n in the middle of the room and give everyone a copy on an SD so they could hear how badly they played and hopefully everyone would come to their own conclusion as to what needs working on. Easier that musicians come to that conclusion themselves rather than be told. 

[Burns-bass]

We have a really good band leader who is pretty smart. We only rehearse 3 or 4 new ones at a time and he will always expect us to have learned them. It’s good because we pretty much always will. 
 

Doing this means we only rehearse once a month. Helps that we’re all music teachers and a lot of the work we do is on arrangements. 
 

If stuff needs to be worked on then we’ll do a dedicated session to focus on certain things. Works really well.
 

 

[Steve Browning]

We rehearse at a volume whereby we can hear ourselves properly. We're not a loud band anyway, but it's important to actually hear what's going on. 

 

We also set up in such a way that we can all hear each other. In the round, generally. 

 

We usually run the sets and then do new songs. We don't add new songs constantly. 

 

I guess the number of years we've been doing this also helps. No superfluous noodling or tapping, just straight to work. Sometimes a curry afterwards. 

[Lozz196]

In my two gigging bands we had set formats, either rehearsing a set for a gig, or rehearsing to prepare for recording. If the latter the songwriters would bring the gist of the song in and then we would work on it together to get it in its final form.

 

In my non-gigging band we often suggest a new song and learn it, only for the guitarist to turn up having forgotten to do just that. In his defence he is like this throughout life, not just with regards to the band. 

[Stub Mandrel]

1 hour ago, Mickeyboro said:

Do you have a pre-agreed agenda when you go in?

 

How much time do you dedicate to new material?

 

How many times do you run through problem numbers?

 

How do you ensure the message gets across?

 

Do you send out summaries of work done so it sticks?

 

In order:

 

Yes.

 

Depends... is is a new material rehearsal or moshly a revision session with one or two new songs.

 

If we can't get it right after 2 or 3 attempts it's "go home and learn it properly before the next time".

 

What'sApp

 

Not in any structured way.

[chris_b]

IMO rehearsals are not for learning songs, but getting the arrangements right and topping and tailing the songs. If you're paying for a studio the band has to turn up knowing the material.

 

Play with guys who don't need to be told.

Edited 1 hour ago by chris_b