What Constitutes Effective Practice?

shamustwin · Post by **shamustwin** » Wed Aug 23, 2006 5:06 am

Myself or the other writer (Tim) in our band will just play it, the others will pick it up. We're not super musicians, but it's pretty easy to have a new song in decent shape after a few tries.

If it's one of mine, I usually have every part written in my head, so I show all the bits to everyone. If it's one of Tim's, I'll usually write intros, outros, harmonies, bass lines, change chords, words, etc. But we'll loosely run through them, and generally panic the first couple times we do them live.

If a gig is coming up, rehearsal consists of running through the list twice.

No upcoming gigs, we play Shamus roulette, where we go around each member naming the next song to be played. Of course I try to call out something the other's have never heard or we've never played, jerk that I am.

Covers we'll putz around on, not taking great pains to be exact, just try to get a good rock and roll feel for them, that's all.

We don't dwell on any one song too long at practice. It's only rock and roll!

wayang · Post by **wayang** » Wed Aug 23, 2006 5:06 am

I found myself thinking about this thread at last night's gamelan rehearsal (every Sunday and Tuesday night for the past eighteen years, for me). The Balinese method for learning a tune (since none of it's written down) is for the teacher to play the piece in small increments, and the players, through repetition, to assemble a mental picture of the piece while simultaneously developing muscle memory...basically rote memorization. It's a fascinating process when it involves twenty players grouped into several orchestral sections. After many years of working in this context, we've found that we're able to learn in one rehearsal what used to take a dozen.

But one aspect of the process is the same as what's been discussed here: once you've learned a piece, you'd better not show up next week and not be able to remember it...there's no withering glance like that of a p*ssed-off Balinese 'guru'...

jdogric12 · Post by **jdogric12** » Wed Aug 23, 2006 6:09 am

Greg: I assume you are referring to Walking on Sunshine in B-flat (B"?) WITHOUT HORNS?????? That's the best part!

captsandwich · Post by **captsandwich** » Wed Aug 23, 2006 7:49 am

No, it's an original. First song I ever wrote. We haven't played it in over a decade, but we tore through it pretty good on Sunday. Problem is our horn section has only been with us about a year, and the band was originally formed in 1989. We have to chart out horn parts for them, so we have a lot of material that we haven't gotten around to putting down on paper.

morrow · Post by **morrow** » Wed Aug 23, 2006 12:07 pm

We get cds with the material and are expected to play it at the next gig . If the key is to be transposed they new key will sometimes be indicated . We are pretty good at nailing things at the first go . You learn the form and the parts and play with your heads up.

winston · Post by **winston** » Wed Aug 23, 2006 1:37 pm

Ha!! And Peter thinks I am heartless and demanding Morrow. Your band leader has removed one of my steps entirely...I notice that you have no rehearsal at all before the gig.

geddeeee · Post by **geddeeee** » Mon Aug 28, 2006 5:59 pm

I find that 'little and often' usually works well. Sitting down 1 or 2 times per week and playing for a couple of hours, gets boring fast, and tiring. I usually practice every day, 2-4 times in 20-30 minute chunks. Works for me.
That way you build up your strength and you look forward to the practice.....
Then once a week in a band situation for 4 hours, just playing. ROCK!!!!

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Mon Aug 28, 2006 6:47 pm

I used to play in a band called Beowulf ... there were a couple of songs that I was supposed to learn ... a ****** acdc song and a toadies song ... these songs were so freakin lame that I could not bring myself to listen to them all the way through ... so I went to practice and submarined the songs ... and finally it got so bad that I just quit the lame band ...

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Mon Aug 28, 2006 6:50 pm

for personal practice I am addicted to playing daily ... to keep it interesting I experiment with different bass pod tones and play different basses and play different songs ...

telebob · Post by **telebob** » Wed Aug 30, 2006 12:58 am

We're having an effective practice tonight. There were three new songs agreed upon last week and we all have them down. Tonight will just prove that everyone did their homework!

morrow · Post by **morrow** » Wed Aug 30, 2006 3:06 am

We may not do band rehersals but we are always adding new material ... I received some mp3 files in my mail last night to study for Friday and Saturday.

We have been playing together for about ten years now so the system works. I do try to get in a couple of hours of personal practice every day . Upright and electric.

firstbassman · Post by **firstbassman** » Wed Aug 30, 2006 9:03 am

Peter, I agree with your first post 100%.
Brian, I agree with you in principle, but in the real world it doesn't always work that way.
TeleBob, your band has had FOUR rehearsals and you know SEVENTY songs!? Sorry, but I will admit to you that I find that VERY hard to believe. No band, not even the Beatles can learn 70 songs in four rehearsals. Unless each rehearsal lasted a month. *
By coincidence, my band also knows exactly 70 songs and it took us about a year to get up to 70. With missed rehearsals, that came out to be, on average, two new songs every rehearsal. I think that is pretty darn good.
Like Gary and Bob, I have a three-ring binder of Word docs with lyrics and chords. I don't use it as much as I used to (as the songs creep more and more into my memory) but it also helps to put the songs in order for our setlists.
I also have three binders full of about 275 songs (so far). Stuff that I like and that the band would never do.
- - - - - -

* One of my favorite stories from the Allman Brothers book was when they first getting together they were holed up in some barn or something, rehearing all day until they finally got to be really good, well when they finally got to be THE Allman Brothers. And Duane stands in the doorway and says anyone who wants to quit the band at that point has to go through him first.

winston · Post by **winston** » Wed Aug 30, 2006 9:47 am

Sorry Mark in my so called "real world" that's how we did things. When we chose to do other peoples music we learned the song on our own time and admittedly sometimes together without some of the other members having to be present. That's called practise. We then proceeded to learn to play the song together, that's called rehearsal.

If it was our own material then we would set about creating an arrangement that we liked and proceed to learn it together.
Hopefully that lends more clarity to my first post on this subject. And yes, I admit I am probably old school and not very flexible with any band I play in when it comes to this subject. That's probably why my last band was a trio.

geddeeee · Post by **geddeeee** » Wed Aug 30, 2006 11:37 am

I too find I can learn a hell of a lot of stuff on my own in a relatively short time. The 'rehearsal' phase is usually where the nitty gritty work gets done. Fitting all the seperate parts together can be tricky sometimes. In that situation you find out what works and what doesn't. We have had to ditch a couple of numbers because they just weren't gelling as they should.
I've always been able to learn by ear very fast. I don't write anything down. I store it all in my head. I've tried the 'paper route' and I feel constricted. I'd rather stumble along until the notes come.
Lyrics, of course, are another matter...

telebob · Post by **telebob** » Thu Aug 31, 2006 12:33 am

Mark Horowitz, I am blessed with a band situation where everyone goes home, studies the CDs and then shows up at rehearsal with all the work done. Last night we played "Hold on Loosely" and "Workin' for the Weekend" for the first time together. BAM! Right out of the gate, the guys all nailed their parts and we played the tunes just like they're supposed to be played, vocals and all.

When we cover a song, we cop the parts just as they are on the CD. We find it easier to do it that way because then all of the cues are built in and we know exactly where it's going. No surprises. Some people find this "limiting." We take great pride in playing songs as authentically as possible. Besides, these guys play so well that many of these songs were played for the first time at a gig. I truly am fortunate to have fallen in with such good players. Oh, they don't drink during gigs or rehearsals either. That goes miles towards getting a lot of work done!