Most Excellent Rehearsal Stories

[vonnor]

I just wanted to share some good vibes. My band had rehearsal yesterday to polish up some tunes for a show coming up Saturday, and I was very impressed. I don't know about you all, but most rehearsals devolve quickly into off-topic discussions, "polite" disagreements, people noodling while someone is trying to talk, and at times outright arguing.

 

Yesterday we all agreed to bring focused issues to go over and rough spots to iron out. Wonder of wonders, that's what happened. We just went around to each member and they called out this or that tune, section, vocal harmony part, counts-and-cues, etc. I swear we got like 6 hrs of work accomplished in 2.5 hrs. No bickering, no hurt feelings, just making music and making it better.

 

Even when the drummer said he wanted to run through "Still Of The Night" which we haven't played in almost a year, with just a couple review questions about the song sections and transitions, we nailed it in one take. It's almost like we were professionals or something. 😎

 

The off-mic acapella harmonies - where we all confirmed our parts and made small corrections where needed - were a real treat (we hadn't ever done that before).

 

If you guys have had super-fun rehearsal experiences, share them here. It might give folks some great ideas.

 

~ vonnor

[El Lobo]

6 hours ago, vonnor said:

Yesterday we all agreed to bring focused issues to go over and rough spots to iron out. Wonder of wonders, that's what happened. We just went around to each member and they called out this or that tune, section, vocal harmony part, counts-and-cues, etc. I swear we got like 6 hrs of work accomplished in 2.5 hrs. No bickering, no hurt feelings, just making music and making it better.

I don't mean to brag or anything, but that's exactly how rehearsals with my main band have been going. We set an agenda by email: which tunes each of us wants to go over, what new tunes we're going to try. At the rehearsal, we say why we wanted to work on each tune -- intro, outro, which parts are where, where solos are, tempo, etc. We try out new tunes and see if they work, change arrangement, beat, whatever needs to be adjusted to get a good groove and sound. If we can't get it good enough for the next gig, we put it aside to work on at next rehearsal. If we think it's gig-ready, we fine tune and make sure we all agree on the arrangement, remember parts, ending, etc. Typical rehearsal is about 2.5 hours long. Then we're done. We've all been focused so there's no need to go longer. Besides, our brains are tired.

 

I also rehearse with another band that plays all originals that are charted out. Leader proposes list by email before rehearsal. We work through each tune, stop and figure out which parts of the chart are confusing, where we come in and where we lay out, where the repeats and coda and endings are, etc. It's also a focused rehearsal but of a different style. Those rehearsals tend to go longer, maybe 3.5 to 4 hours, but the music is more complex and there's more learning of the charts that has to go on. Typically, we run through each tune twice, but the arrangements are long and there are 3 or 4 soloists. There may be 10-12 tunes on the agenda. 

 

I don't have patience anymore for disorganized, random, futzing, yakking, noodling, unfocused rehearsals. Life is too short for dicking around. I want to play music and play it well. If you're wasting my time, I'm outta there. Or you are. 

[KuruPrionz]

I've spent 9 years in a band that practiced maybe 10 times and 6 years in a band that practiced almost 20 times. 

Both bandleaders knew tons of songs and took requests, there was no way to know what we were going to play next. 
I was lead guitar, harmony and second lead vocalist and even bass sometimes. Luckily the BL in both bands played solid guitar parts and I could just look and see what we were doing. 

That was completely by luck (good or bad depending) but I learned to be quick. Neither of these bands were about "playing just like the record", we were booked constantly and filled the dance floor, people were buying drinks - nothing else matters to your employer. Fun times.

 

My favorite rehearsal story is about a different band that was put together from 2 other bands that broke up. We practiced a few times, it was more about getting close at least to the original. And we booked one gig. One night we all convened and one of the lead singers had brought a bottle of wine and some dixie cups. 

She wanted to have a toast with the other 5 members since she was going to resign. It turned out that all of us felt the same way so we all quit, but in a cheerful, friendly way. 

She forgot a corkscrew so I went into the shop part of the barn, got a large screw and a pair of pliers and opened the wine. We toasted, played a few numbers, laughed, took our gear home and played that one gig the following week. On to the next. 

 

Was the nicest band breakup I've been in. Mostly everything is OK but it's usually just one person who needs to move on. 

[Brad Kaenel]

I'll just cite, collectively, that all the rehearsals I ever had with the the jazz/fusion band I co-founded in 1980, with six of my college buddies, were always focused, hard-working, and a true joy.  We rehearsed for three hours every Wednesday night, in our drummer's sound-proofed garage, for something like 15 years.  Writing songs, working out arrangements, and, yes, practicing choreography.  I left the band, IIRC, circa 1998, so the current keyboard player has actually been on the band now longer than I was.  And the band still plays, with four of the original members, one Sunday afternoon a month, not too far from where I live. I still go 2-3 times a year, just to be with my long-time buds (and they let me sit in, if I behave myself  )  Four decades and we've never even had a cross word -- it has always been just about making our music, entertaining our audience, and enjoying playing with each other.

 

Shifting gears a little: rehearsals have always been my favorite aspect of being a musician.  My daughter, the athlete, and I always joke about sports teams that "rehearse" exactly the same thing over and over again, so that they can be creative during "performances".  Where as in, say, my theater world it's exactly the opposite: all the creativity happens during the rehearsals, and it's the performances that are exactly the same.  Now, being a jazz guy, performances have a certain level of creativity, too.  But I'm still all about rehearsals.  That's my favorite thing to do these days, just to be the rehearsal pianist for a show.  Or the audition pianist; that's usually a blast, too. (Although I could tell you a whopper of a story about my epic failure as an audition pianist for the Christmas Celebration at Disneyland, once. Ouch...)

[El Lobo]

14 hours ago, Brad Kaenel said:

rehearsals have always been my favorite aspect of being a musician.  

My brother has been a musician all his life, gigged, toured, recorded with name acts, etc. He always said he loves rehearsing, hates gigging. I understand that and I'm somewhat in the same camp, but I really get the biggest bang when the gig is really happening and the energy in the room is electric grooving happy dancing. Then there's the load out and the drive home ... which is why I like rehearsing.

[analogika]

15 hours ago, Brad Kaenel said:

I could tell you a whopper of a story about my epic failure as an audition pianist for the Christmas Celebration at Disneyland, once. Ouch...

 

Welp, no backing out of that one, now. 

[Brad Kaenel]

8 hours ago, analogika said:

 

Welp, no backing out of that one, now. 

Well, OK; I hope the years have not embroidered fancier details and turned it into a "big fish" story -- there are no corroborating witnesses still alive. But here's the account, and my cautionary tale of a lesson learned in an extraordinarily-hard way...

 

Summer of 1987(?); Disneyland had recently moved their HR office out of the Park, to a high-rise on Katella, near the I-57 freeway exit.  I brought them a resume, and asked if they could place me on their list of pianists to call, for rehearsals only.  I was clear that I desired only backstage work; I wasn't looking to be a "Cast Member" performer in the Park.  They said they would.  Months went by, not a single call.  I don't really know what I expected to happen -- they didn't know me from Adam.

 

Middle of November, lo and behold, the call comes: Friday was audition day for the Park's annual Christmas program, and all of their usual pianists were unavailable (in other words, they'd gotten to the bottom of their list, and I was the only name left). Could I play for 'vocal auditions on Friday, and callbacks on Saturday?'  Absolutely!  I didn't even ask how much the gig paid -- I would have done it for free, just to get "in the door" with the House of Mouse...

 

For about a dozen years prior to this, I'd been playing for vocal auditions at a couple of major community theaters in my area, and doing pretty well at it, I thought.  Audition work is all about sizing-up and sight-reading music, getting your auditionee to trust you that you've "got their back", and doing both of those things very quickly.  Two complete strangers have about 30 seconds to agree on tempo, intro, interpretation, sometimes the key (oy!), and then just do it.

 

And, as Forrest says, 'You never know what you're gonna get' in terms of actual notation, since a lot of vocalists have little idea what pianists need, nor what will make their particular audition go smoothly (or nightmarishly).  Sometimes they hand you a vocal score with just a melody line and no accompaniment; sometimes accompaniment with no lyrics or markers to sync with what (or where) they're singing; sometimes it's their favorite impossibly-complex Sondheim diddy in six sharps; sometimes it's just 'I didn't bring a chart, but it's <insert Broadway song title here> in Gb, from the bridge into the chorus'; and sometimes you do actually get some easy-reading sheet music with a melody line, chords, lyrics, and a title.  It can be stressful because you're there to help your auditionee do well, and you know that if things go sideways it may be them, not you, who can't make the rent next month.

 

...so, Friday morning I show up early at the backlot gate, and there's already a line of probably 200 singers, waiting to be called in.  I strike up a conversation with one random fellow, about thirtieth in the queue, who's done this many times.  I tell him I'm the rookie audition pianist, he shows me his nicely-prepped music for a song I already knew, we wish each other luck, and I'm feeling like I can actually do this.  Shortly, I'm greeted warmly by a gal who is probably an exec admin for one of the music biggies at the Park, she walks me into the audition building, restates my contract particulars, and briefly introduces me to the four audition panelists.  One of them goes over the (typical and familiar) audition procedures, they all thank me and gesture me to the piano. 'Let's get started.'

 

First singer of the day hands me the vocal part for an operatic aria; no accompaniment; all I can do for him is play a one-finger melody. Second singer, the dreaded Sondheim diddy I've never heard before; stagger through it, clams abound, probably got the feel all wrong.  Third singer, no music at all.  And it just gets worse from there; I'm crashing-and-burning on just about everything, wincing every time I'm handed another unfamiliar, inscrutable piece of music to play, not evoking a shred of confidence to the poor auditionees who are giving me every 'you ruined my audition' stink-eye look in the book (which I deserved), and word is beginning to get around outside that the audition pianist sucks.

 

Mercifully, when the singer I'd talked with earlier gets his call, everything goes swimmingly -- I play well, he sings well, gives me a thumbs-up; I'm encouraged.  But then the next dozen auditions go no better than the first.  I keep imploding on just about everybody, with maybe 1 in 10 auditions going the way I hoped.  This goes on relentlessly for four hours, until we break for lunch.

 

The audition panel, their admins, and me are then directed across the street to a nice restaurant, where lunch is waiting.  Everyone who had been so welcoming and supporting when I arrived is now not speaking to me.  At all.  I'm seated by myself, at a separate table, out of earshot of the main group who is undoubtedly lamenting the miserable pianist who has torpedoed their auditions for Disneyland's "Christmas Celebration".  I am a pariah.

 

Lunch drags on, everyone (including me) dreading returning back to the audition studio.  Finally, one of the audition panelists takes pity on me, and walks over to my table.  I never learned his name, but to this day I'm still a little in awe of his compassion and humility towards me.  This could have been the fellow who actually wrote the "Main Street Electrical Parade" theme, or orchestrated the score for "Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln".  He was one of "the guys" in the Park, and this is what he came over to say:

 

"You know, despite all the real difficulties you've had this morning, I know you can play.  When you're given a song you recognize, even if the actual music is in bad shape, you get through it well.  You have good ears, and you listen to your singers and follow them.  Your problem is that you're simply unfamiliar with most of the material that's being handed to you, and you don't know what it's supposed to sound like -- you can't even fake it.  If you want to work at this level, you must make it your job to not be surprised.  You should know the Broadway songbook; old shows and the new.  Movies, too.  I don't mean memorized, but at least familiar. You must purpose yourself to vastly increase the breadth of the show music you know, because people will bring you all manner of things to play and it's your responsibility to not be stumped.  Or even if you are, to be able to play your way out of it."

 

Right then I realized the vast chasm that exists between a merely competent amateur (me) and a real professional (him; and probably most of you reading this).

 

The afternoon, of course, despite the kind words from Mr. Big, did not go any better.  At the end of the day, the exec admin who had cheerfully escorted me onto the property that morning, now dismissed me with sarcastic assurance that I could find my own way out.  I would be paid for Saturday, as the contract specified, but I would not be needed -- they would use some recordings from last year's Celebration for callbacks, instead.  I limped dejectedly back to my car, tail squarely between my legs, mostly devastated by my first (and to this day, only) brush with professionals in the "real" entertainment industry.

 

Now, the Hollywood ending would go something like this: Young man spends the next years of his life immersing himself in the literature, taking his ersatz mentor's sage advice to heart, diving back in and "making it" in the music business... Nah.  I knew from that day on that I didn't have the "right stuff" to be a pro player, and I was, frankly, OK with that.  Music has been an avocation all my life, while I made a living being a pro in a completely different field.

 

And I still love rehearsals.

 

 

 

 

 

[TommyRude]

great story Brad

[KuruPrionz]

Great story indeed. I would have completely failed that audition as well, probably much worse than how you fared, but I've known for a long time that aspect of music is not my calling. 

In reality, I'd never take a call like that even if they begged me (which they would not). 

 

And I'm completely fine with that, we are all different. If you express yourself musically and other people enjoy it then life is good. 

[bfields]

Kinda sounds like the whole thing could've gone OK if they'd just taken 5 minutes to ask you some questions and tell you what to expect.  That they didn't do that with a pianist they "didn't know from Adam" is on them.

[Adam Burgess]

Brad, that's a great story! What a day. But, hey... no-one died and you got paid… that's always a win.
ANYTHING with no rehearsal can only go a few ways. 

You were let down quite a bit, though. Guess the singers didn't get the memo to bring 'proper sheet music'!
If I'm accompanying for show auditions, I give the organisers an example of what I need to send out, or actually tell them to prepare what we need in the show.
Exam stuff is usually pretty much set in stone.

I also have no qualms about spending 30 seconds asking the vocalist 'what does this go like? Sing a bit under your breath and tap ya foot.' I'll quickly try a couple of things with them when there's no tempo markings, or any 'feel' info, till they're happy.

There's a bit more time pressure on some gigs than others, but it's a much more worthwhile use of the time getting things as good as possible. Things like Associate Board graded exams in UK and overseas do always add a few mins extra with the appointment times, and again - the 6 year old playing grade 2 violin or clarinet is foxed anyway cause it's the first time away from their techer - I've never met them before, but, it's OUR performance that matters. The examiner understands that, and is generally ok with me checking a few things with the student. They've waited months - the panel can wait 30 seconds.

Show auditions, if there's really not much to go on, I'll ask 'what <famous tune> does it sound like?' If there's just a melody, I'm lucky enough to have played enough genres and know enough theory to be dangerous to look ahead to cadential points and have a guess at the harmony. Musical theatre is great at changing keys every 23 bars; that's always great practise. *And, yes, I agree, Sondheim's accompaniments excluded  Unfakeable, for sure!

If the singer doesn't even know which key or how fast they're going, if I had to MD them in rehearsals afterwards - I'd be wary if they couldn't be bothered to ask a friend if they do it in Eb or G. Singers who do stuff totally by ear and intuition will sing along with you so long as it's not horrendous, and it'll be much more symbiotic than them RELYING on you to make stuff up if they didn't bring the right materials.

That ended up quite rambly - sorry! Passing time waiting for a friend in hospital!

[Brad Kaenel]

1 hour ago, Adam Burgess said:

You were let down quite a bit, though. Guess the singers didn't get the memo to bring 'proper sheet music'!

 

3 hours ago, bfields said:

Kinda sounds like the whole thing could've gone OK if they'd just taken 5 minutes to ask you some questions and tell you what to expect.

 

I think there's always the temptation to deflect when things don't go the way you'd hoped, but in this case there's really no fault to be placed on either the singers, nor the process.  What I walked into that day was, in nearly every way, identical to what I had been doing, fairly effectively, in the amateur theater community for years.  And that's the point I want to make -- the real difference between the amateurs (in the best possible sense) and the professionals.

 

In community theater the stakes are not nearly as high, and the difficulty of the audition material not nearly as great; at least, that's my assumption.  When your auditionees are mostly kids and workaday moms and dads, you can bet that half of the tunes you're asked to play are going to be "Disney princess" songs, and "Happy Birthday".  Nor are you threatening anyone's livelihood since community theater is principally volunteer.  Nor is the audition panel likely to start tapping their pencils impatiently while you work with an anxious singer who's forgotten their lyrics.

 

My error was assuming that I could simply "change lanes" from the minors into the Big Leagues, without any requisite increase in skill.  Of course, we will never grow if we don't try things that are "beyond us", once in a while; I get that, and we all do it.  This was just such a huge leap, and I misjudged the distance quite badly (perhaps even arrogantly).

[analogika]

Wow, Brad. Thanks for sharing that. 
 

Brings back memories of the only show I ever completely crashed and burned at. A seven-singer revue spanning Broadway tunes, musicals, operetta, soundtracks, and chanson, to pop hits like “It’s Raining Men”. 
Arranged for ten-piece band, played by a drummer/percussionist, the MD (on grand piano), and…me. A laptop-based patch system like MainStage, but predating it by a decade, and switching programs in the Kurzweil I was playing. All by notation — you’d hit, say, a B (which would sound an Ab, but set up the patch trigger), and the next Fm chord, voiced as written, would switch the patch to add timpanis and French horns to the left hand for the second chorus. 
I’d accepted the job but insisted on three rehearsals. I got ONE, on the morning of the first show. I got the setup to practise with two days before that, on Christmas Day. 
 

Added to that, the sound guy’s girlfriend showed up for the week we were there. She was my ex, and we’d broken up a few months before. The sound guy had been one of my close friends and got me the job. 
 

Just a horrific shit-show, all around. 

The only time I’ve ever felt like a complete failure in my job. 

[Threadslayer]

Fantastic story, Brad. And well written too. If you just sat down and captured those memories that well off the top of your head, I'm doubly impressed.

[Brad Kaenel]

On 8/25/2022 at 6:00 AM, Threadslayer said:

Fantastic story, Brad. And well written too. If you just sat down and captured those memories that well off the top of your head, I'm doubly impressed.

 

Well, yes, first time I've ever written it down -- but I've told it a lot.   Thanks, T!

[marczellm]

My favourite rehearsal story: During rehearsal break we chat about relationships, and the guitarist, whose day job is software developer, tells some stories about how he likes to go to salsa parties to pick up chicks. Then we start discussing the date of the next rehearsal. He pulls out his phone, opens his calendar on it, looks at the date and says "Jasmine. Who the f**k is Jasmine?"

 

Then he slaps his forehead and says "Oh, I gotta water the flower!"

 

Then he proceeds to tell us how he decided to liven up his place so he went to the florist and bought a jasmine plant. He took care to ask the florist how often it needs to be watered. She said every two weeks. Upon returning home he realized he didn't ask her when she last watered it! So he returned to the shop, asked the florist when exactly she has watered it, and added a recurring event in his calendar from that date on titled "Jasmine". And then in two weeks he forgot about it and thought it was a date!

[o0Ampy0o]

Love all of these stories. 
 

Sounds like the audition pianist at Disney needs to be the crème de la crème because they are auditioning to find the crème de la crème. You go to Hollywood when you want to be a movie star. There are Hollywood equivalents for musicals and theater and pro sports and all of the places where the best of the best audition for the best of the best. The reason Hollywood endings are so popular in film is because there are no Hollywood endings for most people. It’s only world class in a world class world. 

 

This reminded me of something in the film Starman. Jeff Bridges is a being from another planet. He uses the DNA from a hair lying on the ground of a woman’s deceased husband to grow a human body to get around in. Eventually this woman and space being fall in love and she wants to go with the space being when he leaves. But he tells her she would not like it where he is from. He describes a little how it is a different existence and then points out some of the things unique to our world that make it wonderful.
 

Brad, that you could describe that story noticing the things you mentioned is evidence of crème.

 

 

[SteveCoscia]

During the summer of 1978, on a Wednesday night, I went to see a local Long Island band called Pellucidar. This band did a live Rocky Horror Picture Show.  At that time, I was in a club-date band playing weddings & lounges - but I wanted to play rock - and at the end of Pellucidar's first set, the lead singer announced that their keyboard player was leaving and any keyboard players in the audience were invited to audition.

 

I spoke to the singer and expressed my interest he asked me to learn two albums (Aqualung and Rocky Horror Picture Show) for an audition on Monday. I skipped work on Thursday and Friday to learn songs.  That weekend, the lead singer phoned to say that the audition was cancelled. Their agent had booked the band out in the Hamptons on Monday night, then he said that their keyboard player wasn't coming. "So your audition is going to be on stage and you better be good," he said.

 

Wasn't a rehearsal, it was an actual gig. I brought index card lead sheets for reference.  Made a few mistakes, but the band could tell I knew the material.  We played almost the entire Aqualung album and it was fun.  The "My God" piano part gave me the chills and the "Locomotive Breath" intro, was a poor improvisation, but it went over.  This was my first rock-n-roll gig and the energy was unmistakable.

 

Rocky Horror was the last set and I got through it well enough. I joined the band that week and climbed to the next tier of Long Island band stature.  Funny thing was I made money playing weddings & lounges and went broke playing rock-n-roll.

[stoken6]

Love this thread. Brad - your story is a welcome contrast to the "all you have to do is follow your dreams" narrative that is unsurprisingly plagued by survivor bias.

 

Cheers, Mike.

[El Lobo]

10 hours ago, SteveCoscia said:

Funny thing was I made money playing weddings & lounges and went broke playing rock-n-roll.

Yes, this is the way of the world.