How to maximize band progress?

[dohhhhh6]

My band has a huge progress issue. After quite a few months, our repetoire is absolute junk.

 

Writing originals is a painfully slow process partly because the guitarist never brings whole song ideas to the band. Just little riffs that lead to nowhere. I try my best to only show the band mostly complete songs since things go faster (seeing as how the one song I brought to the band was complete and found a drumbeat in like 1 practice).

 

Learning covers... good grief. We all know atleast one cover song at this moment that we're working on (the drummer is working on getting it up to speed), but no one (other than me) bothers to learn the songs I've set out to played.

 

Right now, I'm amazingly frustrated at how to get the band playing more songs.

 

How can I get the band playing more songs? Should I try putting together a cd and give a date to learn them all? What works for your band?

 

All advice is welcomed warmly.

[Austinfortnersmith]

For me, the biggest frustration is when others aren't as inspired as me. In fact I can sometimes be like an overbearing cheerleader at times with my inspiration. Try to just inspire them, maybe flatter them, make them realize that music really is the funnest thing they can be doing with their day. Oh, and read my signature below for one great source of inspiration.

[Lee Flier]

Well, for learning covers, making a CD of the songs to learn and then picking some songs that everybody should learn for the next practice is good. Pick one or two songs from the CD and agree to learn them for the next rehearsal. Spend most of the rehearsal going over just those couple of songs until you get them right. Then pick one or two more for the next one and repeat, after reviewing the rest of the songs you know.

 

Originals are tougher. If you have a complete song you can make a rough demo for everyone to learn - but really, there's nothing wrong with someone showing up with an incomplete song or a sketchy idea, either. The band can commit to spending a certain amount of time at practice jamming on this idea. A lot of times, at least in my band, the inspiration for finishing a song often comes from the band playing through the unfinished ideas and jamming on stuff around it. Just try to get into a playful, imaginative state of mind and not be too "goal oriented" when you do this, as opposed to learning cover songs. If you expect to get something "accomplished" sometimes you can kill the vibe and not come up with anything good.

 

It always helps to record rehearsals, too. Sometimes you don't realize you've hit on a good idea until you play it back later. Plus the recording will help you identify things you need to work on.

[73 P Bass]

Lee makes great points. For my band we'll work on new originals both ways; either a rough demo, or on the fly at rehearsal. We, so far, have only worked on complete song ideas (i.e. no jamming on riffs until it is a song).

Personally, I find it quicker, and easier for the songwriter to show the song to the band at rehearsal, than make a demo.

Covers, I feel work better the other way; make a disc and learn the song. But I have learned plenty of covers on the fly, and even on the gig!

I think you really need to look at your band, and what you want out of it. It doesn't sound like the others are as committed as you.

[Connie Z]

Hi LadY,

 

I just emailed 4 rockin' oldies lead-sheets (lyrics & chords) to your personal hotmail address.

 

See if that helps!

 

... Connie

 

(I personally think it's very hard for everyone to just listen to the songs, and learn the chords and stuff. I do it the minimized way! But I am trying to learn it the hard way too!)

[jeremy c]

Arrange for the band to play at a show in a month or two. Like a free party in someone's back yard (perfect for the summer). That'll put some pressure on and maybe they'll feel like learning a few songs.

 

Tell everyone to pick two cover songs and make cds for everyone. Then actually learn them.

 

Meanwhile, you and the singer could get together with the guitarist and write some songs around his riffs without having the whole band there. I bet you could come up with something good.

[mound]

Oh, and read my signature below for one great source of inspiration.

.....

Every musician in this forum should read "The Mysticism of Sound and Music" by Hazrat Inayat Khan. The bible for musicians. Try to understand what compels you to make music in the first place.

I'll second that.. I bought that book, oh, 4 or 5 years ago and read it and it kinda stoopified me.. mulled it over for about a year and read it again.. then I read it yet again.. Absolutely amazing in every detail. I just lent my copy to a drummer I've been working with..

 

-Paul

[badgerbass]

All good ideas. I agree about having a goal of a show coming up in a month or two; it gives you something to work toward.

 

For originals, it has worked best in my bands if two people get together and work out the basic structure. They can then present it to the group and play through it. Everyone can pick it up from there. So if your guitarist just comes with riffs, get him together with whoever ends up putting the words and/or structure to the songs. Have the two of them work it out.

 

For covers, I have had the same problem as you do with my most recent band. We learned things so slowly. I think most of the problem was due to the inexperience of the muscicians and lack of individual practice. Also, everyone would come with all these ideas: "let's do this one, oh and this one, we could do this one , too, etc." So, everyone would leave practice without a clear idea of which songs we were going to work on. So, get it clear: pick two or three new ones to work on, give everyone a CD with *just those songs on it* and state the goals.

 

You might run into the problem that not everyone is enthusiastic about certain cover songs. In that case, make it so everyone gets to choose at least one song. Then they will need to get on the team with all the songs if they want people to be enthusiastic about *their* songs.

 

Just some ideas. Hope it helps.

 

Guy

[lug]

Have a real meeting, have everyone vote on two covers to learn start to finish by next practice, humiliate and tease the person that doen't get it done.

[BenLoy]

Songwriting as a full band is generally a waste of time...unless you're a band like King Crimson.

 

When bands try to write as a group, they start confusing arrangements with songs, and can end up with a pretty awesome arrangement of a weak song that should've been written as a whole before a band tried to arrange it.

 

Songs should be written before rehearsals. I'd do what Jeremy suggests and try to write some tunes around the guitarist's riffs that he's brought in but hasn't developed.

 

As far as cover tunes are concerned...everyone should listen to the songs and learn the parts. If they don't want to, then how have they been learning how to play their instruments? The "creating my own style" excuse is generally a futile one in my eyes. I personally love learning cover tunes...

[RobT]

Originally posted by jeremyc:

Arrange for the band to play at a show in a month or two. Like a free party in someone's back yard (perfect for the summer). That'll put some pressure on and maybe they'll feel like learning a few songs.

 

I think jeremyc has a good point. Arranging a show or playing out is a good motivator for the band I'm in. We do mostly originals and sometimes the arrangements are in flux or evolving. We've played out twice in the last 2 months. It's a great motivator for me to work on the rough spots and polish what works.

[TIMMY]

Whats the goal of the band? are you strictly garage or do you intend to be a serious club band?

[TIMMY]

Whats the goal of the band? are you strictly garage or do you intend to be a serious club band?pick songs that exite everybody then they will be motivated to learn, and by the way some of the most popular bands write songs starting out as guitar riffs( ever hear of a guy named Slash?) dont make it too serious because then it will be like a chore and not much fun and you have to keep fun in the equation

[Lawnmower8]

Rule #1. Have fun.

Rule #2. Play as much as possible.

[Max Valentino]

All good suggestions. But, it would seem to me that motivation, or lack thereof, is culprit. Does the band have a de facto "leader". If not it needs one. If the band is serious about "doing something", be that local gigs, open slots for national touring acts, making aCD, landing that proverbial "deal", then it needs to be run more efficiently, and somewhat like a business.

 

The last band I was the "leader" of was 11 pcs. I had all members on a salary (we worked 4-5 nights a week, and so this may not be practical to most). If covers were to be done, it was my responsibility as leader to make cds, sometimes even writing out lead sheets, or delgating that responsibity out. If someone failed to do their "homework", they were fined. Let it slide three times and they were fired.

 

Motivation is tricky thing, and as leader you cannot be everyone's best friend. Some may not really like you, but all will respect you. Rehearsals are serious. Not a time to drink a few beers and jam. If the members of your band cannot fathom this attitude, then they are really serious. Decisions will have to be made.

 

At rehearsals quickly assess when things are not working and move on. Go to something everyone knows, or is fun and then come back to the thing which ws not happening. This keeps the motivation up.

 

Bring in a bassline of your own just to have them jam on....to loosen up the proceedings before it gets down to serious work.

 

Don't work songs to death. Practice parts (verses, choruses, segues) not the entire tune. When you play a song over and over it loses its vitality.

 

Schedule "section" rehearsls. Have songwriting sessions with just the gtrist and vocalist to flesh out those ideas. Have rhythm section rehearsal to fine tune things. You might be suprised to find out how motivated a singer or gtrist becomes when they see/hear that the other members have been working out stuff beyond the full band.

 

Schedule "listening sessions" where ther members just get together and hang out with each other. Perhaps listening to music each likes, and maybe even songs they would like to cover. No instruments; just listening and talking. This helps get all the members on "the same page".

There is a famous story about MIles Davis putting together a band in the early 70s. All top notch players. He had them all meet at his home for rehearsal. At noon they were all there, many of them having never met before. They waited and waited. No Miles. They chatted, ate...jammed a bit. Finally, around 4:30 Miles strolls in, hands them all some sheet music with just outlines and themes, nothing complete, and they play thru these for an hour or two. Rehearsal over..he tells them the gig is Friday at 7:30pm.

At the Gig he hands them new sheet music....not what they had practiced (and most took home to practice more) Dumbfounded, they all played the gig....and did exceptionally well. As was the case with many of MIles' groups, there was almost an ESP type connection between the players.

 

Asked later about this and why he did it, MIles explained, he got all these world class players to just hang out with each other for a whole afternoon. They got to know each other..and they all shared their annoyance at him for being late. Once musicians know each other there is nothing they cannot play. So the new, unfamiliar music became very do-able, and in fact very good, as it was played fresh, with excitement, and even a sense of danger, by players who had to really listen to their new "pals".

Now, that is motivation........

Max

[onelove]

Originally posted by jeremyc:

Meanwhile, you and the singer could get together with the guitarist and write some songs around his riffs without having the whole band there. I bet you could come up with something good.

hehe... I agree, it's always easier to get things done without the drummer.

[jeremy c]

Similar to the story that Max told about Miles Davis's band, a friend of mine who played with Jaco's Word of Mouth Band in Japan said that the rehearsals consisted of the bandmembers playing basketball.

 

Then the sketchy charts were read onstage with everyone watching Jaco for cues.

 

That would be the Twins I and Twins II albums.

They sure sounded good to me.

[BenLoy]

I heard about that. Damn...

[MattC]

Don't confine yourself to you band; let that be just a portion of your musical meal. Its up to you whether its the meat, potatoes, or dessert. For me, at this point in my life, playing in a band is dessert and I'm on a diet.