If you're like a lot of amateur musicians your band has to fit into limited spare time. It's hard enough to find your own practice time and band rehearsal can be even harder. Everybody has a different schedule and finding a common time to play together is rarely easy. That's why it's important to organize yourselves to make the most of your limited rehearsal time.
Here are three tips to help you make the most of that short band rehearsal time instead of wasting it.
* Learn Songs Individually First
Make sure everyone learns the songs and their parts on their own time. Trying to practice a song when individuals don't know their own parts is a sure way to waste rehearsal time. Make sure you learn your songs individually first, then use the band rehearsal to work on your arrangement and group sound.
It goes without saying that if you want to all turn up to the rehearsal with your songs learned you'll have to decide what those songs are in advance. Do this as formally or informally as you like, but make sure you have a small queue of songs everyone can prepare for the rehearsals to come.
* Balance New And Old Songs
By old songs I don't mean classical music. I mean the songs you have learned together in the past. It's all too easy to spend all your time learning new songs. But you need to set aside some of your rehearsal time to revise the old stuff so you don't forget how to play it, what the structure is, who plays the solo, how you end it and so on.
A good place for revision is either at the start or the end of the rehearsal. Familiar songs make a good warm up at the start, or you can have a blast playing them for all you're worth as a wind down at the end.
* Rehearse Without Sheet Music Or Lyrics
A lot of bands rehearse with sheet music, chord charts or lyrics in front of them. But how many rock bands do you see using sheet music on stage? If you want to learn to play without the paper you have to practice without it too.
If you use chord charts and lyric sheets during rehearsal you never really get around to memorizing the songs. Even if you've played them many times you will find yourself lost without the sheets on concert day. So get into the habit of playing without them even at rehearsals.
Let's recap these three useful tips for getting the most out of your band rehearsals.
1. Learn songs individually before rehearsing as a band.
2. Balance new and old songs in your rehearsal time.
3. Memorize songs and rehearse without relying on sheet music.
Apply these three tips and your band will progress better on making good music together.
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Ismail Mohd is the creator of Virtual Rock Band where musicians can meet bassists, drummers, guitarists and vocalists living near them. They can also upload or download instrumental tracks to jam along to.
