Premier Rock Forum

4 hours, twice a week, provided there are no gigs any members want to go to on tuesdays or wednesdays, 'cos we share the practice space with another band (who have one of the worst names I've ever come across: We Yes You No) On the rare occasion we can all practice for most of the day the following tends to happen

Adam CR wrote:arsing around smoking and instrument swapping.

We're not getting very far, but hey, we have lots of fun.

hip priest wrote:(who have one of the worst names I've ever come across: We Yes You No)

Suspiciously close, but not as satisfying as Punch You Face Me.

Are we talking about practice?

Practice makes perfect. At least in the minds of those who practice.

my band almost never practices. we are going to practice on jan 13th. it's been scheduled for 6 weeks now. i think it will be the first full band practice in about 2 years. we're going to learn 6 new songs and probably go over a few old ones that we haven't done in years. we usually make set lists about a week before shows so everyone knows what we are going to be playing and can go over anything that they need to. we have a lot of songs and have been playing together (with a few drummer changes) for a long time. somehow this no practice thing works out well for us.

on my own i probably play guitar anywhere from 5min to 2hrs a day. usually when watching t.v. when we have shows coming up i'll run through our songs but when we don't i'm usually just noodling.

If I am playing in someone else's band, I will practice as much as I can, because I don't want to embarrass/let down the other members of the group.

If I am playing in one of the Branca things (Liz, start laughing now) I go over the score as written and write out the cheat marks on my guitar neck.

If I am playing a solo gig, I pretty much do nothing at all. I like the seat-of-the-pantsness of improv. I'm more relaxed about it than I am a gig where I have to be "perfect."

elisha wiesner wrote:my band almost never practices. we are going to practice on jan 13th. it's been scheduled for 6 weeks now. i think it will be the first full band practice in about 2 years. we're going to learn 6 new songs and probably go over a few old ones that we haven't done in years. we usually make set lists about a week before shows so everyone knows what we are going to be playing and can go over anything that they need to. we have a lot of songs and have been playing together (with a few drummer changes) for a long time. somehow this no practice thing works out well for us.

on my own i probably play guitar anywhere from 5min to 2hrs a day. usually when watching t.v. when we have shows coming up i'll run through our songs but when we don't i'm usually just noodling.

You're in Kahoots and you guys don't practice? Wow. I assumed that because you lived on a small island that there would be nothing to do EXCEPT go to practice.

That's impressive. You folks must be naturally talented.

burun wrote:If I am playing in one of the Branca things (Liz, start laughing now) I go over the score as written and write out the cheat marks on my guitar neck.

If I am playing a solo gig, I pretty much do nothing at all. I like the seat-of-the-pantsness of improv. I'm more relaxed about it than I am a gig where I have to be "perfect."

You seemed in line with plenty of the other players in the Branca thing. Walking around the guitar players you could plainly see that many people didn't know how to read music and had come up with all kinds of individual systems for getting through the piece.

A "perfect" gig. Now, I've never played such a thing.

noise&light wrote:

You're in Kahoots and you guys don't practice? Wow. I assumed that because you lived on a small island that there would be nothing to do EXCEPT go to practice.

That's impressive. You folks must be naturally talented.[/quote]

well, only 3 of us live here now. one is near boston and one is in baltimore so that makes things tough. we really do play well together and i think it's kind of fun. i guess it took us a long time to get to this point. it definitley keeps the live shows interesting. we'll go over new songs at soundcheck or backstage before a show and then play them. we also have a great drummer and bass player. if we didn't we couldn't pull this kind of crap off.

noise&light wrote:How much time do people invest in playing music on a daily or weekly level? In an ideal world I would play drums at least a little bit every day. Back when I was in a full-on band I would rehearse with the band 3 times a week 3 hours every time so I never practiced on my own. Now that I'm solo I play drums a little every day. I just acquired a new bass and I'm not really a bass player at all but I enjoy picking it up every other day and playing for about 30 minutes or so.

As a drummer I think that you need to play regularly to keep your skills up. And more time is needed to not just sustain the skills but actually get better. I'm just wondering about everyone's practice practices.

I've played the guitar for over half of my life and I have no fear that I'll ever lose my ability to play it half-decently unless I physically become unable to play. When I was growing up I practiced obsessively, plus I played in bands often. I can say now that this was often to my disadvantage in developing as a guitarist. Nowadays playing music has taken a backseat in my life so I play alot less, but when I do I feel much more relaxed, confident and I am alot more dexterous than I was when I was an adolescent. So I have to say that practicing is good for maintenance and learning, but it can actually stifle your ability when overdone or done obsessively.

These days I play maybe two hours a week tops. When I am in bands (hardly ever anymore), that all depends on the chemistry and logistics of the band.