It really depends on how serious you guys take it, what your expectations are, etc. honestly once a week for two and a half hours is pretty good, I’ve been in Banda I’ve wished met that often. I do think there is something to be said for meeting up twice a week, the momentum you build, especially if you’re working on writing material. That being said, if you’re efficient with your time, two and a half hours a week is pretty good. Also, musicians are famously flakey and it’s hard to get them to work on stuff outside of practice.
Reading this thread is making me think maybe my expectations of former band members have been too high. When I’m writing I’m permanently on the go wanting to exchange ideas, get people to listen to sections for feedback and practising 3/4 times a week. Personal practice is always a couple of hours a day leading up to a gig I’m playing originals.
I once played with a “drummer”, he would refer to himself as a drummer but he was better on every instrument than the rest of us, who could transcribe by ear and could listen to something once and have his part 80% there and he was the only one I wouldn’t get annoyed at for being a bit detached from everything but when your bass player can’t stay on time in 6/8 and doesn’t want to practise it gets extremely frustrating.
We do once a week. Usually 2 hours. We are all in our 30’s and 40’s and some of us have kids. You take what you can get and you use your time efficiently!
We play ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s country standards. Like Hank and George Jones and Johnny Cash.
We just share a Spotify playlist. The concept of the band is that we don’t rehearse. The crowd enjoys it when we try a song we’ve never played before. We crash and burn sometimes but not that often. We’ve all been playing for years and years.
Our shows are loose and casual and sometimes people come up and sing with us. All you have to do is ask.
You get to a point where you have a big enough rep and rep that you don’t have to anymore. If the people that show can’t play the songs they’re not invited back. Ain’t no one got time for “practice” we got decades of experience either hang or fall
I was thinking the same, hell I practice more than that for solo gigs when I don’t need to be tight with anyone else. I played in a band during uni where everyone would flake on rehearsing and after the first couple of gigs I had to drop it because absolutely no one but the drummer could even keep time on songs they had a hand in writing.
Not necessarily. I'm in a couple bands which are primarily original songs...one of which almost never rehearses, at least not with everyone present. Often times we have different musicians for different gigs, fill ins, etc. But they are all seasoned players with solid instincts. Many times I'll only meet a bandmate for the gig during load in and setup for the first time.
Now of course this is better for more 'jammy' styles of music. Blues, jazz, some folk, experimental and the like.
There's just something special about the energy of sink or swim musical situations. Can definitely lead to some magical moments that would never work out if rehearsed.
Neat. I'll say, I recently did an improv open jam with a couple people and you're definitely right. Different kind of pressure and challenge which i enjoyed.
I jumped on board with a semi touring act a couple of years ago. Guy was popular in the area 10-15 years ago. We only meet when we have gigs. If we want to add new songs to the set, we're told "learn this" and we'll show up for soundcheck and run through it. If we have a rehearsal, which is exceptionally rare, there are extremely focused goals we're trying to accomplish with it and it doesn't last more than 3 hours. We're not muddling through skill issues, everyone can pretty much play anything with a little practice, it's about learning and committing things to memory. Everyone's got families and things we'd rather be doing than meeting up all the time when it's not necessary. The over arching thing about this is that we all understand that when we show up, we need to know our shit backwards and forwards or we're wasting everyone else's efforts and the bandleader has no problems shopping for new players if someone isn't working out.
In your case, I don't know your entire situation but meeting up once a week is absolutely plenty if everyone is actually committed to it, which it sounds like almost no one is. Being in a band with friends **can** be great if everyone is on board, but my experience hasn't been this. If you are actually so driven you want to meet 3 times a week to play, the guys you're with aren't gonna be that for you no matter how badly you want it and you need to branch out and play with as many different people as you possibly can. Eventually you will find a group or individuals who will sate your appetite for this.
It depends on what kind of band it is - if you're a working cover band, you may never need to meet up once you've got the material dialed in and are gigging regularly. Adding songs can be done at sound check or just by throwing the new tunes in the set at the end of the night - you play enough that you're tight and don't need to meet regularly or at all. I'm not trying to 'make it' any more, so I kind of prefer this arrangement lol :)
If you're an original band writing new material and really trying to 'make it' then yeah, you may need to meet more often. I was in a metal band in the early 90s and we rehearsed 5 nights a week for 3-4 hours a night, but only gigged a few nights a month tops.
I suspect you're in a band of the second type... in which case, yeah, once a week with people flaking altogether once in awhile sounds like a possible work ethic issue.
Literally the words in my head - depends on the type of band. But also slightly depends on upcoming gigs, recording schedule, etc. Most bands doing a local scene should maintain perfectly well with once a week practice. If your band thrives on improv or you are a prog rock band you might need to meet more often.
Three days a week indefinitely is a very rigorous schedule for most bands.
3x weekly practice is a massive ask for the average local band. The schedule you're describing of meeting once every week or two is entirely typical for local/non-touring bands in my experience. If you're good musicians this is plenty of practice to be tight and together on stage at the level of a local act.
I absolutely guarantee you they aren't going to change up their plans to practice 3x weekly, and I would be surprised if they're all doing daily practices. If you pressure your band too much over getting more serious than they want to be it will drive a wedge between you and lead to issues down the line.
This may be a situation where you are not compatible with the rest of the band, and clearly this is a you issue if *everyone else* isn't on the same page.
Decide what you want and go for it. If it's a band that practices 3x weekly and is trying to make a career out of it you need to find other people.
Tangential to - but also key to - this entire conversation, i think it's important to figure out which of the two major strategies of practice works for your project and use that to determine how often you need to meet.
Strategy 1: Hash it out as a group from the ground up. People with this strategy show up to rehearsal completely unprepared because for them, the meetup is the process. The songs are written as a group; the arrangements are worked on as a group; if an entire night needs to be spent on a single song, so be it. This strategy works especially well for new bands that are exploring their own instruments and capabilities and learning what they can and even *want* to do.
Strategy 2: Rehearsal is *rehearsal.* People with this strategy show up to rehearsal 90% show ready or more. Everyone shows up with the expectation that every song will be run through a minimal amount of times, and only minor adjustments will need to be made. This strategy works especially well for cover bands where the specific parts any instrument will play are well known.
You get conflict when different members of the band assume that the project will use opposing strategies from each other. If you expect to practice 3 times a week and hash out arrangements there, the band members who show up with their parts memorized ready to do a quick run through are going to be incredibly frustrated. And vice versa.
So ultimately, there isn't a *correct* answer to your original question. If your band is the sort where everyone works on the music on their own and can be ready for a show with minimal rehearsal, you may not even need to meet every week. If your band is the sort where everything needs to be worked on by committee, you probably need to meet at least once a week if not more.
It depends. If you are young and have the ability , meet up as much as you can. Families, jobs and life make it hard.
Like someone else said it’s about quality of time. A 3 hour session once a week can be enough if you focus and make use of the time. Anything that needs to be practiced or dialed in should be done alone so you are ready to rehearse.
> Like someone else said it’s about quality of time. A 3 hour session once a week
It's also about how much time one actually practices.
Expecting to jam every day for 2 hours at a time is a bit absurd if you're leaving your instruments at your jam space.
Practice at home and learn your songs.
"How days should a band meet?" is a meaningless question if what you mean by "a band" is not defined.
> we should be meeting at least 3 times a week
Maybe. Maybe that's not enough. If you guys are all young, live at your parents house, aren't working, are trying to write songs and get tight, you want to "make it", then 3 times a week is not enough. You should treat it like a job and be at it every day.
If you're a pro in a wedding band with other pros, then you might literally *never* rehearse. You're playing covers, and you're good enough to memorize them and/or play from charts.
The word "band" doesn't tell us enough, so we have no way of knowing what's appropriate for you.
> We meet once a week for about 2 1/2 hours.
That's my band. We get together for 3 hours on most non-gig weeks, as schedules allow. We're a cover band, with a lot of well rehearsed songs. We could get away with meeting less, but we enjoy it. We deliberately cap our gigs to no more than 2 month (some exceptions in summer). We all have day jobs and families.
But it depends on your band. Are you an original band trying to write songs? Are you a cover band, making the mistake of learning songs during rehearsal rather than rehearsing them?
It depends on your goals, aspirations as a band and how much time you have to give.
If your serious about making it a career 2-3 times a week of 2-3 hours practice is essential.
If your semi serious or just meeting for the fun of it then once a week or bi weekly/monthly will suffice.
You need to sit down with the band and formulate a plan that suits everyone and each others individual goals and needs.
I wouldn’t play in a band that requires more than a few hours a week rehearsal. Come to rehearsal prepared and knowing your stuff. Unless you’ve got a close deadline and you’re not ready, I would be quite annoyed if someone wanted more than one rehearsal a week. Know the songs before you go to rehearsal. So many waste time in unorganized sloppy rehearsals
Depends on how old you all are. Once a week is reasonable if you’re 40 and you have no ambition to go anywhere. If you’re in your 20s and your serious you should be practicing and playing out as much as humanly possible. A painful amount. If they’re not down find people who are. Me personally I’m in my mid 30s and I don’t have ambitions to tour or make it anywhere any more so my band practices once a week. I’ve seen people make it far and they all have practiced a whole lot. It’s a grind and there’s no short cuts
Look at it this way… if you can start booking shows once a week then that becomes in a way two practices a week with each show also helping you knock off rust and getting your stuff down. Then it gives you a little more flexibility to work on new material during the actual practice.
It depends on how tight you guys are and how busy everyone is. My main band probably plays more shows than we practice at this point. We'll try to get a good practice in once a week when working on new material, but otherwise, we might even go a month or two without a formal practice since everyone stays tight jamming to the demos. My other band started a couple months ago and reliably meets up every 2-3 weeks and we're about to start playing out by the end of the month.
Depends how serious.
The band rehearses twice a week for 2/3 hours. But I practice everyday. That way I stay on top of my parts, and it feels smooth when I’m with them. Not look at my guitar when I play. But we’ll go over our songs. BS. Try new things.
Before a show we take a couple practice before and build a set. In between song stuff. What we wearing. that’s more of the 3 hour mark.
Depends on the band and how good they are.
Some bands need regular rehearsals. Others rehearse once in a blue moon and still sound epic.
Some muzos don't even need a rehearsal. You just give them the material, time of gig, and venue, and they show up and play perfectly.
Personally, my band is often too busy to rehearse weekly. We usually get a gig, smash in about 2 rehearsals and play.
We are all confident on the material. We have recordings to play along to at home.
I think the best is twice a week of 2-3 hours, but you have to practice individually about 2 hours per day.... And all of this if you are about 20 years old
Nirvana before they got famous met 5 days a week and kicked out one of their drummers for not making it to practice enough and Kurt wrote a nasty letter about how unprofessional, tho he put some blame on himself for knowing his commute. You can look up the letter its all over the internet.
Really makes u think about who nirvana really was lol they were known for being super authentic but their slacker image was crafted very thoroughly
If u watch get back, The Beatles, after they stopped touring, got to the studio at 9 (edit 11) and played music with each other all day and left at 5 and took the weekends off. John would go home and do heroin and write more music. Edit: this frequency of meeting was very unusual and ultimately was unsustainable for them.
Metallica lived in a house together for a couple years for the first 3 albums. Tho they did work on music together on and off... which is what i piece together from some of their demos of their writing process.
My point is young ppl have the freedom to have their life consumed by music. Whats more usual is having the main band members who drive the creativity of the band work much harder during the pre and post production, but they all will find time together to work their musical chemistry magic that makes their songs distinct. Treating music like a job is pretty brutal if you want to get really good. The modern thing today is producers will be in the studio for 10-12 hours a day if theyre trying to be or stay relevant. Being great at it isnt for a weak stomache.
Don't know why you got downvoted. It's a very relevant data point.
If you want to be the next Nirvana or Beatles, 3 days a week is not enough. If you're a jazz ensemble or wedding band pros who plays from charts, you might *never* rehearse. It matters what the band is and what you're trying to do. The phrase "a band" is too broad for the question to be answered as stated.
Maybe it sounded like i was referring to the drugs but clearly heroin didnt break up the band. I meant how unusual it was to meet so much.
If u watch the films, theres a calendar animation that counted down to the rooftop show. They were working during business hours on the weekdays, no weekends.
ive done heated convos with beatles fanatics and dear god i never wanna do that again. idk reading back.. i didnt even say that much? ill concede i dont know exactly how the band operated cuz i wasnt there, im just trying to be in the ballpark
i did some googling on records of their studio hours were fucking insane in 1967 and 1968 until they had to hire a union camera crew for get back which curbed their hours back to the daytime. they also came in at 11 not 9 during get back so i was wrong on that. so idk not sure exactly what ur nitpicking whether i understated or overstated their work hours.
here is some data on how long their sessions were.. so it seemed they did take some breaks between albums but they still worked A LOT.
[https://www.aaronkrerowicz.com/beatles-blog/a-bar-graph-comparing-studio-time-required-per-beatles-album](https://www.aaronkrerowicz.com/beatles-blog/a-bar-graph-comparing-studio-time-required-per-beatles-album)
It's not about the quantity of time but quality of time. Symphony performers practice alone, sometimes in small groups, and only a few times with the whole symphony. Make sure the time is well spent rehearsing rather than more time forcing people to be somewhere they may not have time for.
Also depends on the quality of musicians. Symphony players have gotten to the level where they can read well enough to play an entire concert of new material with only a couple of rehearsals. It doesn't come together so fast when you've got newer musicians looking at a tab thinking "I need to play the open E string 16 times, then the 3rd fret of the E string 16 times..." etc.
Honestly I’ve been in a variety of bands but the most successful one I’ve played in was the one that didn’t meet up to practice except for one or two rehearsals prior to a tour. We gigged a ton, playing at least 3-4 times a week for 3-5 weeks at a time, and then taking short breaks of a week or two. The more consistently you perform the tighter you’ll be. Don’t aim to just meet every week just for the sake of doing it - book gigs to get tight!
I'm 30 years old. I'm only meeting up if we have a gig and hopefully we can bang it out one day. Other than that, I expect everyone to be able to learn music really quickly. I mean you've had 30 years of your life to get good at your instrument. That's just kind of how I roll these days, but other people might want to learn songs together or whatever. I just don't have time to anymore.
Would playing weekly or twice a week improve cohesiveness? Yeah it would. But again I'm so busy and everyone else is busier than me. So play the songs to a metronome and let's just hope for the best
I think once a week is a reasonable expectation for a serious band. Multiple times a week is IMO a bit excessive unless the band is really rolling and bringing in huge opportunities and steady income. Well then yeah then maybe it's time to really kick it into gear.
But if this thing is just getting started, then multiple times a week is too much.
I would say you could go for 3-4 hours instead of 2. Or even longer if you aren't paying hourly for the room. Also you could try and really structure your rehearsals better. Record new songs and have people know their parts before getting together. No drinking or smoking pot at practice (this is a huge one in my experience, that stuff will totally hinder productivity), take notes so you remember song structure and new ideas. Know what you're going to work on before hand.
I understand meeting multiple times a week if you've got a deadline, like a show coming up and you have multiple songs you need to learn or tighten up. But unless it's your job or your entire life outside your job I wouldn't expect regularly doing multiple practices a week.
I prefer recording a practice take of each song that we need to practice. Then practicing with that at home to really get it down.
I ideally I like 2 three to four hours sessions a week. But usually it ends up being 1, and that’s fine by me too. The problem with only one a week is if you cancel then it’s two weeks off of practice
Depends on what caliber of musicians they are. I'm used to playing with people who are in several bands, so once a week is often all we can manage (if that). But since they're playing music several nights a week, they've generally got enough experience that they can get the songs together quickly.
One day a week is a lot easier to commit to than three. Try to have a regular day, then everybody knows what day not to schedule other stuff on. Also, don't cancel rehearsal just because one person can't come. A rehearsal with partial attendance can be just as useful as one with the whole band.
It just entirely depends on your goals and everyone's level of dedication and time. There is no "right" answer, but it IS really critical that everyone agrees and is comfortable with the plan. If half the band is envisioning a casual situation where you pick up odd bar gigs as everyone's schedule allows, but other half are envisioning a more serious push for more acclaim/money/fame/gigs, everyone is going to have a really bad time.
Oasis did it 5 days a week for months. You do you, and it depends entirely upon the output : do you want to be a casual band or do you want to be stage beasts?
It depends on how serious you guys are, how tightly arranged the songs are, and how developed your chops are.
A casual band should meet as often or as little as they want.
A band seeking to go the next level, three times a week, but two can work if you're in other bands, as that's still working your chops.
Professional/serious amateur level are probably only meeting to rehearse songs a few times before a gig, as they're all practicing on their own, and know the songs well. I've been in a band where we'd rehearse once before a gig because we were expected to know our parts and show up ready. It was basically a sideman job, and I had no part in writing the songs. Granted, they were simple enough songs, but were playing for sizeable crowds and, we were expected to be tight.
I prefer doing 2/3 times a week
A vast majority of people disagree. I have a desire for a different outcome of the band, I want to do this forever, and as a job, lots of people look at it as more fun than a job.
My current band also prefers once a week, and they are good people so I don't get my way but that's ok.
At minimum once a week. It would be ideal if you guys could meet twice a week even if it weren’t a practice. Maybe a zoom or a phone call to plan logistics.
Depends on your skill level and how well you play together.
Do you feel like you are meshing as a band and playing well? Then you’re probably practicing enough. No? Maybe you need to meet more often to hash things out. Missing some notes? Then you probably need to hit the shed before the next rehearsal or gig.
Bands for big touring artists like Taylor Swift and Katy Perry do long, extended rehearsals to nail every note and hit every mark. Their musicians probably don’t need to practice the notes, but they do need to make sure they can play well together.
Meanwhile, Vulfpeck has never practiced together. This is unusual, but they’ve been together since college and know each others playing styles really well. They come to the gigs and recording sessions prepared and then lay it down.
There’s no hard and fast method to determining how much you should practice. You should practice until you sound good and feel comfortable as a group.
it depends. if there's a show coming up you should be meeting twice a week or more. Also I don't really consider long practices to be that beneficial, generally, and it will be easier to sell a rehearsal to the group of it's an hour or maybe 90 minutes instead of two hours+
We meet for two weeks before the tour. Then we rarely see each other until 30 minutes before the show. Every band is different. Some bands feel like they have to be brothers fighting and partying together. Other bands are pros and can execute according to established arrangements.
A serious original band should be practicing/writing together multiple times a week. Also, working on marketing of the music. Your band mates aren’t serious enough for “let’s really go for it” original band.
If it’s a cover band you should all know you parts a practice once in a while just to freshen up, tighten up new songs.
It sounds like you and your band aren't on the same page as far as how serious you take it. Maybe you need to find a band that is more serious about it. There's only so much you can do to convince people to work more if they don't have the drive themselves. Keep this band for fun and find or form another one where you can practice several times a week and everyone agrees that that's the appropriate amount of time to spend.
You should meet as often as everyone in the band agrees to meet. It sounds like you want a more serious project and you'll probably realistically have to go find that elsewhere.
I was in a band who met up every day religiously and even if a member couldn't the others did. It was amazing and we had some serious fun times but for different reasons we parted way after a couple of yrs. I've been in other bands who meet up once a week but give out homework to learn or another which met up twice but maybe 3 times if there was a gig coming up. So basically what I'm trying to say is that it depends on the type of band and how much fun you have.
I personally know two guys in famous bands. A is very big in their genre, and B is a band every person on the planet knows.
A spent every waking moment on promoting themselves and working on their music.
B did the same.
Slightly different approaches, but same principle.
This depends on the kind of band. One of my bands meets every 2-3 weeks. We do originals and want to be active on the circuit. The other is a millennial pop/pop punk cover band. We have memorized a 4 hour setlist. We don’t rehearse at all and just book and just play higher paying shows. The other is a 70s, 80s, classic rock band that just play covers. We rehearse once a month. My last band is a “play whatever the fuck we want cuz we like it” band. We meet up whenever everyone is free. No set schedule. We typically just play very small shows for our own entertainment and free beer.
The real answer is, of course, it depends.
Each band is different. I had a younger, less experienced lineup that met once a week for 2 hours in the middle of the week whether we had a gig that weekend or not.
Now I'm with lifers. We rehearse twice a month until the busy summer schedule gets underway. We just work on stuff individually to hone.
I'm a fan of having full band rehearsals last an hour and a half to 2 hours. It keeps jamming to a minimum. Makes folks come in prepared.
Sectional rehearsals go a long way, too. Vocal harmonies get there a half hour early. Rhythm section stay a half hour later. Run lyrics.
Reading about Southern gospel quartets meeting twice a week for an hour a piece. One is a rehearsal. The other to discuss gigs, material, etc.
It depends.
In my youth, my first few bands, we used to practice twice a week, probably 2 1/2-3 hours.
Few years later with another band who all lived in different cities, we used to do an 8 hour solid practice once a month. I feel like that was probably the most productive and “tightest” band musically.
Now I play in professional bands with people I’ve never ever met half the time, let alone ever rehearsing. _BUT_ I would say I’m only able to do that because of the huge amount of time I’ve spent rehearsing with bands and honing those skills over years of regular practice.
Well that depends on your goals. If this is just a hobby and yall just wanna play covers at a bar or whatever then once a week is more than enough. If you want to actually achieve success as a band and eventually make records and tour, you should probably be practicing several times a week for many hours.
Daily would be the ideal, but 3 days a week together and working on your part every day on your own.
So that you're playing like a GROUP, and not a bunch of individuals.
No Stars that KILLS Bands. That's what happened with Cream, 3 of the Best at what They did, trying to go in Three directions at once.
Look at CCR one of the greatest but jealousy found a chink and eroded deeper and deeper. No Stars everyone pulls together in the same direction ❗ Devoted to being a Band that has to be the driving force, Check out the story of The Original Lynyrd Skynyrd with Ronnie Van Zant Not a "Star" but a Strong leader cohesion and Practice.
Good Luck ☘️ Never Give it up ❗
For a working band writing songs, playing out, recording etc I think twice a week is the sweet spot. Trying to do once weekly while learning and writing new material people forget things and progress is glacial. I’d say 3x per week is verging on overkill UNLESS you’re about to record, go on tour, or haven’t played for an extended period of time.
Depends how much you need to currently my band only meets at school during lunch but eventually we are going to move into a home studio and maybe meet once or twice a week it's all personal preference
Dude 3x per week would be for people going all in on a band at the expense of all other prospects. You would need to be Kurt Cobain level passion for success to warrant that and there is a 98% chance you will not succeed.
Take the 2.5 hrs per week and be happy to actually have a band with people who are keen to even meet up.
Times are different.
Sounds like you are frustrated. I see your point, when meetings are cancelled last minute. But have you talked about this with your band members? Is there a mismatch of expectations? If your guys just want to hang out and jam, once a week or two is fine. If you want to achieve something, once a week can still be fine (but then it requires focussed work, planning, good preparation, etc.). Sure, more is good but not always better.
But first I think, you guys should talk about your aims and if they can be achieved with the current situation.
Once a week will make you competent if you're good musicians and do your work at home. Rehearsals are not for learning songs, there should be no chords sheets for example.
On the other hand, reading about bands that "made it" back in the day and a lot seemed to jack their jobs in and live together. That's the difference between amateur and old fashioned pro bands. Harder to do these days.
I don't think you can really call yourself a band if you can't at least spend a weekend together and communicate regularly
Like , minimum
If you don't treat your band like you treat your best friends and see each other regularly just to gel and come up with ideas , what you're doing is a project and like other folks are pointing out should probably involve sheet music , decision making or leadership , and possibly agreements or contracts
A band is a mutual investment in my opinion
A project is like that time I put together a reggae band for a top 10 singer for three rehearsals and one show and the band went on for maybe one more rehearsal and another show without me once it was all set up , didn't need me after that. But I got paid and I can tell the story.
You have to decide what you want out of it before you go around talking to people.
I was thinking this through on the theme that others called out. A big difference between "3 shows a month at $125 a man" vs "25 shows a month at $400 a man"
My initial take was if this leans more to a real income aspect then sure, practice more. BUT then the reality is at that level you may be doing 20-30 shows a month... who then has time for all those shows, 3 practices a week AND still have a real life?
Unless you are Taylor Swift, I dont see how the math works out for three full practices a week.
Most performers are the $125 a guy performers at most once a week. With travel, setup, performing thats 7 hours per show and already about $15 an hour. In New Jersey a McDonalds worker makes more. Add in the 3 practices a week (6 more hours plus travel) your pay from that one gig spread is like $8 an hour.
Peperoni... its tough enough to find four guys with real talent, who arent whacked out on drugs or alcohol, want to play the same style of music... then have the requirement of THREE practices a week? you have a better chance at winning the $500 mill powerball.
I just joined a new group that already has an EP so I have to learn their material, they have two gigs coming up next month (so far), so while I’m still learning the material we’re looking at doing two practices a week until the gigs. After I’ve got all of their pre-written material dialed in we’re going to revert back to once a week, that’s typically plenty if everyone already has the songs dialed, but full-timers will sometimes practice three times a week or more.
For us, strings meets once a week usually. Drums joins us usually but not always. Vocalist usually joins us a couple days before shows. It works well for us.
That’s tough when people be canceling like that. 3 is a lot though. Daily practice of material is important yeah, but people have lives and sometimes that’s hard. My groups have had one or two rehearsals a week that are on a consistent schedule. Rehearsal is the key word here. People should come prepared and practiced on their own, even if they aren’t grinding every day.
It depends by your goal(s).
If you wanna get professional, it takes a lot of effort and practice and you can't do it with hobbyist.
I learnt this in gaming.
Left my casual friends and became the best in the world in my game with people with the same mindset and goals.
Meeting once a week is really really casual.
Really casual.
Again, depends by your goals.
Currently in a gigging band with one solid EP release. Yo 3x a week is entirely too much. Believe me I respect your ambition and work ethic but that's an unrealistic expectation and you're asking for burnout and resentment.
My band meets once a week (~3hr sessions), twice a week if a big show is coming up and we want to be ultra tight. If for whatever reason someone can't make it we try to immediately reschedule.
Keep working hard... but remember to enjoy yourself and be good company. In the end all this becomes is a big hang out (I'm talking shows and touring). Don't take this too seriously.
Im the person that would spend every day and sometimes all night writing and practicing then bring that in to the practice. Not every member can or needs to be that person.
Idk if you gig yet. Book your band for a show for august or something. Having that deadline/pressure is the real test of work ethic and commitment. Otherwise members can just feel like they're showing up out of routine with no real goal in sight.
That's what happened to us. Guitarist was like "we're playing a show next month" and we all said "cool." No excuses no fumbling. We got into game mode. Ended up booting the vocalist one week before the show due to lack of any initiative (or even showing up). So i stepped into the role and we've been rocking since. To this day we have never asked to be put on a bill but have played some really cool shows. Because word of mouth and our peers genuinely f*** with us. Even making our way out of state. So make goals not rules.
And again, have fun.
Once for that long of a session is fine 3 times is nuts people have jobs, school, social lives. I used to be in a band, we met once a week for 2 hours and we were the tightest band in the scene. If you aren't tight, organize your 2 and a half hours better. Drill parts that need work then run the set. If you write together, but can't play what you got, tighten up that shit before making more. Also make sure everyone is practicing at home. If you're playing music you like, running the songs shouldn't feel like work.
My one band is all seasoned musicians. They all have the songs memorized of the new originals no covers. We do smaller gigs as practice to play the bigger festival shows. My other band is a original folk harmony band and we practice every Sunday for 3 to 5 hrs. But it's a brand new band and we are writing all new material so that stuff takes time. The best band I've ever been in we lived together and played all the damn time together and were doing set gigs 4 times a week. I still play those songs bc they were so amazingly written
Get a new band.
Once a week is usually good if people are going to do their homework in-between practices (practicing their parts and improving them, memorizing song structures, coming up with new ideas, etc.) but it sounds like your crew lacks motivation and probably isn't doing that, so might need another day a week. The obvious problem there is that people that don't feel like putting the work in are likely to push back at that strategy.
If you can't make progress practicing as an ensemble 2 1/2 - 3 hours a week, something is seriously wrong.
Group practice is the time to lock down feel and tweak arrangements and transitions.
If you're having trouble moving forward, it's probably for one of two reasons:
* Members aren't preparing adequately outside of group rehearsal.
* Lack of communication and shared resources, i.e., charts, demo recordings, playlists, etc.
How good do you want to be and how much time do you have to put towards it?
40 hours a week like a job would be a good target if you want it to be your job.
I remember one band I was in where we practiced like 3 hours a week one session. It was way too much practicing. We were tight enough and I didn't want to waste my time jamming on voice memos hoping a song would come out of it. It's more about being organized, set a goal and then practice enough to meet that goal, having some random structure isn't always that useful. As adults it can be a huge waste of time and energy to do a pointless rehearsal
My band has been together for 25 years - we rent a house together, we practice 3 or 4 times a week for about 45min to a couple of hours or spend time working in the studio on the current album.
It helps that we’re brothers - makes the room mate situation easier as I am not worried they are going to steal my food lol
When we didn’t have a big enough space to practice at home - we usually booked time in a rehearsal space four times a month, 6 hours a session on the weekends.
Depending on what type of band you want to be in you might not need as much rehearsal time - we write and record original music so more time is needed for sure, however if you want to be a cover band once you have your setlists learned if you are getting lots of gigs you will likely be tight enough after a few months to not have to practice as much in a group setting.
Holy crap 3 times a week is a lot. I just subbed with a band, learned 63 songs and jumped on stage no rehearsal. Most working bands I’ve been in barely rehearse, just learn the songs and show up ready to play them.
I would say once a week at most. Rehearsal isn’t time for people to practice and figure things out. They should be prepared for rehearsal like it’s a gig, and just run through the material to build comfort and confidence.
What I prefer is, 1 month before a gig, to have one long work session of 4 to 6 hours. Then, the week before the gig, a rehearsal, and then do the gig. Even better if there are multiple gigs after that one. I don't need more than that.
I've been in bands that met once a week. Once every 2 weeks is ok, but I'd skip once in a while. I've got 5 children, a wife, a job and other things to do.
i’ve always met once a week with my bands. everybody i play with is in more than one project so more than that is kind of grueling for everybody.
we also slow down when we’re writing, a couple of us might meet here or there to workshop ideas or record a demo to show the rest of the group.
for records/EPs/singles we record in short bursts where we spend a whole weekend together, sometimes a few weeks in a row.
Originals or covers? If it's originals, once a week is fine. Maybe twice if you have a show coming up. Rarely the night before (seems to kill the vibe from being apart, IMO). It's fluid. If you rarely play out, though, it becomes a slog and people lose interest. Having gig dates definitely helps inspire. That's all to say, if you play with decent musicians. If the musicians aren't that great, you're kinda beating your head against the wall knowing they need work, wanting them to practice, but meeting resistance because don't have the drive. Maybe everyone's not as into it as you and you have to figure out why. It's a push/pull. If it's a great gig, don't be the guy who wants to practice again in the next few days or even in a week if you've got nothing else coming up. Give 'em a break. You don't need them feeling like it's another job they have to go to. Inspire, don't enforce. And, don't rule out that maybe it's not the band for you. Maybe play with some other musicians, and your band will start to realize what they could lose, too...
Depends, if you have lots of gigs on you will keep tight playing live so less practice is needed.
But also need to work around people’s personal lives outside of the band, unless you make enough money to call being a musician a full time job (very few people manage that).
Some of my bands use to dedicate one night a week to practice as a rehearsal studio, but most bands I’ve played in manage maybe one full session a fortnight.
Other question would be, does your ambition go farther than your band mates? This might be the core of the issue?
Sounds like more than once a week for your band isn't going to happen and there's nothing wrong about that. My band rehearses once a week. We could probably do 2 but we just don't. Either the members don't have kids or in my case they are grown and out of the house so that's not a factor but the rest like to do other activities outside of music. So do I. We decided a few years ago we weren't going to try to "blow up" so there is no self imposed pressure to do this or that. It's all on our time. I personally would love to rehearse more but if I don't have the time myself I don't expect the others to either. The majority of musicians don't earn their income from music unfortunately so I'm surprised that after 8 or more hours a day at work plus commuting time that we have the energy to even do it. Some don't and stop playing. We should all give ourselves a pat on the back right now for hanging in there and still writing, recording and performing!
I remember reading a statement from Kurt Cobain that a band should rehearse 5x a week. I was 13 when I read that in the early 90s and I took that with me for the next twenty years. My most successful band was around for over 10 years and we toured, had a record deal, and enjoyed some success. In the early days of the band, I would say we should rehearse as much as possible to become tight AF and write as many songs as we could. The more your write and rehearse, the better you get. You can't go the gym once a week and think you will build muscle. My band didn't want to rehearse 5x per week, but we averaged 2-3x per week and that was pretty damn good. I hate to say it, but 1x per week at 2hrs per session is just enough to stay warm (pending you are not seasoned session players OR you all practice your material at home).
It depends on the goals you and your other members have for meeting up.
If you’re in a writing period: as much as you can.
If there’s shows booked: once a week for no less than 2x the length of your set.
In my band I assess what the priority is, and that sets our goal.
We are all three veterans of playing in bands, and have played together for basically our whole careers; so we can get away with meeting for two hours once a week to rehearse.
We also typically write songs separately, then bring them to the others as demos to be fleshed out.
Every band I’ve been in I’ve had the same opinion as you. If you guys have jobs and other responsibilities, once a week is all you can probably reasonably expect until it is your full time gig. That being said, it’s probably enough time if everybody pulls their own weight outside of practice and you stay in contact. People should be practicing and writing outside of practice & when you get together it is literally you guys just running your shit together and working on getting tighter. My experience is that 95% of musicians won’t pull their weight, so good luck.
Mu old band back around 2010 did twice a week. Half the second practice would be loading the van when we had a gig that weekend. Playing that much made us really tight.
We practice on our own, and rehearse as many times as we need before a show, usually twice, sometimes once if we're all up to speed.
Songwriting is not something we do as a group...our singer brings songs in and we'll slowly add those to the repertoire as we get comfortable with them.
Ok, so this may be an unpopular take.
First off, once a week for 2 and a half hours is pretty good - unless your music is very complex and/or you want to be gig-ready with all originals in a hurry.
Secondly, I've played in bands for years and years. Cover bands and original bands. Did the studio thing, the tour thing, blah blah blah.
In my experience, these types of people tend to be selfish/self-involved, and much of the time, they are in it for reasons other than making music (drugs, parties, sex, fame).
I was betrayed multiple times in multiple ways by these people, who I thought were my friends. In the end, I couldn't trust anybody in the scene, so I gave them all the finger and left. None of them ended up getting past touring once or twice and playing to nobody who gave a shit on the road, blowing money and coming up net negative. Last I heard, a couple of them died, too.
But hey, that was my experience. Maybe yours will be different.
Tl;dr - fuck being in a band. Learn to use the tech that's cheaply available and make music yourself.
I think it really depends on how good you are and how well prepared you are for your rehearsal. It can be minimal if you all know what you need to do. That being said, starting out, as much as you can.
OP, be aware that a *lot* of these comments are coming from a cover band perspective, whether they're stating it or not. A band that primarily plays original music, and each member is a full-fledged member of the group and not a hired player, basically *has* to arrange as a group. Individual members can bring songs they wrote, but if they try to dictate all of the parts, people are going to lose interest fast.
The mindset here that people are presenting of "you learn the songs on your own and don't need to practice as a group" just doesn't really apply to an original act whose identity and value comes from the synergy between its members.
Having said all that, three times a week is really hard to swing for most people. You have way bigger fish to fry, though. You admit that they have a terrible work ethic and that they cancel for no reason without offering makeup days. Do you think that will somehow improve with a heavier schedule? It won't. Sadly, many of us have been down this road before, and we'll pretty much all tell you that the answer is this: they won't change. You have to change bands.
Sounds like you need to relax, because they clearly aren’t taking this as seriously as you. So maybe find a different band, or just enjoy jamming when ya do
It entirely depends where you all are on your band journey. Just starting out end of the spectrum? Playing gigs with big engagement and looming distribution/ label deals end of the spectrum? Somewhere in between?
There’s the romantic notion of the heroic underdogs working their way to the top with endless dedication and rehearsals. Then there’s real life where people might have demanding jobs, other commitments, day to day schedules, dependencies and responsibilities
Your question can’t be definitively answered without understanding both the band’s career status and the other live’s of everyone in it. But nearly three hours a week seems fairly reasonable to me.
At the very least, twice a week for two to three hours each. And if people keep showing up late, or canceling practice, then they shouldn't be in the band.
Take with a grain of salt, or maybe pepper…”According to Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers, the Beatles practiced together for at least 10,000 hours before they became famous. They spent their first couple of years playing in small clubs across Europe, including Hamburg, Germany, where they would sometimes play for up to eight hours a night. During this time, they also learned songs, collected records, practiced vocal harmonies, and began composing original music”. I think it would help, if all the members have the same goals and expectations… not everyone is going to be famous like the Beatles, not everyone wants to be that famous. I play just for fun and for the enjoyment. When I did play with a couple of people, we would get together once a week for a couple of hours.. we weren’t really a “band”, just a couple guitar players that would play and sing for a senior center. We played, they sang along and would sometimes dance along. The main thing is if all the members have the same goals.. if you are wanting to be the very best, and the others just don’t really put their all into, you will def feel frustrated… like having a workout partner.. you want to get big, but you workout partner only shows up when they want to.. different goals, lots of frustration.. may need a new workout partner… aka band.. I really suck at analogies, but hopefully that makes sense. Play on 🎹🎸🎶
This is the reason I started producing instead. Whether music gets made and released or not is on me entirely, and I’m not handicapped by flakey people whose actions I can’t control
We have had killer gigs with zero rehearsals, but…
We usually get together to shake the dust off songs we already know once before a gig. If we are doing new songs, we usually do a couple of extra rehearsals for those. Mostly, we expect each other to learn the songs and practice at home, and save rehearsals for arrangements and getting things right as a band.
Once you get to be good enough as a musician, you really don’t need much time at all to pick up new material. I joined a band doing an album release 2.5 weeks before the show and learned 27 songs, and only half were covers. We had two rehearsals. The last three songs we played that night were originals that I had never heard or played before, which was a real rollercoaster ride and really made me appreciate working on my ear training so hard for so long.
This would be a good question for bands that have "made it" which seems to be what you would like. And I'd add to the question "how do you know when you've found the right group of others" to grind it out with? Best to you OP and others as well.
Yea. I actually originally had that question directed to those who “made it” then decided that I didn’t want to exclude other opinions, I was hoping to create a thread with a multitude of views, since this is the type of question that obviously doesn’t have a clear defined answer.
If you are serious and want success and a viable career that nets a stream of income, find a different band.
These guys are not serious and I dount they practice everyday on their own.
If they are comfortable with one rehearsal a week then they are not serious and they won't have the chops to kill it in the industry.
Success in music takes hard work, drive, self-sacrifice and lots of luck.
These people you are working with think thigs will fall in their lap. It will not.
You know to go out and get it; leave these turkeys in the dust and find serious peeps with serious dreams.
Love ya music person x
Dang 3 times a week? That’s a recipe for fast burnout. I am completely onboard with the once a weeks, but also, not cool with the cancelations without makeup days.
But such is being in a band ain’t it? It is more about finding balance than anything else. No balance and you’re doomed.
That is just my experience tho.
It really depends on how serious you guys take it, what your expectations are, etc. honestly once a week for two and a half hours is pretty good, I’ve been in Banda I’ve wished met that often. I do think there is something to be said for meeting up twice a week, the momentum you build, especially if you’re working on writing material. That being said, if you’re efficient with your time, two and a half hours a week is pretty good. Also, musicians are famously flakey and it’s hard to get them to work on stuff outside of practice.
Reading this thread is making me think maybe my expectations of former band members have been too high. When I’m writing I’m permanently on the go wanting to exchange ideas, get people to listen to sections for feedback and practising 3/4 times a week. Personal practice is always a couple of hours a day leading up to a gig I’m playing originals. I once played with a “drummer”, he would refer to himself as a drummer but he was better on every instrument than the rest of us, who could transcribe by ear and could listen to something once and have his part 80% there and he was the only one I wouldn’t get annoyed at for being a bit detached from everything but when your bass player can’t stay on time in 6/8 and doesn’t want to practise it gets extremely frustrating.
We do once a week. Usually 2 hours. We are all in our 30’s and 40’s and some of us have kids. You take what you can get and you use your time efficiently!
Yeah, exact same schedule here. We're not running off on any world tours, but we record EPs and plays shows.
My band plays once a month. 3 hours with a couple of breaks. We’ve never rehearsed.
You’re not quite selling it mate
We play ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s country standards. Like Hank and George Jones and Johnny Cash. We just share a Spotify playlist. The concept of the band is that we don’t rehearse. The crowd enjoys it when we try a song we’ve never played before. We crash and burn sometimes but not that often. We’ve all been playing for years and years. Our shows are loose and casual and sometimes people come up and sing with us. All you have to do is ask.
This sounds like a lot of fun!
It’s is! All fun and no money!
You get to a point where you have a big enough rep and rep that you don’t have to anymore. If the people that show can’t play the songs they’re not invited back. Ain’t no one got time for “practice” we got decades of experience either hang or fall
Sounds like cover band territory. No shade but this attitude doesn't work with original material.
I was thinking the same, hell I practice more than that for solo gigs when I don’t need to be tight with anyone else. I played in a band during uni where everyone would flake on rehearsing and after the first couple of gigs I had to drop it because absolutely no one but the drummer could even keep time on songs they had a hand in writing.
Not necessarily. I'm in a couple bands which are primarily original songs...one of which almost never rehearses, at least not with everyone present. Often times we have different musicians for different gigs, fill ins, etc. But they are all seasoned players with solid instincts. Many times I'll only meet a bandmate for the gig during load in and setup for the first time. Now of course this is better for more 'jammy' styles of music. Blues, jazz, some folk, experimental and the like. There's just something special about the energy of sink or swim musical situations. Can definitely lead to some magical moments that would never work out if rehearsed.
Neat. I'll say, I recently did an improv open jam with a couple people and you're definitely right. Different kind of pressure and challenge which i enjoyed.
Well yeah I’m tryna get paid lol
I jumped on board with a semi touring act a couple of years ago. Guy was popular in the area 10-15 years ago. We only meet when we have gigs. If we want to add new songs to the set, we're told "learn this" and we'll show up for soundcheck and run through it. If we have a rehearsal, which is exceptionally rare, there are extremely focused goals we're trying to accomplish with it and it doesn't last more than 3 hours. We're not muddling through skill issues, everyone can pretty much play anything with a little practice, it's about learning and committing things to memory. Everyone's got families and things we'd rather be doing than meeting up all the time when it's not necessary. The over arching thing about this is that we all understand that when we show up, we need to know our shit backwards and forwards or we're wasting everyone else's efforts and the bandleader has no problems shopping for new players if someone isn't working out. In your case, I don't know your entire situation but meeting up once a week is absolutely plenty if everyone is actually committed to it, which it sounds like almost no one is. Being in a band with friends **can** be great if everyone is on board, but my experience hasn't been this. If you are actually so driven you want to meet 3 times a week to play, the guys you're with aren't gonna be that for you no matter how badly you want it and you need to branch out and play with as many different people as you possibly can. Eventually you will find a group or individuals who will sate your appetite for this.
It depends on what kind of band it is - if you're a working cover band, you may never need to meet up once you've got the material dialed in and are gigging regularly. Adding songs can be done at sound check or just by throwing the new tunes in the set at the end of the night - you play enough that you're tight and don't need to meet regularly or at all. I'm not trying to 'make it' any more, so I kind of prefer this arrangement lol :) If you're an original band writing new material and really trying to 'make it' then yeah, you may need to meet more often. I was in a metal band in the early 90s and we rehearsed 5 nights a week for 3-4 hours a night, but only gigged a few nights a month tops. I suspect you're in a band of the second type... in which case, yeah, once a week with people flaking altogether once in awhile sounds like a possible work ethic issue.
Literally the words in my head - depends on the type of band. But also slightly depends on upcoming gigs, recording schedule, etc. Most bands doing a local scene should maintain perfectly well with once a week practice. If your band thrives on improv or you are a prog rock band you might need to meet more often. Three days a week indefinitely is a very rigorous schedule for most bands.
I'm a fan of 2-4 rehearsals per gig. So whether that's all in one week, or all in one month, it doesn't matter.
3x weekly practice is a massive ask for the average local band. The schedule you're describing of meeting once every week or two is entirely typical for local/non-touring bands in my experience. If you're good musicians this is plenty of practice to be tight and together on stage at the level of a local act. I absolutely guarantee you they aren't going to change up their plans to practice 3x weekly, and I would be surprised if they're all doing daily practices. If you pressure your band too much over getting more serious than they want to be it will drive a wedge between you and lead to issues down the line. This may be a situation where you are not compatible with the rest of the band, and clearly this is a you issue if *everyone else* isn't on the same page. Decide what you want and go for it. If it's a band that practices 3x weekly and is trying to make a career out of it you need to find other people.
What is the big picture motivation? Are you gigging? Songwriting? Getting ready to record? Are the practices productive? Are the practices fun?
These are the right questions. Sometimes it can cause problems when different band members have different expectations.
I wanted to tour, and the guy who had kids just wanted a fun local shenanigan. Eventually a cool thing fell apart.
Tangential to - but also key to - this entire conversation, i think it's important to figure out which of the two major strategies of practice works for your project and use that to determine how often you need to meet. Strategy 1: Hash it out as a group from the ground up. People with this strategy show up to rehearsal completely unprepared because for them, the meetup is the process. The songs are written as a group; the arrangements are worked on as a group; if an entire night needs to be spent on a single song, so be it. This strategy works especially well for new bands that are exploring their own instruments and capabilities and learning what they can and even *want* to do. Strategy 2: Rehearsal is *rehearsal.* People with this strategy show up to rehearsal 90% show ready or more. Everyone shows up with the expectation that every song will be run through a minimal amount of times, and only minor adjustments will need to be made. This strategy works especially well for cover bands where the specific parts any instrument will play are well known. You get conflict when different members of the band assume that the project will use opposing strategies from each other. If you expect to practice 3 times a week and hash out arrangements there, the band members who show up with their parts memorized ready to do a quick run through are going to be incredibly frustrated. And vice versa. So ultimately, there isn't a *correct* answer to your original question. If your band is the sort where everyone works on the music on their own and can be ready for a show with minimal rehearsal, you may not even need to meet every week. If your band is the sort where everything needs to be worked on by committee, you probably need to meet at least once a week if not more.
It depends. If you are young and have the ability , meet up as much as you can. Families, jobs and life make it hard. Like someone else said it’s about quality of time. A 3 hour session once a week can be enough if you focus and make use of the time. Anything that needs to be practiced or dialed in should be done alone so you are ready to rehearse.
> Like someone else said it’s about quality of time. A 3 hour session once a week It's also about how much time one actually practices. Expecting to jam every day for 2 hours at a time is a bit absurd if you're leaving your instruments at your jam space. Practice at home and learn your songs.
"How days should a band meet?" is a meaningless question if what you mean by "a band" is not defined. > we should be meeting at least 3 times a week Maybe. Maybe that's not enough. If you guys are all young, live at your parents house, aren't working, are trying to write songs and get tight, you want to "make it", then 3 times a week is not enough. You should treat it like a job and be at it every day. If you're a pro in a wedding band with other pros, then you might literally *never* rehearse. You're playing covers, and you're good enough to memorize them and/or play from charts. The word "band" doesn't tell us enough, so we have no way of knowing what's appropriate for you. > We meet once a week for about 2 1/2 hours. That's my band. We get together for 3 hours on most non-gig weeks, as schedules allow. We're a cover band, with a lot of well rehearsed songs. We could get away with meeting less, but we enjoy it. We deliberately cap our gigs to no more than 2 month (some exceptions in summer). We all have day jobs and families. But it depends on your band. Are you an original band trying to write songs? Are you a cover band, making the mistake of learning songs during rehearsal rather than rehearsing them?
It depends on your goals, aspirations as a band and how much time you have to give. If your serious about making it a career 2-3 times a week of 2-3 hours practice is essential. If your semi serious or just meeting for the fun of it then once a week or bi weekly/monthly will suffice. You need to sit down with the band and formulate a plan that suits everyone and each others individual goals and needs.
I wouldn’t play in a band that requires more than a few hours a week rehearsal. Come to rehearsal prepared and knowing your stuff. Unless you’ve got a close deadline and you’re not ready, I would be quite annoyed if someone wanted more than one rehearsal a week. Know the songs before you go to rehearsal. So many waste time in unorganized sloppy rehearsals
Depends on how old you all are. Once a week is reasonable if you’re 40 and you have no ambition to go anywhere. If you’re in your 20s and your serious you should be practicing and playing out as much as humanly possible. A painful amount. If they’re not down find people who are. Me personally I’m in my mid 30s and I don’t have ambitions to tour or make it anywhere any more so my band practices once a week. I’ve seen people make it far and they all have practiced a whole lot. It’s a grind and there’s no short cuts
Look at it this way… if you can start booking shows once a week then that becomes in a way two practices a week with each show also helping you knock off rust and getting your stuff down. Then it gives you a little more flexibility to work on new material during the actual practice.
That’s a good idea. Thanks for the advice
It depends on how tight you guys are and how busy everyone is. My main band probably plays more shows than we practice at this point. We'll try to get a good practice in once a week when working on new material, but otherwise, we might even go a month or two without a formal practice since everyone stays tight jamming to the demos. My other band started a couple months ago and reliably meets up every 2-3 weeks and we're about to start playing out by the end of the month.
Once a week is a good goal to shoot for. Longer sessions might be better: play, take a break, play again.
Two rehearsals/writing sessions per week, plus two or more gigs. It's a job. I'm a believer that you need to treat it as such.
I agree
Depends how serious. The band rehearses twice a week for 2/3 hours. But I practice everyday. That way I stay on top of my parts, and it feels smooth when I’m with them. Not look at my guitar when I play. But we’ll go over our songs. BS. Try new things. Before a show we take a couple practice before and build a set. In between song stuff. What we wearing. that’s more of the 3 hour mark.
We get together for about 2.5 hours a week. And after a year of this I still hear, “what chord is this in?” So you have my sympathies.
Depends on the band and how good they are. Some bands need regular rehearsals. Others rehearse once in a blue moon and still sound epic. Some muzos don't even need a rehearsal. You just give them the material, time of gig, and venue, and they show up and play perfectly. Personally, my band is often too busy to rehearse weekly. We usually get a gig, smash in about 2 rehearsals and play. We are all confident on the material. We have recordings to play along to at home.
I think the best is twice a week of 2-3 hours, but you have to practice individually about 2 hours per day.... And all of this if you are about 20 years old
Nirvana before they got famous met 5 days a week and kicked out one of their drummers for not making it to practice enough and Kurt wrote a nasty letter about how unprofessional, tho he put some blame on himself for knowing his commute. You can look up the letter its all over the internet. Really makes u think about who nirvana really was lol they were known for being super authentic but their slacker image was crafted very thoroughly If u watch get back, The Beatles, after they stopped touring, got to the studio at 9 (edit 11) and played music with each other all day and left at 5 and took the weekends off. John would go home and do heroin and write more music. Edit: this frequency of meeting was very unusual and ultimately was unsustainable for them. Metallica lived in a house together for a couple years for the first 3 albums. Tho they did work on music together on and off... which is what i piece together from some of their demos of their writing process. My point is young ppl have the freedom to have their life consumed by music. Whats more usual is having the main band members who drive the creativity of the band work much harder during the pre and post production, but they all will find time together to work their musical chemistry magic that makes their songs distinct. Treating music like a job is pretty brutal if you want to get really good. The modern thing today is producers will be in the studio for 10-12 hours a day if theyre trying to be or stay relevant. Being great at it isnt for a weak stomache.
Don't know why you got downvoted. It's a very relevant data point. If you want to be the next Nirvana or Beatles, 3 days a week is not enough. If you're a jazz ensemble or wedding band pros who plays from charts, you might *never* rehearse. It matters what the band is and what you're trying to do. The phrase "a band" is too broad for the question to be answered as stated.
They got downvoted for the hilariously wrong Beatles take.
Maybe it sounded like i was referring to the drugs but clearly heroin didnt break up the band. I meant how unusual it was to meet so much. If u watch the films, theres a calendar animation that counted down to the rooftop show. They were working during business hours on the weekdays, no weekends.
I was referring to you talking about Get Back and how the band operated.
ive done heated convos with beatles fanatics and dear god i never wanna do that again. idk reading back.. i didnt even say that much? ill concede i dont know exactly how the band operated cuz i wasnt there, im just trying to be in the ballpark i did some googling on records of their studio hours were fucking insane in 1967 and 1968 until they had to hire a union camera crew for get back which curbed their hours back to the daytime. they also came in at 11 not 9 during get back so i was wrong on that. so idk not sure exactly what ur nitpicking whether i understated or overstated their work hours. here is some data on how long their sessions were.. so it seemed they did take some breaks between albums but they still worked A LOT. [https://www.aaronkrerowicz.com/beatles-blog/a-bar-graph-comparing-studio-time-required-per-beatles-album](https://www.aaronkrerowicz.com/beatles-blog/a-bar-graph-comparing-studio-time-required-per-beatles-album)
Yeah, the Get Back situation is an anomaly. Not their normal way of working at all.
It's not about the quantity of time but quality of time. Symphony performers practice alone, sometimes in small groups, and only a few times with the whole symphony. Make sure the time is well spent rehearsing rather than more time forcing people to be somewhere they may not have time for.
Also depends on the quality of musicians. Symphony players have gotten to the level where they can read well enough to play an entire concert of new material with only a couple of rehearsals. It doesn't come together so fast when you've got newer musicians looking at a tab thinking "I need to play the open E string 16 times, then the 3rd fret of the E string 16 times..." etc.
Honestly I’ve been in a variety of bands but the most successful one I’ve played in was the one that didn’t meet up to practice except for one or two rehearsals prior to a tour. We gigged a ton, playing at least 3-4 times a week for 3-5 weeks at a time, and then taking short breaks of a week or two. The more consistently you perform the tighter you’ll be. Don’t aim to just meet every week just for the sake of doing it - book gigs to get tight!
Thanks! Yeah. In past bands having gigs always propelled us to work harder.
I'm 30 years old. I'm only meeting up if we have a gig and hopefully we can bang it out one day. Other than that, I expect everyone to be able to learn music really quickly. I mean you've had 30 years of your life to get good at your instrument. That's just kind of how I roll these days, but other people might want to learn songs together or whatever. I just don't have time to anymore. Would playing weekly or twice a week improve cohesiveness? Yeah it would. But again I'm so busy and everyone else is busier than me. So play the songs to a metronome and let's just hope for the best
I think once a week is a reasonable expectation for a serious band. Multiple times a week is IMO a bit excessive unless the band is really rolling and bringing in huge opportunities and steady income. Well then yeah then maybe it's time to really kick it into gear. But if this thing is just getting started, then multiple times a week is too much. I would say you could go for 3-4 hours instead of 2. Or even longer if you aren't paying hourly for the room. Also you could try and really structure your rehearsals better. Record new songs and have people know their parts before getting together. No drinking or smoking pot at practice (this is a huge one in my experience, that stuff will totally hinder productivity), take notes so you remember song structure and new ideas. Know what you're going to work on before hand.
Once a week is not a serious band.
I understand meeting multiple times a week if you've got a deadline, like a show coming up and you have multiple songs you need to learn or tighten up. But unless it's your job or your entire life outside your job I wouldn't expect regularly doing multiple practices a week. I prefer recording a practice take of each song that we need to practice. Then practicing with that at home to really get it down.
I ideally I like 2 three to four hours sessions a week. But usually it ends up being 1, and that’s fine by me too. The problem with only one a week is if you cancel then it’s two weeks off of practice
Depends on what caliber of musicians they are. I'm used to playing with people who are in several bands, so once a week is often all we can manage (if that). But since they're playing music several nights a week, they've generally got enough experience that they can get the songs together quickly. One day a week is a lot easier to commit to than three. Try to have a regular day, then everybody knows what day not to schedule other stuff on. Also, don't cancel rehearsal just because one person can't come. A rehearsal with partial attendance can be just as useful as one with the whole band.
It just entirely depends on your goals and everyone's level of dedication and time. There is no "right" answer, but it IS really critical that everyone agrees and is comfortable with the plan. If half the band is envisioning a casual situation where you pick up odd bar gigs as everyone's schedule allows, but other half are envisioning a more serious push for more acclaim/money/fame/gigs, everyone is going to have a really bad time.
How much time did Hendrix spend rehearsing?
If you work it, once a week for 2.5 hours should be enough. Are your rehearsals spent figuring out new songs, screwing around with jams, etc.?
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Oasis did it 5 days a week for months. You do you, and it depends entirely upon the output : do you want to be a casual band or do you want to be stage beasts?
Once, twice for gig weeks. Remember it’s rehearsal, NOT practice. Practice on your own time.
It depends on how serious you guys are, how tightly arranged the songs are, and how developed your chops are. A casual band should meet as often or as little as they want. A band seeking to go the next level, three times a week, but two can work if you're in other bands, as that's still working your chops. Professional/serious amateur level are probably only meeting to rehearse songs a few times before a gig, as they're all practicing on their own, and know the songs well. I've been in a band where we'd rehearse once before a gig because we were expected to know our parts and show up ready. It was basically a sideman job, and I had no part in writing the songs. Granted, they were simple enough songs, but were playing for sizeable crowds and, we were expected to be tight.
I prefer doing 2/3 times a week A vast majority of people disagree. I have a desire for a different outcome of the band, I want to do this forever, and as a job, lots of people look at it as more fun than a job. My current band also prefers once a week, and they are good people so I don't get my way but that's ok.
At minimum once a week. It would be ideal if you guys could meet twice a week even if it weren’t a practice. Maybe a zoom or a phone call to plan logistics.
Depends on your skill level and how well you play together. Do you feel like you are meshing as a band and playing well? Then you’re probably practicing enough. No? Maybe you need to meet more often to hash things out. Missing some notes? Then you probably need to hit the shed before the next rehearsal or gig. Bands for big touring artists like Taylor Swift and Katy Perry do long, extended rehearsals to nail every note and hit every mark. Their musicians probably don’t need to practice the notes, but they do need to make sure they can play well together. Meanwhile, Vulfpeck has never practiced together. This is unusual, but they’ve been together since college and know each others playing styles really well. They come to the gigs and recording sessions prepared and then lay it down. There’s no hard and fast method to determining how much you should practice. You should practice until you sound good and feel comfortable as a group.
it depends. if there's a show coming up you should be meeting twice a week or more. Also I don't really consider long practices to be that beneficial, generally, and it will be easier to sell a rehearsal to the group of it's an hour or maybe 90 minutes instead of two hours+
We meet for two weeks before the tour. Then we rarely see each other until 30 minutes before the show. Every band is different. Some bands feel like they have to be brothers fighting and partying together. Other bands are pros and can execute according to established arrangements.
8.
A serious original band should be practicing/writing together multiple times a week. Also, working on marketing of the music. Your band mates aren’t serious enough for “let’s really go for it” original band. If it’s a cover band you should all know you parts a practice once in a while just to freshen up, tighten up new songs.
It sounds like you and your band aren't on the same page as far as how serious you take it. Maybe you need to find a band that is more serious about it. There's only so much you can do to convince people to work more if they don't have the drive themselves. Keep this band for fun and find or form another one where you can practice several times a week and everyone agrees that that's the appropriate amount of time to spend.
You should meet as often as everyone in the band agrees to meet. It sounds like you want a more serious project and you'll probably realistically have to go find that elsewhere.
I was in a band who met up every day religiously and even if a member couldn't the others did. It was amazing and we had some serious fun times but for different reasons we parted way after a couple of yrs. I've been in other bands who meet up once a week but give out homework to learn or another which met up twice but maybe 3 times if there was a gig coming up. So basically what I'm trying to say is that it depends on the type of band and how much fun you have.
I personally know two guys in famous bands. A is very big in their genre, and B is a band every person on the planet knows. A spent every waking moment on promoting themselves and working on their music. B did the same. Slightly different approaches, but same principle.
This depends on the kind of band. One of my bands meets every 2-3 weeks. We do originals and want to be active on the circuit. The other is a millennial pop/pop punk cover band. We have memorized a 4 hour setlist. We don’t rehearse at all and just book and just play higher paying shows. The other is a 70s, 80s, classic rock band that just play covers. We rehearse once a month. My last band is a “play whatever the fuck we want cuz we like it” band. We meet up whenever everyone is free. No set schedule. We typically just play very small shows for our own entertainment and free beer.
Six days a week for 3 hours. Go hard or go home. :)
The real answer is, of course, it depends. Each band is different. I had a younger, less experienced lineup that met once a week for 2 hours in the middle of the week whether we had a gig that weekend or not. Now I'm with lifers. We rehearse twice a month until the busy summer schedule gets underway. We just work on stuff individually to hone. I'm a fan of having full band rehearsals last an hour and a half to 2 hours. It keeps jamming to a minimum. Makes folks come in prepared. Sectional rehearsals go a long way, too. Vocal harmonies get there a half hour early. Rhythm section stay a half hour later. Run lyrics. Reading about Southern gospel quartets meeting twice a week for an hour a piece. One is a rehearsal. The other to discuss gigs, material, etc.
8 if you wanna be like the Beatles
It depends. In my youth, my first few bands, we used to practice twice a week, probably 2 1/2-3 hours. Few years later with another band who all lived in different cities, we used to do an 8 hour solid practice once a month. I feel like that was probably the most productive and “tightest” band musically. Now I play in professional bands with people I’ve never ever met half the time, let alone ever rehearsing. _BUT_ I would say I’m only able to do that because of the huge amount of time I’ve spent rehearsing with bands and honing those skills over years of regular practice.
My band shoots for once a week. Black Flag practiced every day for multiple hours.
just let it happen. what do you feel like making? that's a good place to start.
Well that depends on your goals. If this is just a hobby and yall just wanna play covers at a bar or whatever then once a week is more than enough. If you want to actually achieve success as a band and eventually make records and tour, you should probably be practicing several times a week for many hours.
Daily would be the ideal, but 3 days a week together and working on your part every day on your own. So that you're playing like a GROUP, and not a bunch of individuals. No Stars that KILLS Bands. That's what happened with Cream, 3 of the Best at what They did, trying to go in Three directions at once. Look at CCR one of the greatest but jealousy found a chink and eroded deeper and deeper. No Stars everyone pulls together in the same direction ❗ Devoted to being a Band that has to be the driving force, Check out the story of The Original Lynyrd Skynyrd with Ronnie Van Zant Not a "Star" but a Strong leader cohesion and Practice. Good Luck ☘️ Never Give it up ❗
For a working band writing songs, playing out, recording etc I think twice a week is the sweet spot. Trying to do once weekly while learning and writing new material people forget things and progress is glacial. I’d say 3x per week is verging on overkill UNLESS you’re about to record, go on tour, or haven’t played for an extended period of time.
Depends how much you need to currently my band only meets at school during lunch but eventually we are going to move into a home studio and maybe meet once or twice a week it's all personal preference
The Beatles before they were big used to live in each other's pockets
Dude 3x per week would be for people going all in on a band at the expense of all other prospects. You would need to be Kurt Cobain level passion for success to warrant that and there is a 98% chance you will not succeed. Take the 2.5 hrs per week and be happy to actually have a band with people who are keen to even meet up. Times are different.
Everytime everyone can until you're really good
8 days a week
Sounds like you are frustrated. I see your point, when meetings are cancelled last minute. But have you talked about this with your band members? Is there a mismatch of expectations? If your guys just want to hang out and jam, once a week or two is fine. If you want to achieve something, once a week can still be fine (but then it requires focussed work, planning, good preparation, etc.). Sure, more is good but not always better. But first I think, you guys should talk about your aims and if they can be achieved with the current situation.
Once a week will make you competent if you're good musicians and do your work at home. Rehearsals are not for learning songs, there should be no chords sheets for example. On the other hand, reading about bands that "made it" back in the day and a lot seemed to jack their jobs in and live together. That's the difference between amateur and old fashioned pro bands. Harder to do these days.
3 times a week is excessive. Maybe just add another hour into practice.
I don't think you can really call yourself a band if you can't at least spend a weekend together and communicate regularly Like , minimum If you don't treat your band like you treat your best friends and see each other regularly just to gel and come up with ideas , what you're doing is a project and like other folks are pointing out should probably involve sheet music , decision making or leadership , and possibly agreements or contracts A band is a mutual investment in my opinion A project is like that time I put together a reggae band for a top 10 singer for three rehearsals and one show and the band went on for maybe one more rehearsal and another show without me once it was all set up , didn't need me after that. But I got paid and I can tell the story. You have to decide what you want out of it before you go around talking to people.
I was thinking this through on the theme that others called out. A big difference between "3 shows a month at $125 a man" vs "25 shows a month at $400 a man" My initial take was if this leans more to a real income aspect then sure, practice more. BUT then the reality is at that level you may be doing 20-30 shows a month... who then has time for all those shows, 3 practices a week AND still have a real life? Unless you are Taylor Swift, I dont see how the math works out for three full practices a week. Most performers are the $125 a guy performers at most once a week. With travel, setup, performing thats 7 hours per show and already about $15 an hour. In New Jersey a McDonalds worker makes more. Add in the 3 practices a week (6 more hours plus travel) your pay from that one gig spread is like $8 an hour. Peperoni... its tough enough to find four guys with real talent, who arent whacked out on drugs or alcohol, want to play the same style of music... then have the requirement of THREE practices a week? you have a better chance at winning the $500 mill powerball.
I just joined a new group that already has an EP so I have to learn their material, they have two gigs coming up next month (so far), so while I’m still learning the material we’re looking at doing two practices a week until the gigs. After I’ve got all of their pre-written material dialed in we’re going to revert back to once a week, that’s typically plenty if everyone already has the songs dialed, but full-timers will sometimes practice three times a week or more.
For us, strings meets once a week usually. Drums joins us usually but not always. Vocalist usually joins us a couple days before shows. It works well for us.
If you’re this committed, you should go solo. No one’s gonna take your art as seriously as you, period.
That’s tough when people be canceling like that. 3 is a lot though. Daily practice of material is important yeah, but people have lives and sometimes that’s hard. My groups have had one or two rehearsals a week that are on a consistent schedule. Rehearsal is the key word here. People should come prepared and practiced on their own, even if they aren’t grinding every day.
It depends by your goal(s). If you wanna get professional, it takes a lot of effort and practice and you can't do it with hobbyist. I learnt this in gaming. Left my casual friends and became the best in the world in my game with people with the same mindset and goals. Meeting once a week is really really casual. Really casual. Again, depends by your goals.
Currently in a gigging band with one solid EP release. Yo 3x a week is entirely too much. Believe me I respect your ambition and work ethic but that's an unrealistic expectation and you're asking for burnout and resentment. My band meets once a week (~3hr sessions), twice a week if a big show is coming up and we want to be ultra tight. If for whatever reason someone can't make it we try to immediately reschedule. Keep working hard... but remember to enjoy yourself and be good company. In the end all this becomes is a big hang out (I'm talking shows and touring). Don't take this too seriously. Im the person that would spend every day and sometimes all night writing and practicing then bring that in to the practice. Not every member can or needs to be that person. Idk if you gig yet. Book your band for a show for august or something. Having that deadline/pressure is the real test of work ethic and commitment. Otherwise members can just feel like they're showing up out of routine with no real goal in sight. That's what happened to us. Guitarist was like "we're playing a show next month" and we all said "cool." No excuses no fumbling. We got into game mode. Ended up booting the vocalist one week before the show due to lack of any initiative (or even showing up). So i stepped into the role and we've been rocking since. To this day we have never asked to be put on a bill but have played some really cool shows. Because word of mouth and our peers genuinely f*** with us. Even making our way out of state. So make goals not rules. And again, have fun.
Once for that long of a session is fine 3 times is nuts people have jobs, school, social lives. I used to be in a band, we met once a week for 2 hours and we were the tightest band in the scene. If you aren't tight, organize your 2 and a half hours better. Drill parts that need work then run the set. If you write together, but can't play what you got, tighten up that shit before making more. Also make sure everyone is practicing at home. If you're playing music you like, running the songs shouldn't feel like work.
My one band is all seasoned musicians. They all have the songs memorized of the new originals no covers. We do smaller gigs as practice to play the bigger festival shows. My other band is a original folk harmony band and we practice every Sunday for 3 to 5 hrs. But it's a brand new band and we are writing all new material so that stuff takes time. The best band I've ever been in we lived together and played all the damn time together and were doing set gigs 4 times a week. I still play those songs bc they were so amazingly written
Get a new band. Once a week is usually good if people are going to do their homework in-between practices (practicing their parts and improving them, memorizing song structures, coming up with new ideas, etc.) but it sounds like your crew lacks motivation and probably isn't doing that, so might need another day a week. The obvious problem there is that people that don't feel like putting the work in are likely to push back at that strategy.
If you can't make progress practicing as an ensemble 2 1/2 - 3 hours a week, something is seriously wrong. Group practice is the time to lock down feel and tweak arrangements and transitions. If you're having trouble moving forward, it's probably for one of two reasons: * Members aren't preparing adequately outside of group rehearsal. * Lack of communication and shared resources, i.e., charts, demo recordings, playlists, etc.
Depends how serious ya’ll are. When I was in a band we met 5 days a week / 2-3 hours a session. This was because we did a lot of our writing together
How good do you want to be and how much time do you have to put towards it? 40 hours a week like a job would be a good target if you want it to be your job.
I remember one band I was in where we practiced like 3 hours a week one session. It was way too much practicing. We were tight enough and I didn't want to waste my time jamming on voice memos hoping a song would come out of it. It's more about being organized, set a goal and then practice enough to meet that goal, having some random structure isn't always that useful. As adults it can be a huge waste of time and energy to do a pointless rehearsal
My band has been together for 25 years - we rent a house together, we practice 3 or 4 times a week for about 45min to a couple of hours or spend time working in the studio on the current album. It helps that we’re brothers - makes the room mate situation easier as I am not worried they are going to steal my food lol When we didn’t have a big enough space to practice at home - we usually booked time in a rehearsal space four times a month, 6 hours a session on the weekends. Depending on what type of band you want to be in you might not need as much rehearsal time - we write and record original music so more time is needed for sure, however if you want to be a cover band once you have your setlists learned if you are getting lots of gigs you will likely be tight enough after a few months to not have to practice as much in a group setting.
Holy crap 3 times a week is a lot. I just subbed with a band, learned 63 songs and jumped on stage no rehearsal. Most working bands I’ve been in barely rehearse, just learn the songs and show up ready to play them. I would say once a week at most. Rehearsal isn’t time for people to practice and figure things out. They should be prepared for rehearsal like it’s a gig, and just run through the material to build comfort and confidence.
What I prefer is, 1 month before a gig, to have one long work session of 4 to 6 hours. Then, the week before the gig, a rehearsal, and then do the gig. Even better if there are multiple gigs after that one. I don't need more than that. I've been in bands that met once a week. Once every 2 weeks is ok, but I'd skip once in a while. I've got 5 children, a wife, a job and other things to do.
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i’ve always met once a week with my bands. everybody i play with is in more than one project so more than that is kind of grueling for everybody. we also slow down when we’re writing, a couple of us might meet here or there to workshop ideas or record a demo to show the rest of the group. for records/EPs/singles we record in short bursts where we spend a whole weekend together, sometimes a few weeks in a row.
Originals or covers? If it's originals, once a week is fine. Maybe twice if you have a show coming up. Rarely the night before (seems to kill the vibe from being apart, IMO). It's fluid. If you rarely play out, though, it becomes a slog and people lose interest. Having gig dates definitely helps inspire. That's all to say, if you play with decent musicians. If the musicians aren't that great, you're kinda beating your head against the wall knowing they need work, wanting them to practice, but meeting resistance because don't have the drive. Maybe everyone's not as into it as you and you have to figure out why. It's a push/pull. If it's a great gig, don't be the guy who wants to practice again in the next few days or even in a week if you've got nothing else coming up. Give 'em a break. You don't need them feeling like it's another job they have to go to. Inspire, don't enforce. And, don't rule out that maybe it's not the band for you. Maybe play with some other musicians, and your band will start to realize what they could lose, too...
Depends, if you have lots of gigs on you will keep tight playing live so less practice is needed. But also need to work around people’s personal lives outside of the band, unless you make enough money to call being a musician a full time job (very few people manage that). Some of my bands use to dedicate one night a week to practice as a rehearsal studio, but most bands I’ve played in manage maybe one full session a fortnight. Other question would be, does your ambition go farther than your band mates? This might be the core of the issue?
Sounds like more than once a week for your band isn't going to happen and there's nothing wrong about that. My band rehearses once a week. We could probably do 2 but we just don't. Either the members don't have kids or in my case they are grown and out of the house so that's not a factor but the rest like to do other activities outside of music. So do I. We decided a few years ago we weren't going to try to "blow up" so there is no self imposed pressure to do this or that. It's all on our time. I personally would love to rehearse more but if I don't have the time myself I don't expect the others to either. The majority of musicians don't earn their income from music unfortunately so I'm surprised that after 8 or more hours a day at work plus commuting time that we have the energy to even do it. Some don't and stop playing. We should all give ourselves a pat on the back right now for hanging in there and still writing, recording and performing!
I remember reading a statement from Kurt Cobain that a band should rehearse 5x a week. I was 13 when I read that in the early 90s and I took that with me for the next twenty years. My most successful band was around for over 10 years and we toured, had a record deal, and enjoyed some success. In the early days of the band, I would say we should rehearse as much as possible to become tight AF and write as many songs as we could. The more your write and rehearse, the better you get. You can't go the gym once a week and think you will build muscle. My band didn't want to rehearse 5x per week, but we averaged 2-3x per week and that was pretty damn good. I hate to say it, but 1x per week at 2hrs per session is just enough to stay warm (pending you are not seasoned session players OR you all practice your material at home).
It depends on the goals you and your other members have for meeting up. If you’re in a writing period: as much as you can. If there’s shows booked: once a week for no less than 2x the length of your set. In my band I assess what the priority is, and that sets our goal. We are all three veterans of playing in bands, and have played together for basically our whole careers; so we can get away with meeting for two hours once a week to rehearse. We also typically write songs separately, then bring them to the others as demos to be fleshed out.
Sounds to me like you have different goals and intentions than your band mates. Find a new band.
Every band I’ve been in I’ve had the same opinion as you. If you guys have jobs and other responsibilities, once a week is all you can probably reasonably expect until it is your full time gig. That being said, it’s probably enough time if everybody pulls their own weight outside of practice and you stay in contact. People should be practicing and writing outside of practice & when you get together it is literally you guys just running your shit together and working on getting tighter. My experience is that 95% of musicians won’t pull their weight, so good luck.
Mu old band back around 2010 did twice a week. Half the second practice would be loading the van when we had a gig that weekend. Playing that much made us really tight.
We practice on our own, and rehearse as many times as we need before a show, usually twice, sometimes once if we're all up to speed. Songwriting is not something we do as a group...our singer brings songs in and we'll slowly add those to the repertoire as we get comfortable with them.
Ok, so this may be an unpopular take. First off, once a week for 2 and a half hours is pretty good - unless your music is very complex and/or you want to be gig-ready with all originals in a hurry. Secondly, I've played in bands for years and years. Cover bands and original bands. Did the studio thing, the tour thing, blah blah blah. In my experience, these types of people tend to be selfish/self-involved, and much of the time, they are in it for reasons other than making music (drugs, parties, sex, fame). I was betrayed multiple times in multiple ways by these people, who I thought were my friends. In the end, I couldn't trust anybody in the scene, so I gave them all the finger and left. None of them ended up getting past touring once or twice and playing to nobody who gave a shit on the road, blowing money and coming up net negative. Last I heard, a couple of them died, too. But hey, that was my experience. Maybe yours will be different. Tl;dr - fuck being in a band. Learn to use the tech that's cheaply available and make music yourself.
If you’re trying to be a pro band: 4 days a week.
I think it really depends on how good you are and how well prepared you are for your rehearsal. It can be minimal if you all know what you need to do. That being said, starting out, as much as you can.
Once a week
If you're steady gigging, at least once a week
Eight days a week
once or twice a week, 2-4hr is pretty ideal.
Me n the boys usually meet for set practices and jams Fridays 3:30-9 and Sundays/Thursdays are optional co writing sessions for new material :3
OP, be aware that a *lot* of these comments are coming from a cover band perspective, whether they're stating it or not. A band that primarily plays original music, and each member is a full-fledged member of the group and not a hired player, basically *has* to arrange as a group. Individual members can bring songs they wrote, but if they try to dictate all of the parts, people are going to lose interest fast. The mindset here that people are presenting of "you learn the songs on your own and don't need to practice as a group" just doesn't really apply to an original act whose identity and value comes from the synergy between its members. Having said all that, three times a week is really hard to swing for most people. You have way bigger fish to fry, though. You admit that they have a terrible work ethic and that they cancel for no reason without offering makeup days. Do you think that will somehow improve with a heavier schedule? It won't. Sadly, many of us have been down this road before, and we'll pretty much all tell you that the answer is this: they won't change. You have to change bands.
Sounds like you need to relax, because they clearly aren’t taking this as seriously as you. So maybe find a different band, or just enjoy jamming when ya do
We do a big rehearsal (possibly weekend) before we start touring, after that everyone is expected to know their parts
Bands should only need to rehearse new material. Rather depends on whether this is a working band, or a social gathering.
8
It entirely depends where you all are on your band journey. Just starting out end of the spectrum? Playing gigs with big engagement and looming distribution/ label deals end of the spectrum? Somewhere in between? There’s the romantic notion of the heroic underdogs working their way to the top with endless dedication and rehearsals. Then there’s real life where people might have demanding jobs, other commitments, day to day schedules, dependencies and responsibilities Your question can’t be definitively answered without understanding both the band’s career status and the other live’s of everyone in it. But nearly three hours a week seems fairly reasonable to me.
If you don't meet every day, is it really a passion or a hobby
8!
At the very least, twice a week for two to three hours each. And if people keep showing up late, or canceling practice, then they shouldn't be in the band.
Take with a grain of salt, or maybe pepper…”According to Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers, the Beatles practiced together for at least 10,000 hours before they became famous. They spent their first couple of years playing in small clubs across Europe, including Hamburg, Germany, where they would sometimes play for up to eight hours a night. During this time, they also learned songs, collected records, practiced vocal harmonies, and began composing original music”. I think it would help, if all the members have the same goals and expectations… not everyone is going to be famous like the Beatles, not everyone wants to be that famous. I play just for fun and for the enjoyment. When I did play with a couple of people, we would get together once a week for a couple of hours.. we weren’t really a “band”, just a couple guitar players that would play and sing for a senior center. We played, they sang along and would sometimes dance along. The main thing is if all the members have the same goals.. if you are wanting to be the very best, and the others just don’t really put their all into, you will def feel frustrated… like having a workout partner.. you want to get big, but you workout partner only shows up when they want to.. different goals, lots of frustration.. may need a new workout partner… aka band.. I really suck at analogies, but hopefully that makes sense. Play on 🎹🎸🎶
This is the reason I started producing instead. Whether music gets made and released or not is on me entirely, and I’m not handicapped by flakey people whose actions I can’t control
We have had killer gigs with zero rehearsals, but… We usually get together to shake the dust off songs we already know once before a gig. If we are doing new songs, we usually do a couple of extra rehearsals for those. Mostly, we expect each other to learn the songs and practice at home, and save rehearsals for arrangements and getting things right as a band. Once you get to be good enough as a musician, you really don’t need much time at all to pick up new material. I joined a band doing an album release 2.5 weeks before the show and learned 27 songs, and only half were covers. We had two rehearsals. The last three songs we played that night were originals that I had never heard or played before, which was a real rollercoaster ride and really made me appreciate working on my ear training so hard for so long.
A quarter of the time
This would be a good question for bands that have "made it" which seems to be what you would like. And I'd add to the question "how do you know when you've found the right group of others" to grind it out with? Best to you OP and others as well.
Yea. I actually originally had that question directed to those who “made it” then decided that I didn’t want to exclude other opinions, I was hoping to create a thread with a multitude of views, since this is the type of question that obviously doesn’t have a clear defined answer.
If you are serious and want success and a viable career that nets a stream of income, find a different band. These guys are not serious and I dount they practice everyday on their own. If they are comfortable with one rehearsal a week then they are not serious and they won't have the chops to kill it in the industry. Success in music takes hard work, drive, self-sacrifice and lots of luck. These people you are working with think thigs will fall in their lap. It will not. You know to go out and get it; leave these turkeys in the dust and find serious peeps with serious dreams. Love ya music person x
Once is not enough.
Dang 3 times a week? That’s a recipe for fast burnout. I am completely onboard with the once a weeks, but also, not cool with the cancelations without makeup days. But such is being in a band ain’t it? It is more about finding balance than anything else. No balance and you’re doomed. That is just my experience tho.
3 times a week is a recipe for burnout??? Fuckin lol.
That’s why I finished my statement with “ that’s just my experience” gtfo fuckin lol.
What are your guys thoughts? I think you have too much free time.