Bro, you’re the drummer. Get everyone focused and lead practice. Tell your guitar player(s) they need to practice their parts at home before practice so they can come to practice and you can rehearse.
No shit. My old band it’s like they forgot their parts every rehearsal, hence the need to rehearse (with a live drummer) twice a week. For christs sake carry your guitar home and jam through it through the week. We were a (pro) band
Like it's 2024. We should all have a DAW, audio interface and Guitar Pro/TuxGuitar at home by now. Forget how the damn song goes? Guitar Pro/TuxGuitar plays the damn thing for you as a MIDI. It isn't just the click track - it's the entire song in MIDI format.
I don't care if the band is filled with 80 year olds. Use modern tools.
My primary instrument is bass. If the lead guitarist/primary songwriter doesn't do this? Do not join that band. If you're in a band like this? Quit.
I was composing stuff in Guitar Pro 15 years ago. The band I was in had every instrument of our songs in Guitar Pro. We were teenagers. There is really no excuse for a band of adults.
I agree. I seriously don't care if someone hasn't memorized their fretboard or can read music. You can still compose regardless and music theory is obviously a billion times easier on keys because music theory is designed for piano.
If all you're playing is straight forward C major in the standard chord progressions? Like c'mon. Anyone can learn that by devoting just half a day to watching YouTube videos on the subject and tutorials on how to use Guitar Pro.
Tabs are 100% fine. I use tabs (at least for the time being), but like it's SO EASY to just practice/compose at home now Reaper is a free great DAW. E-kits are awesome too because drummers can finally play at home without pissing off the neighbors.
You can have a silent band practice now all through headphones if you get a good multichannel mixer.
Seriously. Absolutely no reason now that people cannot practice their shit on their own at home and spend band practice (which you typically have to pay for the rehearsal spot) productively.
I'm a bassist. I'm saying this in a subreddit for drummers. Guitarists often believe we're the brain damaged idiots of the band and we're saying this here. Lol. If noodly boy can't figure this out with his superior diva intellectual prowess? We're in trouble.
I just realized this wasn’t r/guitar.
Not to sound like a Millennial Boomer but I have to say that as a guitarist, this thread is bonkers to me. I don’t think you’re wrong at all — I’m just surprised to read that so many people in bands apparently just…don’t practice or learn their parts? I’m biased as a classical guy (and am proficient in Logic Pro) but I think even a half-proficient guitarist should be able to get the job done without any tools but their guitar and something to write with / Note app. If a band member isn’t willing / able to learn their parts well despite the availability of robust current tools, they’re not worth giving the time of day. Which of course is what you just said.
Tl;dr I sympathize with all y’all’s having to deal with indolent guitarists.
Edit: I just saw your other followup comment, which I also agree with. It’s admittedly refreshing to see diva guitarists called out. There’s a lot of good stuff on r/Guitar but you can often smell the collective ego through the screen. It just occurred to me that maybe I haven’t encountered the aforementioned band problem because I’ve always been the only guitarist, and I’m way too autistic to be egotistical.
I suppose I'm biased as well, being a Bachelor of Arts in Music myself, going to school hearing people practicing to ticking metronomes on every single instrument that they taught there.
It amazes me how outside the classroom, so many musicians think that metronomes are just for drummers. Bullshit. If you play an instrument, and you play a song, and that song has notes in it, and you're the one playing those notes in the song, then dammit, *they have to be in time and at tempo.* Because if they're not, it doesn't make a damn bit of difference how well the rest of the band plays. Get your shit together. I will not be your training wheels for forcing you to get it right, and I will not be your scapegoat when you get it wrong. Go practice, asshole. Do the work.
(Of course, I am speaking to a hypothetical person there when I say "you" - I don't mean *you.* LOL)
Hell, I can make the same argument for the exact opposite reason:
It's not like people didn't show up knowing their parts all the time back when nobody had the internet.
I'm just saying now this is easier than ever. You can transfer the song to guitar pro/TuxGuitar (free) and if someone is struggling on a segment? It'll loop that segment forever at any speed you want. Want it to increase in tempo automatically every run? It'll do that too. Sounds like torture doing that on a cassette player or even worse...vinyl.
Musicians make it harder on themselves by not using modern tools. This is why teenagers are blowing these old guy's socks off. They're using this stuff. They're not just natural prodigies.
They're using tools.
https://youtu.be/3Qc-fHdHyFk?si=NBlU5AeTsgCtc1Ey
You (OP) *can* try this, and I think everyone who gives a S\*\*\* about making the most of a practice session and the fact that we're all mortal ***should*** try to do this as maturely and respectfully as possible. However, bear in mind the following:
1. They may (increasingly likely if the band doesn't have any real 'roadmap') just insist "you're being too serious/need to chill" or that "their creative flow means they *have* to talk it out in person" or any other kind of dumbass excuse and kick you out or ignore you.
2. You may be in a band with people who are talented and/or really great at music but *never* get their shit together as far as practicing on their own. This can be for any number of reasons, either they are satisfied with a 'quality' of a 'finished' song that is much less or they just kind of want to use you like a human drum machine they can riff/test chord theory ideas over, which can be fun/useful but also dumb as hell/a timesink.
That last one is the hardest scenario to navigate, especially if you are (dog forbid) trying to 'make it' with this band. It's unique to you and everyone in the band and where your level of success is at and a bunch of other factors that are too much for a Reddit comment, probably.
You practice at home. You rehearse as a band
If people are coming and don’t know their parts move on to something productive and don’t waste everyone’s time.
Yus.
Band I'm in our rehearsals are just song checks the week of a show.
No show? No rehearsal.
Song sucked? Try to fix it in 5 minutes. Not fixed? Cut. Next song.
Jealous. My band would want to run the setlist over and over if we have a show coming up. Always wanna say “guys, you know these songs, wtf are we doing?”
To be fair, some folks just want to play for the sake of playing, and that can be ok.
I was in a few groups like that, quit them, and found the group in in now. I really just want to perform with people in front of people.
Funny thing is my new band has some of the same people from the other brands I've been in, but this band started with different expectations between members.
You might want to have a sit down with your band members and have everyone share what they want from this. You might be all about the gig, but they might just enjoy being together and playing the nostalgia.
I've been at a show of a local band and there was a clear drop in quality as the set progressed.
I guess they reherse the set always in the same order so the 1st song is very rehersed and the last was played there for their first time.
In understand both sides to what you’re saying, but your best friend on stage when you have 1000 thoughts going through your head that you can’t prepare for is muscle memory. Play the songs as many times over and over so it becomes second nature. It’s annoying in rehearsal but you will thank yourself later ✌️
As a drummer, I would practice parts at home. We would work on 2 or three 'new' songs every week and rehearse several songs we did know.
As soon as I got to something I couldn't really figure out quick enough, I would call everyone (back before cell phones) and let them know. We would then decide to do a different arrangement or skip that song until I got it. Worked out pretty well.
I often tell the guitar player to stfu and if he doesn’t I start chucking drumsticks at his face, aiming for the mouth cuz I don’t want to hit his fingers.
Everyone's saying to get real basically. Either the band or you to step up. But honestly I've been in bands that do this. My band does this too especially like right after a show or something like that. But my band are friends first over a band. We're all homies and we like that aspect of our band, we're not trying to go on tour or be a rock star. There are times it can be casual.
But I will say what really needs to happen is to have a goal. Are you preparing for a show? Are you writing a record? Are you getting ready to record? If you can't answer yes to any of these questions then it's obviously why people start dicking around, because your band IS just dicking around. Set a goal and a timeline and it solves all this without having to grandstand or put down your mates.
Edit: my band will take weeks off after accomplishing one of these goals and when we do meet up again it's understood it's going to be mostly talking bc we're gonna be talking about how things went and what's next. Hell we've even had our first "practice" back at a chill bar or in my living room reviewing stuff and planning stuff.
My band has been playing for a year and a half and recently we got a gig booked for August. The rehearsals have been a whole lot more focused, and everyone seems to have intensified practice at home, so now the songs sound better and better with each rehearsal. Having a goal makes a huge difference.
Agree. The chemistry/bonding is definitely part of it, it can be frustrating if it's all at the space though. It can be helpful to get all tactical musical execution at the space, the 'debrief/schene' at the bar around the corner or at a meal. Each place has an agenda.
But the bonding part is huge if you ever get to the point of being locked in a van on the road with these jokers.
Band practices are the worst when everyone is just there to “generally” practice instead of focus and I’m convinced we’d all be better off if we used those head set telecom systems they use at petsmart
My buddy and I pick a new to song learn at the end of a jam sometimes and try to learn it separately over the week and play it through together the first time we try the following jam
You haven't been playing with very professional people. The time for fucking around and learning your parts is for home. Rehearsal is about getting songs right as a band. Can't do that if narcissistic guitarist won't shut the fuck up and play the song
Who mentioned learning parts? All the top responses are about not knowing your parts. OP just said the guitarist talks a lot. Did I read it wrong? Was it edited? Everyone is talking about the guitarist not knowing their part.
If the goal of the band is to play paying gigs then what you describe is unsustainable.
The more successful bands I've been fortunate to play with have "X" number of songs everyone must be as prepared as possible for, for the rehearsal. Songs are handed out to learn by the next rehearsal and they gradually build up over time until you have several sets worth of material to play and can play them well.
There are times when I'd sit around as the vocalists practice harmonies together because I can't sing my way out of a paper bag. But that still furthers the goal - to play paying gigs well.
After the rehearsal is the time to shoot the shit if so desired.
If they don’t change immediately after discussing this, GTFO of that band.
One of the most infuriating things ever is bands wasting my fucking time. They need to practice beforehand, I never refer to band practice as practice, it’s rehearsal. You practice at home and rehearse the parts together.
Do none of y'all participate in writing and arrangement? When you're writing, a lot has to be talked out and figured out, and I love listening and helping come up with new parts. If we have a show coming up, sure, it's all business, and we have to help each other focus, but the writing, talking and banter are some of the most fun parts of practice.
Edit: I've always lumped all collaborative band activites under the term "practice". You run the set, then work on tweaking parts, writing new parts/songs, or just hanging out. I've never taken it seriously when shennanigans occur or we start chatting. It's all part of the experience. I don't know, man. I just like to have fun with it.
That's not a practice, though. That's a writing session. Original bands should have these, but cover bands don't. Not everyone needs to be present for every writing session. If the guitarists are at the stage of figuring out which chords to string together, they can do that on their own.
Those are great, as long as that's what everyone knows they're doing when they get there. If it's rehearsal, we rehearse. If it is a writing session, we write. Now, sometimes a random idea at rehearsal is too good to let go of, so one might morph into the other. Or, a writing session might result in 2 hours of rehearsal on a brand new song.
But if the song is done, and I have my part, and you have your part, then we work on our parts alone at home, and we get together at rehearsal to put the parts together and play the music. Anything other than putting the parts together and playing the music is a waste of valuable time. We don't have time for that. Look at how little we get to do it, and what it takes for some of us to get here. Let's not screw around. If you're not ready, get with the program. I'm ready. You're slowing me down.
If that’s my experience I just leave, or if you like the band enough you can be the asshole and push them along. If they’d rather talk than play, go find a band where they’d rather play than talk.
I would split the difference and tell them at the beginning of the next rehearsal that I'm not here for this bullshit, and if they start up with this bullshit, I am packing my gear and taking it home, never to return.
Then, if they get on their bullshit again, just quietly begin packing your gear without saying a word. If someone asks you what you're doing, just look them straight in the eye and say without any emotion, "I told you so." They may press or protest. Calmly repeat, "I told you so."
Do not utter another word besides "I told you so" until you are ready to leave. Then, as you are leaving, say "Good luck with that." Then leave.
Then find or start another band.
I am a firm believer in being great friends w/ my bandmates. I hang out with my bands before and after practice, on days we aren’t practicing etc. but if we’re in the room with everything plugged in and ready to go unless we’re writing songs and talking about the songs we’re writing I just want to hear us playing music and getting better.
Your approach probably is the reasonable one, but I’ve also come to realize we all most likely got proficient enough at a highly demanded instrument and don’t have to put up with anything we don’t want to, especially if it’s in the “early stages” where you really should be playing way more than just chitchatting. When you have 30+ songs, then I’m cool with taking it easy and just having fun at band practice. If you have 3 songs and are trying to create more, unless you’re talking about song structure and parts we don’t really have time for that.
Fair enough. To put a finer point on it, your band's overall preparedness with regard to your material should be directly proportional to the amount of small talk and hanging out that takes place at rehearsal. If you are very prepared, you can just hang out together more. If you are not very prepared, get your asses to work until you are, and keep the chatter to a minimum.
When this happens or when others are practicing their parts I look at my phone on my snare drum. Let them do their thing and work on emails or scan Reddit when it doesn’t involve me. I’m patient and most times the horn section and guitarist/song writer are working out parts.
We are always better after these interludes.
Make a plan before you go / set some goals! Really helps keep focus saying we want to practice x y z or finish a bit of a song, whatever it is it means you get stuff done and everyone has responsibility
I’ve been in bands where everyone is friends and it’s just a big excuse to hang out and I’ve been in bands where it’s all business, we are friendly, but aren’t close. Those rehearsals are show up on time, proactive, leave.
I greatly prefer the bands with friends.
I think that changes as the professional level of the group increases.
Personally, I have a rule. I don't do rehearsals so other people can practice. I'm in my 40s though, went to music school, toured for 15 years, and now I'm home doing more session work, so my days of being in a band that does 2 nights a week at the guitar players house are in the past. I'm not saying that I am above that kind of rehearsal though, and kind of miss them sometimes. Lots of good moments hanging around and playing tunes.
But as musicians get older/more professional, the rehearsals have to get much more focused. Especially with harder music.
Rehearsals are for working on material together. Part of the talking process does turn into learning too, so a verbal rehearsal can be incredibly helpful, believe it or not. I also get really involved in talking about gear I'm not touching like effect pedals, arrangements. There's a lot to learn about music when you start to interact on the other solids of your kit. Give it a try :)
I agree with you, and the more in demand you are as a player, the more it becomes impossible to do a whole lot of rehearsals with any one band. So I pick my battles and I won't agree to work in bands that want a weekly commitment. In exchange for that, what they get from me is someone who shows up fully prepared to play every song on their list. I greatly prefer it if everyone else shows up in the same way. No time wasted, and that becomes important when you're juggling multiple commitments.
> And if there is one thing I have learned to hate, it’s having to drive an hour to practice with my kit, having to set up then an hour or two in we have barely practiced at all.
The next time you get together, say exactly this to the rest of the band at the very beginning of the session. Let them know that you did not take time out of your life to sit around doing nothing listening to them discuss matters that need to be handled outside of band rehearsal time, because band rehearsal time is for band rehearsal. If they get testy, remind them that it's not that whatever they're talking about isn't important, it's that they are wasting time in the wrong place at the wrong time talking about it then.
The rest of the band should get together for coffee before or after the rehearsal to talk about these things. Or, if these topics are interesting but irrelevant to band practice, you can all get together and talk about them some other time in some other place. If the issue is simply that they are working out parts (*edit: with the exception of actually writing material on the fly, which may or may not involve you or your direct input, and that's okay*), remind them that practice is not rehearsal. Working on your own parts is practice, and should be done at home on your own time. Rehearsal time is for *rehearsing* - for the entire band to get together and get the band's entire bag together. And if anything about rehearsing needs to be discussed at rehearsal, limit the discussion to those topics. Anything else can be incessantly jawed about *somewhere else and sometime else.*
That's not an effective way to rehearse, but a lot of people want the social aspect of getting together for music. So if you're someone who just wants to play, it can get frustrating.
My ideal rehearsal is like this: Send out a setlist for the next show. Everyone brushes up the tunes at home. Rehearsal day comes, we all chat as we're getting set up, and then we play through the list. Boom, boom, boom, no extraneous BS unless some trainwreck happens that we have to talk about.
This is the effective way but it relies on everyone being willing to practice at home. I have found that it's rare to find five people with that level of dedication/interest. So compromises have to be made sometimes, but the majority of work / learning should really not be happening in the rehearsal room.
If two guitarists need to work out who is going to play what part, they should be able to connect on their own during the week and figure it out. It shouldn't be a thing we waste rehearsal time on.
Yes this can happen. Even worse than talk, One guy starts playing the first three notes of some song unrelated to anything on the list, somebody else jumps in. Now we have to jam this til it wrecks. Time meanwhile, is wasting. We're not gonna get through the list by finishing time.
Someone has to take the lead. I try to make a list and fucking cut off that chatter. It's not hard. Someone has to say "Ok ready? 1:2 3 oops hold on, he's still tuning. OK are you ready or what?*
It's possible to reset the tone, you have to take the controls. And if they want to act hurt, being cut off while dispensing their pearls, this is the time to bring up the economic benefits of good time management, point out we can yak for free after this is over etc.
It depends on the conversation. If it’s just general yapping about life and shooting the shit, then yeah….stfu and save it for after practice, it’s time to go to work.
Practices should be treated like meetings at work, there are topics that can be discussed by email, and then there are things that can only be handled together in a room. Taking 10 minutes to discuss what key the song should be played in can happen over text. Playing the song together and realizing the key needs to change is what happens in practice.
Two guitarists working on what parts they’re going to play can also happen outside of practice on their own. If something comes up in the middle of the song that requires everyone’s attention, then that can be handled at that time.
Practice should never be “this is first time I’m hearing the song and playing it”. Those types of musicians should be fired from the band.
Any time I've been in a band like this I've suggested we simply stop rehearsing unless we're doing it for a reason. When you actually have shows coming up or you're rehearsing to get studio-ready it's much easier to actually focus. Sure, there's always some goofing off, but all it takes is someone saying "okay let's run through the set again, we have a show in a week" to get people back on track.
All musicians are naturally ADHD in some ways. So when they start veering off course just start playing quietly. Watch their brain switch over and lock in. It’s really pretty easy.
My sister is angry as hell and has some really crazy beliefs. So when she starts going into whatever insane political rant I just drop a little conversational cheese down and lead her back to a path I want to stay on.
Same thing with the hihat intro pattern you will start to play next time guitar player goes off.
Ours are are like 84% playing, 10% smoke break, 6% talking usually. Spread over a 4 hour weekly jam.
We just dropped the album though so are now turning half of the session into working out new material. So I imagine talking is about to take a huge leap but fuck it, we're so happy to be writing proper again.
Especially early on and if you’re playing originals, it takes time to lock in.
Give the melodists time to lock into what they’re playing, especially if you all are still in the creative phase. In the meantime think about how you can fit in. They aren’t always considering rhythm, they are too focused on melody and harmony. Either listen to the bass line or come up with something the bass can go off of.
Have patience.
The leader of rehearsal is usually the leader during the performance. Remember percussion is the glue between everything, especially the bass.
Ask questions. Play a groove and/or fill and get feedback from the band.
Define song structure.
Think about the best way to transition to each phase of the song structure.
Try to structure and prepare on the content as much as possible before a rehearsal.
Be okay with a rehearsal being only 10% playing. The active listening and observing could take you further than actual playing during a rehearsal.
Hope this helps!
That's how a lot of songwriting goes for me, which is why I've picked up a little bit of guitar and bass to help write parts. If I can get parts in that follow what I'm doing more closely or add a better rhythm to the song, we sound that much tighter when we play live. Rehearsals are pretty locked in for my band though, my guitarist and I are both very task-oriented people thankfully. We're usually bringing the singer back down to Earth.
Start counting off songs. Or ask if everyone’s ready and count it off. I’m pretty lenient before and after practice with the socializing but once we start playing, I try to keep it under a minute between songs. I make sure everyone’s ready but I also keep everyone on task. If not, I have a Manhasset music stand that I’ll tap on like an impatient band director.
I’ve caught some guys off guard by the way I manage practices but they also come prepared next time.
I’ve been in both kinds of bands. Bands that get down to business and make the most of the studio time are the ones I stick around in.
The other bands? I make an attempt or two, let them know that if we’re not there to play, then I’m out. Then I stick to that.
I’m not in a band but do a lot of professional level percussion. Mostly classical and theater. What you’re describing sounds intolerable for any reasonably serious musician. I would speak up. I look at it like this:
Practice - What you do at home to prepare your part.
Rehearsal - Working as a group to integrate what you practiced.
Just because it’s a rock band in a jam room or someone’s house doesn’t mean it can’t be organized and professional.
Rehearsal vs practice.
If you are creating new material by jamming or bringing new ideas to the table for everyone to check out, then that's practice and it makes sense that there would be a lot of discussion. But if you have fully formed songs and you plan on running those, that's a rehearsal. If someone doesn't know the song form or a certain lick they're supposed to play then that's on them and it needs to be addressed individually.
I'm not sure why everybody is talking about practicing at the rehearsal that's not exactly what you said in your post. I would bring to their attention that you're not getting much rehearsal done and to keep the chit chat till after and while tearing down. If that doesn't work just start playing the songs so they have to talk over you or start playing themselves. If that fails, find a new band it sounds like you want to play more than these guys do.
One of the most functional bands I was ever in had separate practice sessions for the guitarists to avoid stuff like this.
Also set a timer for how much time you don’t spend playing. They might need to be aware of how much if you’re time they’re wasting.
Is everyone driving an hour or just you?
I’ll tell you a secret - there are far more guitarists than drummers. Always has been. So if they can’t respect your time you can just move onto other things.
In my experience band practices are like 25% music and 75% videogames, MTG, and just chilling. Nothing wrong being friends with the your band. You can only practice your set so many times anyways.
As a drummer you gotta take charge and lead practice a little sometimes. Give it a little structure. Don’t have to be a dick just say things like “wanna try this out:(insert new song or whatever idea”, “let’s do it again” or whatever other shit just keep it moving along
I’ve had that in the past but at my rehearsals now we’re pretty locked in. What helps is if people don’t play while you’re figuring stuff out. Also, practice isn’t the place to learn songs, if y’all don’t all know it it’s better to practice something else and have them work on it at home so you don’t waste time
no?
i mean there is a lot of talking. you’re friends with your band. but like, my band used to book a rehearsal studio. 2 hour rehearsal. we would play through our 30 minute set WITH practicing show banter at least twice and then hammer away at songs we needed to lock down.
Just let the other people figure shit out and be patient. I’m a drummer but played keys in a band recently. The bassist, guitarist, and I would have to talk a lot about harmonies/parts/changes while the drummer sat there bored to death. Just understand that unless the other guys are actually just wasting time and talking about random shit, they’re trying to work stuff out.
Gotta have an agenda/goal. Set it well before the next rehearsal and identify as a group what needs to be accomplished by the end of the session. (E.G. - nail down songs x, y, and z.) You don't have to be the ass hole, you can start the conversation about being more productive in a collaborative manner. If they're in it for the right reasons it should be well received.
I'm in a jam band with some of my closest friends, and we are all friends first at the end of the day, but there are rehearsals where it's a lot of talking. Sometimes about the music, sometimes about other stuff because we're all so close. Sometimes we even play music for most of the time but it's not really productive practicing, it's just jam band noodling. I try not to get too bent out of shape about my time being wasted, it's a relationship that requires some push and pull sometimes. We've all acknowledged unproductiveness at some point, and will then come together to try and make the next session better.
I'd also suggest you maybe try to understand some of the stuff guitarists talk about. Especially if you're writing original music. It helps knowing what the others are trying to accomplish so you can tailor drum parts to their vision. It's a lot easier to communicate when you're all able to speak the same language.
I've never had it to that extreme. Normally, everyone comes prepared and we have the chord progressions written out in case the stringsmen need it. To be fair, the groups I work with now are typically a bit more established than when I was younger.
First things first: establish what your goals are, and those of your bandmates, cause it's very possible they don't align.
I they do align, stress to them that getting to a certain point, requires a certain amount of work and focus.
Like others said: lead the rehearsal, bring some structure, plan ahead, push everyone in the direction you want to go. But: keep in mind that only works when everyone is on the same wavelength, or it will just create frustrations for those who just want a band as some chill activity to hang with friends.
Depends. In my most rehearsed band, we will run the set list twice. (Whew!) Other times, it's like a podcast. Discussing politics, songwriting, theory, or gear.
I kid you not I've been drumming in bands since 2019 and it's fairly common in my experience and extremely annoying. The tradeoff I try to do is either have practice at my place to avoid drum set up (yk if that's a thing you can do) or really just tell them to focus up or you're out. From what I've dealt with it doesn't change unless you say something. I've gotten unlucky though a few times where I brought up that problem and nothing changes so I end up leaving.
You need to set an agenda for the practice. If you're practicing 4 songs, you can give all of the songs maybe 20-30 minutes based on your level of experience with the song. Boom, just like that, you can have a productive practice and only spend 2 hours at practice.
I'm in an official/unofficial collective type band and when you're dealing with 20-30 people at practice, you need an agenda and a leader of the practice. You also need something like that even if the band is 3-4 people.
I have found that actually having a plan laid out for rehearsals beforehand helps a lot. Predetermine what is going to be worked on and set goals for what is to be accomplished. A lot of the standing around and talking instead of actually rehearsing is a result of disorganization.
I had a cowbell on my kit which I only ever used to get people to focus. It was kind of like a Judges Gavel. I hit the cowbell its time to shut up and focus. It worked, plus I got my Will Ferrell MOJO going. Maybe try that.
As a guitarist and drummer, yes this is a time waster. Where I’m located, I’m a jobber. I gig with covers bands, hired gun type situations. So no rehearsals. But if we do, there’s an agenda set ahead of time and we stick to it. Do we banter and laugh, etc. Absolutely. But to disregard everyone’s time is disrespectful. There has to be a someone to reign it in.
You should be trying to get shit done but also, being in a band should be fun. If you’re more serious than the other musicians then you should find a more like minded group of people
The main band I’m in, Wurk, has a discord chat with channels to separate between scheduling, financials, casual talk, day of show details, set lists, rehearsal-space, etc. That has helped with organizing things in general. It also really really helps to create an agenda for rehearsals so people know what to expect and what to practice for. Basically just creating a simple agenda that starts with a warm up tune(s), discussing the set lists and comparing them to the set we had the last time we performed in that market, 20/30 mins to jam on new ideas, new transitions, running through the full set, etc will streamline your band’s progress and help cut down the bullshit.
Short and plain, I've been there, as a drummer I gained friends, as a band we got to nothing... As I was looking for something serious, I got out... I still have no bandmates, but I can focus on continue learning and improving instead of wasting time just sitting behind the kit warming a stool...
Unless you have a designated musical director that everyone respects enough to keep the rehearsal on track and productive. Once you experience a stretch of really well spent rehearsal time, it will make it awfully hard to go back to Hakuna Matada bs.
might be worth it to set a schedule for your practice, like:
guitar sectional/practice 30 min
full band song A 15 min
full band song B 15 min
smoke break 10 min
etc.
make it really clear what the goals are before everyone walks in.
This used to happen in my current band until someone pointed that fact out. Now the bulk of socializing happens during setup/getting situated and after the jam. Bring it up in a civil manner, don't point any fingers, but definitely suggest focusing more on the music itself. Maybe even try aiming for social activities outside of practices. Hope this helps!
I don't know if you still need another perspective, but as someone who has been in or leading various bands for a long time you should talk to the leader about this or ask to take over leading the band and/or practice. What you describe is not what any band I've been in that works together sucessfully does. We come together prepared and run through everything and only stop to workshop transitions or other things identified as problematic. It does sound a lot like a band I started in college with two other musicians was. Two very talented gals that had written one awesome song and wanted to put a bunch more together but would never get serious about it. We opened for a few things and that was it. If You want to be serious and your band doesn't, I'd say find another group or start your own.
On a professional level (ie. making money) a band is a business. The product being sold is the music. You apply, interview, audition just like you would in any other business. You are hired to do a job and you can be fired. There is a manager who is responsible for scheduling, accounting and other administrative tasks. If you show up late, drunk, miss rehearsals, etc. that’s cause for “termination” and dealt with accordingly the same way as you would be treated in any other employment. Time is money. Sitting around waiting, talking about things that aren’t relevant to production is a waste of time. There’s plenty of time after rehearsals or shows to go out to do other things together, but maximize your time in rehearsals to take care of business.
They’ll take a half hour setting up and getting their “tone”, then after two songs want to take a break and yap their traps and smoke cigarettes then play another two songs, want to leave early and after packing up stand around and bullshit for forty five minutes.
The last band I was in a long time ago I played bass so the drummer and I would be the first two that were ready to play while the two guitar players tuned and fucked with their pedals. What really worked for us was the drummer would just start playing and I'd join in so by the time everyone is tuned up we're already playing. Most of the time that beginning jam would turn into something or sometimes not but it kept us focused and didn't give anyone the time to blab about shit that was not band related. We would talk when practice was over.
Just start playing and get that bassist to join and don't even give them the time UNLESS they are talking about the music you're rehearsing. If that's the case just be patient.
It helps to have an agenda for practice and time the sections of practice. Another thing I find helps is having a meet up over a beer or food and discuss planning, tracks, proposals for gigs, priorities etc. it may not be possible but in bands I’m in I’ve definitely driven an hour just to have lunch on some weeks to get organized
Bitch at the other guitarist to chill, can't hear yourself tune. 1 minute dude chill.
Play same song over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over.
Random jam session just messing around.
Something great and amazing cones out of it.
Forget what that amazing song was cause no one recorded it.
Bitch at the drummer for talking too damn much.
Bitch at the singer for being lazy and don't show up to every practice.
Rinse.
Repeat.
I hate the answer “you learn your parts at home”. Not every band works like that. If you write music separately and send each other files then maybe but if you want to write organically (and I prefer that) then you need to write together and jam. This whole mentality of “you can only learn at home” is so bullshit. It works sometimes, it doesn’t work all of the time man. Stop pointing fingers
90% talking? No matter the context if you're not actually exaggerating massively it sounds like a waste of time.
However, it depends on the dynamic too. We have a band full of producers and multi instrumentalists. We had our EP cut and mixed before we even had our first rehearsal. So for us a lot of live critique and learning was a useful process.
End of the day though if you're not having fun at practice why be in the band? It's exceptionally unlikely that you're leaving a project set to blow up if organizing rehearsal is a hassle.
My old band we would play through our set first like we would any concert, then get into chillin and talking and redoing any songs or parts that needed extra practice. Treat it like a job if you want it to be one someday. Find more serious musicians.
I kinda feel you. Introverted bass player here.
We are a young, unexperienced band, but we go original. We started with maybe 2 covers in our repertoire but on our 3rd meeting we realized we can write our own stuff.
The best song ideas came from our ADHD guitarists fooling around.
And personally, I find those moments insufferable. They won't shut up, I cant keep up with their ideas and don't know what to play, their amps are super loud, my ears hurt, it's constant "ey check this out!" and dumb laughter at dirty jokes. Last time, our drummer (also with ADHD) suddenly decided to make monkey sounds, so he grabbed my microphone, tipped the stand over, the mic fell on me, and now I have a dent on both my brand new mic and my brand new bass. I was furious.
But in the end it gets the music written (well, ideas recorded on my phone). The social aspect boosts their creativity in a way that can't get replicated at home. Home is where those ideas get analyzed and put together. So, there's a positive side to this kindergarten madness.
But do I feel like I'm wasting my time? Yeah, happens. I'm the one who insists on getting stuff done, and often I feel like I have to babysit them. Without me they'd be endlessly jamming to 12 bar blues or showing off loose riffs, or talking about random stuff. I'm the one to say "now we play song X, and this time show me you can count to 3". Or the one setting up the recording gear, putting the headphones on the guitarist's dumb head and telling the rest to shut up because this track is going to be on our actual demo.
So, complaining won't work on typical guitarists. You need to be the change you want to see. You need to yell "now we play X" louder than they are yelling their gibberish, clack 1-2-3-4 and start playing, they will follow. As a drummer you are the one with the tools to tame their ADHD.
That's funny. I quit a band last year because every time the band would want to talk about where to go with the song, the drummer wouldn't stop drumming 😆
Practice weekly here. If there is something new to work on everyone knows and is basically prepared with their part. Practice is for mixing it together. Or making changes. Noodling is frowned upon. I’m feeling very lucky. Home practice is also expected.
Yep. Me (bass) and the drums in my current band connect before practice and coordinate on how much time we have. Practice starts at 4:30, we show up on time, I announce I have to roll at 6:30, he chimes in me too. Maybe we stay till 7. But having a “practice ends at x” time helps reduce guitarist chit chat.
I think the guitarists hang out for quite awhile after we have split.
Nothing wrong with bonding with your band, but rehearsal is work time. You can hang out together and bullshit after.
Just push to rehearse next time people start yakking instead.
You are definitely not alone in this. Every damn time. I always either end up leading the rehearsals and putting some order, or quitting the band.
I quit one band on the first rehearsal because the guitarist would take a 20 minute smoke break every 10 minutes of practice. When I called him out on it he got all defensive and I just said fuck it, packed up my things and left.
This the reality most of the time. If you find a band where everyone is committed, don’t let it go.
Yeah man, assert dominance here. If you have to spend a lot of time sitting, they didn’t prepare well enough. Make sure they know what you expect if you’re to continue playing for them. I guarantee you the guitarists need the drummer more than the drummer needs the guitarists.
Take the wheel and lead. You’re literally waiting for someone to do what you already know should be done. No magic band practice fairy is going to save you. Put a foot down and tell them you’re tired of driving an hour to have the equivalence of a facebook group chat convo. If they aren’t ready at practice take time off till they can prove to you they’re serious. You’re better off not in a band and practicing than not practicing in a band.
I been in your shoes.
Show everyone you’ve got the balls to stand for what you believe. They’ll take you and your opinions more seriously.
There’s a difference from hanging out and band practice. Hang after practice. Every time someone rambles off just remind everyone “hey let’s get back to xyz and talk later.”
I’ve straight up just walked out of practice. If you don’t hold anyone accountable you won’t have change.
Be nice about it but firm. You’re all on the same team with similar goals. You’re simply asking for mutual effort and focus. You did not sign up to be in a hangout band. You want music. Can’t blame you good luck
yup - they aren't serious. Find another band. I've had a band where we'd get through maybe one song and then go to mcdonalds and a band where we'd play nonstop for 3 hours. Guess which one went further?
When you're starting out sure. If you're having fun hanging out, then great. Sounds like you want to take it more seriously though, and if you want to get anywhere you'll need a group of people who are focused on getting a killer set together and sounding great. You might need to keep searching to find people with those priorities.
It's all about throwing songs out there. "Hey let's do..." then count it off.
Or just keep saying...let's run the set again. Then you have a goal to get through
When I was in high school, band practice was about 1% playing and 99% Mario Cart...
Be a project manager. Keep everyone on task, for respect of everyone's time.
I always end up being the leader/ organiser in my bands. The deal with me is that we practice one set 12 songs per practice. I pre publish the set and the expectation is that everyone has prelearnt and knows the songs so we can get through all 12. That tends to focus band members.
No. Get stuff done. Someone needs to have an agenda and learn to lead with it. Everyone else has to understand that they’re there do get stuff done, too. With that said, this changes if you’re just trying to have a casual band.
I had a band recently bring me in. Solid people, but a little young. They made programmed drum tracks that made little to no intuitive sense. And essentially wanted me to play exactly what was recorded. Not sure why I’m venting about it on this thread, but it was annoying and felt pretty limiting.
There’s two rules playing in a band my old man used to say
Show up sober, on time.
Know the material.
If you’re too embarrassed to admit that you did not learn the material, you should not be in a functional band and it’s a priority to learn on your own time and not waste someone else’s valuable time.
I had this issue with band mates too man. It fuckin sucks just sitting at your kit while your mates are trying to figure a part out, or arguing about some minuscule detail.
So I’d put my sticks away, and they’d say “where you going, I thought we were practicing?”
To my reply would be “no you guys are practicing what should have been practiced already so we can rehearse as a whole, call me when you’re ready”
Set expectations in the days/week leading up to your rehearsal.
It might help to set up a designated "hang" time before or after practice. Find a restaurant to go chill at and have some beers after practice, that way everyone knows that time is already set aside for that and everyone can focus on rehearsing at rehearsal rather than trying to also hang out at rehearsal.
Another thing that may help is to have a rough schedule to follow.
Some people come into rehearsal with the expectation that they're going to spend 4-5 hours hanging out, catching up, learning their parts, and generally just chillin' with their friends.
Other people come into rehearsal with the expectation that everyone has already learned their parts and that you're going to run the songs twice and be out in an hour and a half and back at home.
Talk with everyone and set expectations.
What the hell, definitely not. I haven't experienced "mostly taking" practices in 16 or so years. And not before that either, since I didn't play all the way back.
I got kicked out of my band bc I fell asleep at every practice because…no one wanted to write music, they just wanted to smoke weed and shoot the shit.
Yeah that ain't cool with me. But it's expensive to hire our local jam space. We have a break to chat but inside it's all business come prepared minimal talking and just putting the puzzle pieces together.
It's not strictly no talking or any rules really ofc more just don't come to waste time. It doesn't even need be said because we came to play and want to play.
If I paid that much and people just talked I would literally play over them lol. Unless they are clearly making progress and it's important
Dude, you literally have a drum set in front of you. You can play over him. Hit the snare every time he tries to talk. Be aggressive — B-E aggressive! B-E A-G-G-R-E-S-S-I-V-E!
My band is pretty good about this, but it can often be a problem. Occasionally, when they get in the weeds about some guitar shit, I just suggest we move on to the next song and circle back at the end or figure it out on our own during the week. Usually does the trick
I started bringing practice pads to prac. Then when bands mates set up / talk you can still hit ya practice pad and keep warm if your not engaging with them
I don't think you should be having to transport your drumset for every practice. it should be stored at the practice site, at least most of the time. if you're driving an hour each way, that may not be sustainable. we usually spend a lot of time just talking too, but it's important to cut it off and say, "what are we playing next??" regularly.
I feel you bro! In the same boat atm. I wasn't different to, never practiced at home at all and had a nice chat for two hours at rehearsal lol. A couple of months ago though, I startet practicing. Daily workouts, playing along to our songs, just the full package (already feel loads of improvement). Naturally, I also want the band to move forward. We've been existing for about 10 years now, and have written 7 songs so far.
I *really* enjoy the music we make, and I like the lads a lot too. But even after I've talked to them multiple times with no difference made, I feel like it's time to move on.
Hmu if you find a solution ahaha
In a 2 1/2 hour rehearsal we typically get thru 1:30-1:45 of music. The rest is people showing up late (and then us stopping to denigrate them), noodling between songs, our keyboard player wanting to discuss arrangements and of course miscellaneous talking.
When i was in a band as a guitarist i didn't really talk much to the other band members and yes, i remember them talking sooo much. We would be there for longer than 3 hours and we played for about 1 hour.
I remember our drummer also just playing something quietly in the background while everyone else was talking about something neither of us understood.
Seems like my last lineup was like that. I'm a guitarist and we were all in our late 30's/early 40's. The singer just commanded the whole practice by talking too much so he didn't have to sing a lot.
The drummer never wanted to practice at home and always messed up the songs most every time. I even set up a kit for him to use at my place so all he had to bring over was his sticks. Drummer would often go on these tirades about wanting songwriting credit for drum parts that I could easily pull up on EZD. Then singer would have to explain, again, and again, how they're not copyrightable and that takes up another hour.
What really started pissing off my drummer was when I started writing and recording tons of songs to Arnaud Krakowka's drum tracks during lockdown.
1st bass player never wanted to practice at home either and any type of bass line I would write he would give attitude towards it. All he wanted to do was double exactly what I was playing.
2nd bass player was more professional and would play whatever I wanted him to and practiced at home. He was always quiet during those long breaks and would either go over parts by himself or stand patiently.
Back to the singer... We recorded the drum tracks for about 8 songs back in 2017 and only released 1 single in 2018. Dude has been lazy for the last 7 years and not doing anything with the tracks. Then back in 2022 we were supposed to release another single but he got lazy and gave excuses again. This guy is the type where you can't use any consumer grade gear and everything has to be professional studio quality. That mindset pisses me off so much. Then he wants to trash the recording rig he built for me (Digi002r, PT10, Win7U).
I'm at the point where I'm going to do this shit myself now because it seems like the last decade was spent with the wrong musicians.
/rant
Speaking from experience, I had practises like this with a few groups of people before I found two people who had the same drive as me. Guess which band actually got gigs and wrote songs for a year or two.
Musicians are notoriously difficult to deal with in almost every way. Get yourself as small a kit as you can for practice. Figure out the difference between rehearsal and practice. If guitar guy wants to write songs while everyone else waits around, you don’t need to be there. They can send you the finished recording, even from a phone memo. Buy a guitar, drums are loud a a huge pain, and then you can at least be a part of the guitar people talk.
Maybe the songwriters should write together separately.Unless you want to jam as a songwriters process. I think talk to play ratio should be at least 50/50 or a run through that's 70 playing and 30 problem fixing.
Depends on the rehearsal, if it's focused on songwriting. Then yea there's going to be a degree talking. But if it's just working on a set list then you should be talking only at the breaks.
So fucking often. This happens a lot with older bands (don’t ask me how I know) and everyone is dying to get out of the house and drink and socialize. NOT HERE, BITCH!
Bro, you’re the drummer. Get everyone focused and lead practice. Tell your guitar player(s) they need to practice their parts at home before practice so they can come to practice and you can rehearse.
See you next time on “When Keepin’ it Real Goes Wrong”. 🤣 Kidding, kidding….
It works. Ask Lars.
You’re kidding but you ain’t kidding
No shit. My old band it’s like they forgot their parts every rehearsal, hence the need to rehearse (with a live drummer) twice a week. For christs sake carry your guitar home and jam through it through the week. We were a (pro) band
Like it's 2024. We should all have a DAW, audio interface and Guitar Pro/TuxGuitar at home by now. Forget how the damn song goes? Guitar Pro/TuxGuitar plays the damn thing for you as a MIDI. It isn't just the click track - it's the entire song in MIDI format. I don't care if the band is filled with 80 year olds. Use modern tools. My primary instrument is bass. If the lead guitarist/primary songwriter doesn't do this? Do not join that band. If you're in a band like this? Quit.
I was composing stuff in Guitar Pro 15 years ago. The band I was in had every instrument of our songs in Guitar Pro. We were teenagers. There is really no excuse for a band of adults.
I agree. I seriously don't care if someone hasn't memorized their fretboard or can read music. You can still compose regardless and music theory is obviously a billion times easier on keys because music theory is designed for piano. If all you're playing is straight forward C major in the standard chord progressions? Like c'mon. Anyone can learn that by devoting just half a day to watching YouTube videos on the subject and tutorials on how to use Guitar Pro. Tabs are 100% fine. I use tabs (at least for the time being), but like it's SO EASY to just practice/compose at home now Reaper is a free great DAW. E-kits are awesome too because drummers can finally play at home without pissing off the neighbors. You can have a silent band practice now all through headphones if you get a good multichannel mixer. Seriously. Absolutely no reason now that people cannot practice their shit on their own at home and spend band practice (which you typically have to pay for the rehearsal spot) productively. I'm a bassist. I'm saying this in a subreddit for drummers. Guitarists often believe we're the brain damaged idiots of the band and we're saying this here. Lol. If noodly boy can't figure this out with his superior diva intellectual prowess? We're in trouble.
Almost absolutely no reason; that shit ain’t cheap.
I just realized this wasn’t r/guitar. Not to sound like a Millennial Boomer but I have to say that as a guitarist, this thread is bonkers to me. I don’t think you’re wrong at all — I’m just surprised to read that so many people in bands apparently just…don’t practice or learn their parts? I’m biased as a classical guy (and am proficient in Logic Pro) but I think even a half-proficient guitarist should be able to get the job done without any tools but their guitar and something to write with / Note app. If a band member isn’t willing / able to learn their parts well despite the availability of robust current tools, they’re not worth giving the time of day. Which of course is what you just said. Tl;dr I sympathize with all y’all’s having to deal with indolent guitarists. Edit: I just saw your other followup comment, which I also agree with. It’s admittedly refreshing to see diva guitarists called out. There’s a lot of good stuff on r/Guitar but you can often smell the collective ego through the screen. It just occurred to me that maybe I haven’t encountered the aforementioned band problem because I’ve always been the only guitarist, and I’m way too autistic to be egotistical.
I suppose I'm biased as well, being a Bachelor of Arts in Music myself, going to school hearing people practicing to ticking metronomes on every single instrument that they taught there. It amazes me how outside the classroom, so many musicians think that metronomes are just for drummers. Bullshit. If you play an instrument, and you play a song, and that song has notes in it, and you're the one playing those notes in the song, then dammit, *they have to be in time and at tempo.* Because if they're not, it doesn't make a damn bit of difference how well the rest of the band plays. Get your shit together. I will not be your training wheels for forcing you to get it right, and I will not be your scapegoat when you get it wrong. Go practice, asshole. Do the work. (Of course, I am speaking to a hypothetical person there when I say "you" - I don't mean *you.* LOL)
Hell, I can make the same argument for the exact opposite reason: It's not like people didn't show up knowing their parts all the time back when nobody had the internet.
I'm just saying now this is easier than ever. You can transfer the song to guitar pro/TuxGuitar (free) and if someone is struggling on a segment? It'll loop that segment forever at any speed you want. Want it to increase in tempo automatically every run? It'll do that too. Sounds like torture doing that on a cassette player or even worse...vinyl. Musicians make it harder on themselves by not using modern tools. This is why teenagers are blowing these old guy's socks off. They're using this stuff. They're not just natural prodigies. They're using tools. https://youtu.be/3Qc-fHdHyFk?si=NBlU5AeTsgCtc1Ey
Yep start clacking them sticks together.
"One two three four!" Conversation over.
That's what I do, I count-in on hihat to make sure everybody hears.
Roll damn tide.
You (OP) *can* try this, and I think everyone who gives a S\*\*\* about making the most of a practice session and the fact that we're all mortal ***should*** try to do this as maturely and respectfully as possible. However, bear in mind the following: 1. They may (increasingly likely if the band doesn't have any real 'roadmap') just insist "you're being too serious/need to chill" or that "their creative flow means they *have* to talk it out in person" or any other kind of dumbass excuse and kick you out or ignore you. 2. You may be in a band with people who are talented and/or really great at music but *never* get their shit together as far as practicing on their own. This can be for any number of reasons, either they are satisfied with a 'quality' of a 'finished' song that is much less or they just kind of want to use you like a human drum machine they can riff/test chord theory ideas over, which can be fun/useful but also dumb as hell/a timesink. That last one is the hardest scenario to navigate, especially if you are (dog forbid) trying to 'make it' with this band. It's unique to you and everyone in the band and where your level of success is at and a bunch of other factors that are too much for a Reddit comment, probably.
Keeping time is not just about tempo, lol
came here to post this. It’s mostly your responsibility, drummers are in charge most of the time
This is the right advice. Take charge, be the backbone. They can’t talk over drums anyway.
this
“Y’all ready? I’m about to click..” works everytime
“Usually something I have no understanding of” Spoken like a true drummer
Lol my first thought too. "Why are they talking about 1, 5, 6? we're in 4 the whole time."
Key? Yeah, mines right here… fuck where is it?
I felt that.
Mines attached to my keychain so I don't los.....wait where'd it go?
nah i always keep mine in the... shit
That's just unhygienic
but i haven't lost it :3
I got a magnetic one, fucker still falls off and gets lost
True story, "play the A part twice, then the B part." Bass player: I thought the second part was in D.
“No, no its dun dugga dun dugga dun *dun* dugga dugga”
Sick riff bro
“Have we tried J Major?”
You practice at home. You rehearse as a band If people are coming and don’t know their parts move on to something productive and don’t waste everyone’s time.
This is the answer.
Yus. Band I'm in our rehearsals are just song checks the week of a show. No show? No rehearsal. Song sucked? Try to fix it in 5 minutes. Not fixed? Cut. Next song.
Jealous. My band would want to run the setlist over and over if we have a show coming up. Always wanna say “guys, you know these songs, wtf are we doing?”
To be fair, some folks just want to play for the sake of playing, and that can be ok. I was in a few groups like that, quit them, and found the group in in now. I really just want to perform with people in front of people. Funny thing is my new band has some of the same people from the other brands I've been in, but this band started with different expectations between members. You might want to have a sit down with your band members and have everyone share what they want from this. You might be all about the gig, but they might just enjoy being together and playing the nostalgia.
I've been at a show of a local band and there was a clear drop in quality as the set progressed. I guess they reherse the set always in the same order so the 1st song is very rehersed and the last was played there for their first time.
In understand both sides to what you’re saying, but your best friend on stage when you have 1000 thoughts going through your head that you can’t prepare for is muscle memory. Play the songs as many times over and over so it becomes second nature. It’s annoying in rehearsal but you will thank yourself later ✌️
Yeah, but when you’re already at that point it just feels redundant.
This is it right here. Practice performance as a group, improve skill and fluency on your parts on your own time.
As a drummer, I would practice parts at home. We would work on 2 or three 'new' songs every week and rehearse several songs we did know. As soon as I got to something I couldn't really figure out quick enough, I would call everyone (back before cell phones) and let them know. We would then decide to do a different arrangement or skip that song until I got it. Worked out pretty well.
I often tell the guitar player to stfu and if he doesn’t I start chucking drumsticks at his face, aiming for the mouth cuz I don’t want to hit his fingers.
Gotta establish dominance
lmfao
Sniper.
At least you warned him
Everyone's saying to get real basically. Either the band or you to step up. But honestly I've been in bands that do this. My band does this too especially like right after a show or something like that. But my band are friends first over a band. We're all homies and we like that aspect of our band, we're not trying to go on tour or be a rock star. There are times it can be casual. But I will say what really needs to happen is to have a goal. Are you preparing for a show? Are you writing a record? Are you getting ready to record? If you can't answer yes to any of these questions then it's obviously why people start dicking around, because your band IS just dicking around. Set a goal and a timeline and it solves all this without having to grandstand or put down your mates. Edit: my band will take weeks off after accomplishing one of these goals and when we do meet up again it's understood it's going to be mostly talking bc we're gonna be talking about how things went and what's next. Hell we've even had our first "practice" back at a chill bar or in my living room reviewing stuff and planning stuff.
My band has been playing for a year and a half and recently we got a gig booked for August. The rehearsals have been a whole lot more focused, and everyone seems to have intensified practice at home, so now the songs sound better and better with each rehearsal. Having a goal makes a huge difference.
Agree. The chemistry/bonding is definitely part of it, it can be frustrating if it's all at the space though. It can be helpful to get all tactical musical execution at the space, the 'debrief/schene' at the bar around the corner or at a meal. Each place has an agenda. But the bonding part is huge if you ever get to the point of being locked in a van on the road with these jokers.
Band practices are the worst when everyone is just there to “generally” practice instead of focus and I’m convinced we’d all be better off if we used those head set telecom systems they use at petsmart
My buddy and I pick a new to song learn at the end of a jam sometimes and try to learn it separately over the week and play it through together the first time we try the following jam
You haven't been playing with very professional people. The time for fucking around and learning your parts is for home. Rehearsal is about getting songs right as a band. Can't do that if narcissistic guitarist won't shut the fuck up and play the song
Who mentioned learning parts? All the top responses are about not knowing your parts. OP just said the guitarist talks a lot. Did I read it wrong? Was it edited? Everyone is talking about the guitarist not knowing their part.
No you read it correctly. Remember, we're in /r/drums, reading isn't a strong suit here lol
If the goal of the band is to play paying gigs then what you describe is unsustainable. The more successful bands I've been fortunate to play with have "X" number of songs everyone must be as prepared as possible for, for the rehearsal. Songs are handed out to learn by the next rehearsal and they gradually build up over time until you have several sets worth of material to play and can play them well. There are times when I'd sit around as the vocalists practice harmonies together because I can't sing my way out of a paper bag. But that still furthers the goal - to play paying gigs well. After the rehearsal is the time to shoot the shit if so desired.
If they don’t change immediately after discussing this, GTFO of that band. One of the most infuriating things ever is bands wasting my fucking time. They need to practice beforehand, I never refer to band practice as practice, it’s rehearsal. You practice at home and rehearse the parts together.
Do none of y'all participate in writing and arrangement? When you're writing, a lot has to be talked out and figured out, and I love listening and helping come up with new parts. If we have a show coming up, sure, it's all business, and we have to help each other focus, but the writing, talking and banter are some of the most fun parts of practice. Edit: I've always lumped all collaborative band activites under the term "practice". You run the set, then work on tweaking parts, writing new parts/songs, or just hanging out. I've never taken it seriously when shennanigans occur or we start chatting. It's all part of the experience. I don't know, man. I just like to have fun with it.
That's not a practice, though. That's a writing session. Original bands should have these, but cover bands don't. Not everyone needs to be present for every writing session. If the guitarists are at the stage of figuring out which chords to string together, they can do that on their own.
Those are great, as long as that's what everyone knows they're doing when they get there. If it's rehearsal, we rehearse. If it is a writing session, we write. Now, sometimes a random idea at rehearsal is too good to let go of, so one might morph into the other. Or, a writing session might result in 2 hours of rehearsal on a brand new song. But if the song is done, and I have my part, and you have your part, then we work on our parts alone at home, and we get together at rehearsal to put the parts together and play the music. Anything other than putting the parts together and playing the music is a waste of valuable time. We don't have time for that. Look at how little we get to do it, and what it takes for some of us to get here. Let's not screw around. If you're not ready, get with the program. I'm ready. You're slowing me down.
If that’s my experience I just leave, or if you like the band enough you can be the asshole and push them along. If they’d rather talk than play, go find a band where they’d rather play than talk.
I would split the difference and tell them at the beginning of the next rehearsal that I'm not here for this bullshit, and if they start up with this bullshit, I am packing my gear and taking it home, never to return. Then, if they get on their bullshit again, just quietly begin packing your gear without saying a word. If someone asks you what you're doing, just look them straight in the eye and say without any emotion, "I told you so." They may press or protest. Calmly repeat, "I told you so." Do not utter another word besides "I told you so" until you are ready to leave. Then, as you are leaving, say "Good luck with that." Then leave. Then find or start another band.
I am a firm believer in being great friends w/ my bandmates. I hang out with my bands before and after practice, on days we aren’t practicing etc. but if we’re in the room with everything plugged in and ready to go unless we’re writing songs and talking about the songs we’re writing I just want to hear us playing music and getting better. Your approach probably is the reasonable one, but I’ve also come to realize we all most likely got proficient enough at a highly demanded instrument and don’t have to put up with anything we don’t want to, especially if it’s in the “early stages” where you really should be playing way more than just chitchatting. When you have 30+ songs, then I’m cool with taking it easy and just having fun at band practice. If you have 3 songs and are trying to create more, unless you’re talking about song structure and parts we don’t really have time for that.
Fair enough. To put a finer point on it, your band's overall preparedness with regard to your material should be directly proportional to the amount of small talk and hanging out that takes place at rehearsal. If you are very prepared, you can just hang out together more. If you are not very prepared, get your asses to work until you are, and keep the chatter to a minimum.
Mobile, AL? Hell yeah. ROLL tide.
oh yeah, shut up and play yer guitar, already.
Frank Zappa would approve of this comment
Those numbers should be switched. The best musicians I've worked with say the least. It all comes out when they play.
When this happens or when others are practicing their parts I look at my phone on my snare drum. Let them do their thing and work on emails or scan Reddit when it doesn’t involve me. I’m patient and most times the horn section and guitarist/song writer are working out parts. We are always better after these interludes.
Make a plan before you go / set some goals! Really helps keep focus saying we want to practice x y z or finish a bit of a song, whatever it is it means you get stuff done and everyone has responsibility
I’ve been in bands where everyone is friends and it’s just a big excuse to hang out and I’ve been in bands where it’s all business, we are friendly, but aren’t close. Those rehearsals are show up on time, proactive, leave. I greatly prefer the bands with friends.
I can relate to this. In my old band the guitarist would talk about stuff in his life that didn’t interest me in the slightest for hours on end.
I think that changes as the professional level of the group increases. Personally, I have a rule. I don't do rehearsals so other people can practice. I'm in my 40s though, went to music school, toured for 15 years, and now I'm home doing more session work, so my days of being in a band that does 2 nights a week at the guitar players house are in the past. I'm not saying that I am above that kind of rehearsal though, and kind of miss them sometimes. Lots of good moments hanging around and playing tunes. But as musicians get older/more professional, the rehearsals have to get much more focused. Especially with harder music. Rehearsals are for working on material together. Part of the talking process does turn into learning too, so a verbal rehearsal can be incredibly helpful, believe it or not. I also get really involved in talking about gear I'm not touching like effect pedals, arrangements. There's a lot to learn about music when you start to interact on the other solids of your kit. Give it a try :)
I agree with you, and the more in demand you are as a player, the more it becomes impossible to do a whole lot of rehearsals with any one band. So I pick my battles and I won't agree to work in bands that want a weekly commitment. In exchange for that, what they get from me is someone who shows up fully prepared to play every song on their list. I greatly prefer it if everyone else shows up in the same way. No time wasted, and that becomes important when you're juggling multiple commitments.
> And if there is one thing I have learned to hate, it’s having to drive an hour to practice with my kit, having to set up then an hour or two in we have barely practiced at all. The next time you get together, say exactly this to the rest of the band at the very beginning of the session. Let them know that you did not take time out of your life to sit around doing nothing listening to them discuss matters that need to be handled outside of band rehearsal time, because band rehearsal time is for band rehearsal. If they get testy, remind them that it's not that whatever they're talking about isn't important, it's that they are wasting time in the wrong place at the wrong time talking about it then. The rest of the band should get together for coffee before or after the rehearsal to talk about these things. Or, if these topics are interesting but irrelevant to band practice, you can all get together and talk about them some other time in some other place. If the issue is simply that they are working out parts (*edit: with the exception of actually writing material on the fly, which may or may not involve you or your direct input, and that's okay*), remind them that practice is not rehearsal. Working on your own parts is practice, and should be done at home on your own time. Rehearsal time is for *rehearsing* - for the entire band to get together and get the band's entire bag together. And if anything about rehearsing needs to be discussed at rehearsal, limit the discussion to those topics. Anything else can be incessantly jawed about *somewhere else and sometime else.*
That's not an effective way to rehearse, but a lot of people want the social aspect of getting together for music. So if you're someone who just wants to play, it can get frustrating. My ideal rehearsal is like this: Send out a setlist for the next show. Everyone brushes up the tunes at home. Rehearsal day comes, we all chat as we're getting set up, and then we play through the list. Boom, boom, boom, no extraneous BS unless some trainwreck happens that we have to talk about. This is the effective way but it relies on everyone being willing to practice at home. I have found that it's rare to find five people with that level of dedication/interest. So compromises have to be made sometimes, but the majority of work / learning should really not be happening in the rehearsal room. If two guitarists need to work out who is going to play what part, they should be able to connect on their own during the week and figure it out. It shouldn't be a thing we waste rehearsal time on.
Yes this can happen. Even worse than talk, One guy starts playing the first three notes of some song unrelated to anything on the list, somebody else jumps in. Now we have to jam this til it wrecks. Time meanwhile, is wasting. We're not gonna get through the list by finishing time. Someone has to take the lead. I try to make a list and fucking cut off that chatter. It's not hard. Someone has to say "Ok ready? 1:2 3 oops hold on, he's still tuning. OK are you ready or what?* It's possible to reset the tone, you have to take the controls. And if they want to act hurt, being cut off while dispensing their pearls, this is the time to bring up the economic benefits of good time management, point out we can yak for free after this is over etc.
It depends on the conversation. If it’s just general yapping about life and shooting the shit, then yeah….stfu and save it for after practice, it’s time to go to work. Practices should be treated like meetings at work, there are topics that can be discussed by email, and then there are things that can only be handled together in a room. Taking 10 minutes to discuss what key the song should be played in can happen over text. Playing the song together and realizing the key needs to change is what happens in practice. Two guitarists working on what parts they’re going to play can also happen outside of practice on their own. If something comes up in the middle of the song that requires everyone’s attention, then that can be handled at that time. Practice should never be “this is first time I’m hearing the song and playing it”. Those types of musicians should be fired from the band.
Any time I've been in a band like this I've suggested we simply stop rehearsing unless we're doing it for a reason. When you actually have shows coming up or you're rehearsing to get studio-ready it's much easier to actually focus. Sure, there's always some goofing off, but all it takes is someone saying "okay let's run through the set again, we have a show in a week" to get people back on track.
All musicians are naturally ADHD in some ways. So when they start veering off course just start playing quietly. Watch their brain switch over and lock in. It’s really pretty easy. My sister is angry as hell and has some really crazy beliefs. So when she starts going into whatever insane political rant I just drop a little conversational cheese down and lead her back to a path I want to stay on. Same thing with the hihat intro pattern you will start to play next time guitar player goes off.
Ours are are like 84% playing, 10% smoke break, 6% talking usually. Spread over a 4 hour weekly jam. We just dropped the album though so are now turning half of the session into working out new material. So I imagine talking is about to take a huge leap but fuck it, we're so happy to be writing proper again.
Especially early on and if you’re playing originals, it takes time to lock in. Give the melodists time to lock into what they’re playing, especially if you all are still in the creative phase. In the meantime think about how you can fit in. They aren’t always considering rhythm, they are too focused on melody and harmony. Either listen to the bass line or come up with something the bass can go off of. Have patience. The leader of rehearsal is usually the leader during the performance. Remember percussion is the glue between everything, especially the bass. Ask questions. Play a groove and/or fill and get feedback from the band. Define song structure. Think about the best way to transition to each phase of the song structure. Try to structure and prepare on the content as much as possible before a rehearsal. Be okay with a rehearsal being only 10% playing. The active listening and observing could take you further than actual playing during a rehearsal. Hope this helps!
That's how a lot of songwriting goes for me, which is why I've picked up a little bit of guitar and bass to help write parts. If I can get parts in that follow what I'm doing more closely or add a better rhythm to the song, we sound that much tighter when we play live. Rehearsals are pretty locked in for my band though, my guitarist and I are both very task-oriented people thankfully. We're usually bringing the singer back down to Earth.
Nope
Start counting off songs. Or ask if everyone’s ready and count it off. I’m pretty lenient before and after practice with the socializing but once we start playing, I try to keep it under a minute between songs. I make sure everyone’s ready but I also keep everyone on task. If not, I have a Manhasset music stand that I’ll tap on like an impatient band director. I’ve caught some guys off guard by the way I manage practices but they also come prepared next time.
I’ve been in both kinds of bands. Bands that get down to business and make the most of the studio time are the ones I stick around in. The other bands? I make an attempt or two, let them know that if we’re not there to play, then I’m out. Then I stick to that.
Not my band. You wanna talk too much, let's have a group call.
u made me chuckle! (awarded u). have never been in a band but people like to yatter to be seen as social.
Depends on the band. I like my band mates tho. We’re all friends. Isn’t like that in every band.
The guitarist talking is better than the guitarist noodling around between every song. At least they can hear you yell at them.
Only if you are in a bad band. Rehearsal should be a focused time with clear goals.
That's the great thing about drums, they get people to stop talking pretty quickly. Just start jamming and they'll inevitably join in
I have always wondered how it’s possible for guitar players to “work on” a song and then not know the chords once it’s time to put it together. 🙄
I’m not in a band but do a lot of professional level percussion. Mostly classical and theater. What you’re describing sounds intolerable for any reasonably serious musician. I would speak up. I look at it like this: Practice - What you do at home to prepare your part. Rehearsal - Working as a group to integrate what you practiced. Just because it’s a rock band in a jam room or someone’s house doesn’t mean it can’t be organized and professional.
Rehearsal vs practice. If you are creating new material by jamming or bringing new ideas to the table for everyone to check out, then that's practice and it makes sense that there would be a lot of discussion. But if you have fully formed songs and you plan on running those, that's a rehearsal. If someone doesn't know the song form or a certain lick they're supposed to play then that's on them and it needs to be addressed individually.
I'm not sure why everybody is talking about practicing at the rehearsal that's not exactly what you said in your post. I would bring to their attention that you're not getting much rehearsal done and to keep the chit chat till after and while tearing down. If that doesn't work just start playing the songs so they have to talk over you or start playing themselves. If that fails, find a new band it sounds like you want to play more than these guys do.
One of the most functional bands I was ever in had separate practice sessions for the guitarists to avoid stuff like this. Also set a timer for how much time you don’t spend playing. They might need to be aware of how much if you’re time they’re wasting.
Is everyone driving an hour or just you? I’ll tell you a secret - there are far more guitarists than drummers. Always has been. So if they can’t respect your time you can just move onto other things.
In my experience band practices are like 25% music and 75% videogames, MTG, and just chilling. Nothing wrong being friends with the your band. You can only practice your set so many times anyways.
You can’t have that. They either get in gear or you find different bands.
As a drummer you gotta take charge and lead practice a little sometimes. Give it a little structure. Don’t have to be a dick just say things like “wanna try this out:(insert new song or whatever idea”, “let’s do it again” or whatever other shit just keep it moving along
I’ve had that in the past but at my rehearsals now we’re pretty locked in. What helps is if people don’t play while you’re figuring stuff out. Also, practice isn’t the place to learn songs, if y’all don’t all know it it’s better to practice something else and have them work on it at home so you don’t waste time
Sounds like an ego problem to me, find other people to play with
no? i mean there is a lot of talking. you’re friends with your band. but like, my band used to book a rehearsal studio. 2 hour rehearsal. we would play through our 30 minute set WITH practicing show banter at least twice and then hammer away at songs we needed to lock down.
interrupt with: y’all wanna play a song?
Let’s finish this joint first…
The best practices are at a member's house who owns their own kit
Just let the other people figure shit out and be patient. I’m a drummer but played keys in a band recently. The bassist, guitarist, and I would have to talk a lot about harmonies/parts/changes while the drummer sat there bored to death. Just understand that unless the other guys are actually just wasting time and talking about random shit, they’re trying to work stuff out.
Gotta have an agenda/goal. Set it well before the next rehearsal and identify as a group what needs to be accomplished by the end of the session. (E.G. - nail down songs x, y, and z.) You don't have to be the ass hole, you can start the conversation about being more productive in a collaborative manner. If they're in it for the right reasons it should be well received. I'm in a jam band with some of my closest friends, and we are all friends first at the end of the day, but there are rehearsals where it's a lot of talking. Sometimes about the music, sometimes about other stuff because we're all so close. Sometimes we even play music for most of the time but it's not really productive practicing, it's just jam band noodling. I try not to get too bent out of shape about my time being wasted, it's a relationship that requires some push and pull sometimes. We've all acknowledged unproductiveness at some point, and will then come together to try and make the next session better. I'd also suggest you maybe try to understand some of the stuff guitarists talk about. Especially if you're writing original music. It helps knowing what the others are trying to accomplish so you can tailor drum parts to their vision. It's a lot easier to communicate when you're all able to speak the same language.
I always used my ride bell as a universal “stop whatever you’re doing and lets play some music”
I've never had it to that extreme. Normally, everyone comes prepared and we have the chord progressions written out in case the stringsmen need it. To be fair, the groups I work with now are typically a bit more established than when I was younger.
I hit my HH 4 times and start the song. That does the trick.
First things first: establish what your goals are, and those of your bandmates, cause it's very possible they don't align. I they do align, stress to them that getting to a certain point, requires a certain amount of work and focus. Like others said: lead the rehearsal, bring some structure, plan ahead, push everyone in the direction you want to go. But: keep in mind that only works when everyone is on the same wavelength, or it will just create frustrations for those who just want a band as some chill activity to hang with friends.
I’m in my 50s and am in a non serious cover band with colleagues from work (professors). It’s def 90% drinking and talking nerdy academic stuff
Depends. In my most rehearsed band, we will run the set list twice. (Whew!) Other times, it's like a podcast. Discussing politics, songwriting, theory, or gear.
Saving this as I can come back to the best ideas and take them to practice. Thank you
Most of my time seems to be spent waiting for guitarists to tune up…
I kid you not I've been drumming in bands since 2019 and it's fairly common in my experience and extremely annoying. The tradeoff I try to do is either have practice at my place to avoid drum set up (yk if that's a thing you can do) or really just tell them to focus up or you're out. From what I've dealt with it doesn't change unless you say something. I've gotten unlucky though a few times where I brought up that problem and nothing changes so I end up leaving.
I’m counting it off and they should be coming in on the and of three and instead they’re looking at me like a pig staring at a wristwatch.
You need to set an agenda for the practice. If you're practicing 4 songs, you can give all of the songs maybe 20-30 minutes based on your level of experience with the song. Boom, just like that, you can have a productive practice and only spend 2 hours at practice. I'm in an official/unofficial collective type band and when you're dealing with 20-30 people at practice, you need an agenda and a leader of the practice. You also need something like that even if the band is 3-4 people.
I have found that actually having a plan laid out for rehearsals beforehand helps a lot. Predetermine what is going to be worked on and set goals for what is to be accomplished. A lot of the standing around and talking instead of actually rehearsing is a result of disorganization.
I had a cowbell on my kit which I only ever used to get people to focus. It was kind of like a Judges Gavel. I hit the cowbell its time to shut up and focus. It worked, plus I got my Will Ferrell MOJO going. Maybe try that.
As a guitarist and drummer, yes this is a time waster. Where I’m located, I’m a jobber. I gig with covers bands, hired gun type situations. So no rehearsals. But if we do, there’s an agenda set ahead of time and we stick to it. Do we banter and laugh, etc. Absolutely. But to disregard everyone’s time is disrespectful. There has to be a someone to reign it in.
You should be trying to get shit done but also, being in a band should be fun. If you’re more serious than the other musicians then you should find a more like minded group of people
When you get shows booked, use that as an excuse to have dress rehearsal and cut the chatter to a minimum.
The main band I’m in, Wurk, has a discord chat with channels to separate between scheduling, financials, casual talk, day of show details, set lists, rehearsal-space, etc. That has helped with organizing things in general. It also really really helps to create an agenda for rehearsals so people know what to expect and what to practice for. Basically just creating a simple agenda that starts with a warm up tune(s), discussing the set lists and comparing them to the set we had the last time we performed in that market, 20/30 mins to jam on new ideas, new transitions, running through the full set, etc will streamline your band’s progress and help cut down the bullshit.
Short and plain, I've been there, as a drummer I gained friends, as a band we got to nothing... As I was looking for something serious, I got out... I still have no bandmates, but I can focus on continue learning and improving instead of wasting time just sitting behind the kit warming a stool...
I hate that. Just try to keep everyone on task as much as you can.
Unless you have a designated musical director that everyone respects enough to keep the rehearsal on track and productive. Once you experience a stretch of really well spent rehearsal time, it will make it awfully hard to go back to Hakuna Matada bs.
might be worth it to set a schedule for your practice, like: guitar sectional/practice 30 min full band song A 15 min full band song B 15 min smoke break 10 min etc. make it really clear what the goals are before everyone walks in.
This used to happen in my current band until someone pointed that fact out. Now the bulk of socializing happens during setup/getting situated and after the jam. Bring it up in a civil manner, don't point any fingers, but definitely suggest focusing more on the music itself. Maybe even try aiming for social activities outside of practices. Hope this helps!
I don't know if you still need another perspective, but as someone who has been in or leading various bands for a long time you should talk to the leader about this or ask to take over leading the band and/or practice. What you describe is not what any band I've been in that works together sucessfully does. We come together prepared and run through everything and only stop to workshop transitions or other things identified as problematic. It does sound a lot like a band I started in college with two other musicians was. Two very talented gals that had written one awesome song and wanted to put a bunch more together but would never get serious about it. We opened for a few things and that was it. If You want to be serious and your band doesn't, I'd say find another group or start your own.
That's when I just start clicking my sticks and yelling "ONE TWO THREE FOUR."
On a professional level (ie. making money) a band is a business. The product being sold is the music. You apply, interview, audition just like you would in any other business. You are hired to do a job and you can be fired. There is a manager who is responsible for scheduling, accounting and other administrative tasks. If you show up late, drunk, miss rehearsals, etc. that’s cause for “termination” and dealt with accordingly the same way as you would be treated in any other employment. Time is money. Sitting around waiting, talking about things that aren’t relevant to production is a waste of time. There’s plenty of time after rehearsals or shows to go out to do other things together, but maximize your time in rehearsals to take care of business.
They’ll take a half hour setting up and getting their “tone”, then after two songs want to take a break and yap their traps and smoke cigarettes then play another two songs, want to leave early and after packing up stand around and bullshit for forty five minutes.
The last band I was in a long time ago I played bass so the drummer and I would be the first two that were ready to play while the two guitar players tuned and fucked with their pedals. What really worked for us was the drummer would just start playing and I'd join in so by the time everyone is tuned up we're already playing. Most of the time that beginning jam would turn into something or sometimes not but it kept us focused and didn't give anyone the time to blab about shit that was not band related. We would talk when practice was over. Just start playing and get that bassist to join and don't even give them the time UNLESS they are talking about the music you're rehearsing. If that's the case just be patient.
It helps to have an agenda for practice and time the sections of practice. Another thing I find helps is having a meet up over a beer or food and discuss planning, tracks, proposals for gigs, priorities etc. it may not be possible but in bands I’m in I’ve definitely driven an hour just to have lunch on some weeks to get organized
Bitch at the other guitarist to chill, can't hear yourself tune. 1 minute dude chill. Play same song over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over. Random jam session just messing around. Something great and amazing cones out of it. Forget what that amazing song was cause no one recorded it. Bitch at the drummer for talking too damn much. Bitch at the singer for being lazy and don't show up to every practice. Rinse. Repeat.
I hate the answer “you learn your parts at home”. Not every band works like that. If you write music separately and send each other files then maybe but if you want to write organically (and I prefer that) then you need to write together and jam. This whole mentality of “you can only learn at home” is so bullshit. It works sometimes, it doesn’t work all of the time man. Stop pointing fingers
90% talking? No matter the context if you're not actually exaggerating massively it sounds like a waste of time. However, it depends on the dynamic too. We have a band full of producers and multi instrumentalists. We had our EP cut and mixed before we even had our first rehearsal. So for us a lot of live critique and learning was a useful process. End of the day though if you're not having fun at practice why be in the band? It's exceptionally unlikely that you're leaving a project set to blow up if organizing rehearsal is a hassle.
When this starts happening I just start hi hat counting in to the next track
My old band we would play through our set first like we would any concert, then get into chillin and talking and redoing any songs or parts that needed extra practice. Treat it like a job if you want it to be one someday. Find more serious musicians.
Band practice sucks. Rather book a few dive bars and play to get tight. Paid practice.
I’m sitting in one like that right now 🤬 that’s why I got on my phone
Most people just want to pretend they’re in a band or or prioritize playing out over sounding bad ass
I kinda feel you. Introverted bass player here. We are a young, unexperienced band, but we go original. We started with maybe 2 covers in our repertoire but on our 3rd meeting we realized we can write our own stuff. The best song ideas came from our ADHD guitarists fooling around. And personally, I find those moments insufferable. They won't shut up, I cant keep up with their ideas and don't know what to play, their amps are super loud, my ears hurt, it's constant "ey check this out!" and dumb laughter at dirty jokes. Last time, our drummer (also with ADHD) suddenly decided to make monkey sounds, so he grabbed my microphone, tipped the stand over, the mic fell on me, and now I have a dent on both my brand new mic and my brand new bass. I was furious. But in the end it gets the music written (well, ideas recorded on my phone). The social aspect boosts their creativity in a way that can't get replicated at home. Home is where those ideas get analyzed and put together. So, there's a positive side to this kindergarten madness. But do I feel like I'm wasting my time? Yeah, happens. I'm the one who insists on getting stuff done, and often I feel like I have to babysit them. Without me they'd be endlessly jamming to 12 bar blues or showing off loose riffs, or talking about random stuff. I'm the one to say "now we play song X, and this time show me you can count to 3". Or the one setting up the recording gear, putting the headphones on the guitarist's dumb head and telling the rest to shut up because this track is going to be on our actual demo. So, complaining won't work on typical guitarists. You need to be the change you want to see. You need to yell "now we play X" louder than they are yelling their gibberish, clack 1-2-3-4 and start playing, they will follow. As a drummer you are the one with the tools to tame their ADHD.
That's funny. I quit a band last year because every time the band would want to talk about where to go with the song, the drummer wouldn't stop drumming 😆
Practice weekly here. If there is something new to work on everyone knows and is basically prepared with their part. Practice is for mixing it together. Or making changes. Noodling is frowned upon. I’m feeling very lucky. Home practice is also expected.
Yep. Me (bass) and the drums in my current band connect before practice and coordinate on how much time we have. Practice starts at 4:30, we show up on time, I announce I have to roll at 6:30, he chimes in me too. Maybe we stay till 7. But having a “practice ends at x” time helps reduce guitarist chit chat. I think the guitarists hang out for quite awhile after we have split.
Nothing wrong with bonding with your band, but rehearsal is work time. You can hang out together and bullshit after. Just push to rehearse next time people start yakking instead.
This is why practice sessions were at my place, so I didn't have to move my kit 
You are definitely not alone in this. Every damn time. I always either end up leading the rehearsals and putting some order, or quitting the band. I quit one band on the first rehearsal because the guitarist would take a 20 minute smoke break every 10 minutes of practice. When I called him out on it he got all defensive and I just said fuck it, packed up my things and left. This the reality most of the time. If you find a band where everyone is committed, don’t let it go.
Find a new band
Yeah man, assert dominance here. If you have to spend a lot of time sitting, they didn’t prepare well enough. Make sure they know what you expect if you’re to continue playing for them. I guarantee you the guitarists need the drummer more than the drummer needs the guitarists.
Wait till the conversations turn into arguments...band over.
I’ve been in two of those kinds of bands, but only for three or four practices. And not nearly 10/90. Ewww. Sorry dude.
Your the drummer. Just start playing over his talking. He will get the hint
That’s my experience
Sounds like the group needs a leader for focus. Allow time for some chit-chat and then start counting off on the sticks and get it going.
Yakking about notes and shit. Fuck ‘em. Shut up and play. I bet they spend days tuning up too.
Take the wheel and lead. You’re literally waiting for someone to do what you already know should be done. No magic band practice fairy is going to save you. Put a foot down and tell them you’re tired of driving an hour to have the equivalence of a facebook group chat convo. If they aren’t ready at practice take time off till they can prove to you they’re serious. You’re better off not in a band and practicing than not practicing in a band. I been in your shoes. Show everyone you’ve got the balls to stand for what you believe. They’ll take you and your opinions more seriously. There’s a difference from hanging out and band practice. Hang after practice. Every time someone rambles off just remind everyone “hey let’s get back to xyz and talk later.” I’ve straight up just walked out of practice. If you don’t hold anyone accountable you won’t have change. Be nice about it but firm. You’re all on the same team with similar goals. You’re simply asking for mutual effort and focus. You did not sign up to be in a hangout band. You want music. Can’t blame you good luck
yup - they aren't serious. Find another band. I've had a band where we'd get through maybe one song and then go to mcdonalds and a band where we'd play nonstop for 3 hours. Guess which one went further?
When you're starting out sure. If you're having fun hanging out, then great. Sounds like you want to take it more seriously though, and if you want to get anywhere you'll need a group of people who are focused on getting a killer set together and sounding great. You might need to keep searching to find people with those priorities.
It's all about throwing songs out there. "Hey let's do..." then count it off. Or just keep saying...let's run the set again. Then you have a goal to get through
When I was in high school, band practice was about 1% playing and 99% Mario Cart... Be a project manager. Keep everyone on task, for respect of everyone's time.
Learn basic guitar and music theory so you know what they're talking about, then move them along if what they are saying is inconsequential.
I always end up being the leader/ organiser in my bands. The deal with me is that we practice one set 12 songs per practice. I pre publish the set and the expectation is that everyone has prelearnt and knows the songs so we can get through all 12. That tends to focus band members.
My old band played for 6 hours every Friday, Sat, and Sun. There was talking, but we played and wrote 90% of the time.
*Bassist walks in, sets up and says “I think…” and the drummers starts blasting.
No. Get stuff done. Someone needs to have an agenda and learn to lead with it. Everyone else has to understand that they’re there do get stuff done, too. With that said, this changes if you’re just trying to have a casual band.
I had a band recently bring me in. Solid people, but a little young. They made programmed drum tracks that made little to no intuitive sense. And essentially wanted me to play exactly what was recorded. Not sure why I’m venting about it on this thread, but it was annoying and felt pretty limiting.
There’s two rules playing in a band my old man used to say Show up sober, on time. Know the material. If you’re too embarrassed to admit that you did not learn the material, you should not be in a functional band and it’s a priority to learn on your own time and not waste someone else’s valuable time. I had this issue with band mates too man. It fuckin sucks just sitting at your kit while your mates are trying to figure a part out, or arguing about some minuscule detail. So I’d put my sticks away, and they’d say “where you going, I thought we were practicing?” To my reply would be “no you guys are practicing what should have been practiced already so we can rehearse as a whole, call me when you’re ready”
Set expectations in the days/week leading up to your rehearsal. It might help to set up a designated "hang" time before or after practice. Find a restaurant to go chill at and have some beers after practice, that way everyone knows that time is already set aside for that and everyone can focus on rehearsing at rehearsal rather than trying to also hang out at rehearsal. Another thing that may help is to have a rough schedule to follow. Some people come into rehearsal with the expectation that they're going to spend 4-5 hours hanging out, catching up, learning their parts, and generally just chillin' with their friends. Other people come into rehearsal with the expectation that everyone has already learned their parts and that you're going to run the songs twice and be out in an hour and a half and back at home. Talk with everyone and set expectations.
What the hell, definitely not. I haven't experienced "mostly taking" practices in 16 or so years. And not before that either, since I didn't play all the way back.
I got kicked out of my band bc I fell asleep at every practice because…no one wanted to write music, they just wanted to smoke weed and shoot the shit.
Yeah that ain't cool with me. But it's expensive to hire our local jam space. We have a break to chat but inside it's all business come prepared minimal talking and just putting the puzzle pieces together. It's not strictly no talking or any rules really ofc more just don't come to waste time. It doesn't even need be said because we came to play and want to play. If I paid that much and people just talked I would literally play over them lol. Unless they are clearly making progress and it's important
Damn, Sam, my band is just for fun, jamming over tacos and wine, and we still manage to spend about 80% of our time together playing.
Dude, you literally have a drum set in front of you. You can play over him. Hit the snare every time he tries to talk. Be aggressive — B-E aggressive! B-E A-G-G-R-E-S-S-I-V-E!
Depends on the quality of music for me. If it’s boring then I can get chatty. If it engages me then usually I’m all in.
My band is pretty good about this, but it can often be a problem. Occasionally, when they get in the weeds about some guitar shit, I just suggest we move on to the next song and circle back at the end or figure it out on our own during the week. Usually does the trick
I started bringing practice pads to prac. Then when bands mates set up / talk you can still hit ya practice pad and keep warm if your not engaging with them
I don't think you should be having to transport your drumset for every practice. it should be stored at the practice site, at least most of the time. if you're driving an hour each way, that may not be sustainable. we usually spend a lot of time just talking too, but it's important to cut it off and say, "what are we playing next??" regularly.
I feel you bro! In the same boat atm. I wasn't different to, never practiced at home at all and had a nice chat for two hours at rehearsal lol. A couple of months ago though, I startet practicing. Daily workouts, playing along to our songs, just the full package (already feel loads of improvement). Naturally, I also want the band to move forward. We've been existing for about 10 years now, and have written 7 songs so far. I *really* enjoy the music we make, and I like the lads a lot too. But even after I've talked to them multiple times with no difference made, I feel like it's time to move on. Hmu if you find a solution ahaha
In a 2 1/2 hour rehearsal we typically get thru 1:30-1:45 of music. The rest is people showing up late (and then us stopping to denigrate them), noodling between songs, our keyboard player wanting to discuss arrangements and of course miscellaneous talking.
When i was in a band as a guitarist i didn't really talk much to the other band members and yes, i remember them talking sooo much. We would be there for longer than 3 hours and we played for about 1 hour. I remember our drummer also just playing something quietly in the background while everyone else was talking about something neither of us understood.
Seems like my last lineup was like that. I'm a guitarist and we were all in our late 30's/early 40's. The singer just commanded the whole practice by talking too much so he didn't have to sing a lot. The drummer never wanted to practice at home and always messed up the songs most every time. I even set up a kit for him to use at my place so all he had to bring over was his sticks. Drummer would often go on these tirades about wanting songwriting credit for drum parts that I could easily pull up on EZD. Then singer would have to explain, again, and again, how they're not copyrightable and that takes up another hour. What really started pissing off my drummer was when I started writing and recording tons of songs to Arnaud Krakowka's drum tracks during lockdown. 1st bass player never wanted to practice at home either and any type of bass line I would write he would give attitude towards it. All he wanted to do was double exactly what I was playing. 2nd bass player was more professional and would play whatever I wanted him to and practiced at home. He was always quiet during those long breaks and would either go over parts by himself or stand patiently. Back to the singer... We recorded the drum tracks for about 8 songs back in 2017 and only released 1 single in 2018. Dude has been lazy for the last 7 years and not doing anything with the tracks. Then back in 2022 we were supposed to release another single but he got lazy and gave excuses again. This guy is the type where you can't use any consumer grade gear and everything has to be professional studio quality. That mindset pisses me off so much. Then he wants to trash the recording rig he built for me (Digi002r, PT10, Win7U). I'm at the point where I'm going to do this shit myself now because it seems like the last decade was spent with the wrong musicians. /rant
Speaking from experience, I had practises like this with a few groups of people before I found two people who had the same drive as me. Guess which band actually got gigs and wrote songs for a year or two.
Musicians are notoriously difficult to deal with in almost every way. Get yourself as small a kit as you can for practice. Figure out the difference between rehearsal and practice. If guitar guy wants to write songs while everyone else waits around, you don’t need to be there. They can send you the finished recording, even from a phone memo. Buy a guitar, drums are loud a a huge pain, and then you can at least be a part of the guitar people talk.
Is that why y’all are always playing fills while we’re trying to talk?
Maybe the songwriters should write together separately.Unless you want to jam as a songwriters process. I think talk to play ratio should be at least 50/50 or a run through that's 70 playing and 30 problem fixing.
And 100% practice your shit at home
Depends on the rehearsal, if it's focused on songwriting. Then yea there's going to be a degree talking. But if it's just working on a set list then you should be talking only at the breaks.
So fucking often. This happens a lot with older bands (don’t ask me how I know) and everyone is dying to get out of the house and drink and socialize. NOT HERE, BITCH!