Are any of you trained musician? Are you able to play any of the songs now from start to finish? How long are your practice sessions?

I think three songs per practice is fine. Just leave time to work extra hard on one that might prove difficult. Is most of the stuff Blues-based Hard Rock, like those three? That should be easy enough, if that's the case. Just remember that once you learn them, you're gonna need to keep doing them. This assumes that the players have time to work on them on their own between practices.

Good luck. It sounds like fun stuff.

I would say none of us are " trained musicians" just a bunch of guys that have played their insturments for several years. Were kind of wondering how to end the songs. The songs are pretty rough but this is the second time we have got together. We practice about two hours tonight and all uf us want to practice once a week.

Thanks for the response!

Thanks, we are trying to pick easy songs that our singer is comfortable with. We actually have an origional tune that is an easy 12 bar blues base. And yes each member is practicing in between group practice. And yes it is fun, keep in mind that is the goal. We are not looking to go out and play any gigs for a very long time.

Ending the song is easy bro. Wait for the other two to stop, then rip into a twenty second solo, ending with rapid, multiple cymbal blasts! Mind Blowi

I have still never got to jam with ANYONE yet, I yes I am jealous, but that is how I envision our jam sessions going......

Toodles

Drumhack band2Mister TJumping2baby crawl2

Everyone needs to stay on track and keep focused on what your trying to accomplish. Give each other positive constructive feedback but don't argue. I would recommend work on each song for 20 minutes. Take a 5 min break and do it again. Use the time to play and enjoy music and not do alot of partying. After you feel comfortable with a few songs go out to a jam session and see if they'll let you do a couple. Good luck with your band. It'll be alot of fun for you.

JC,

Good advice thus far. I am glad you are getting to play. It is a blast. Here are a few tips that you can take or leave.

Thing one; It is a good idea to really think in terms of song sections (intro, verse, chorus, turnaround, bridge, solo, breakdown, signature lick, etc.) and use those terms to work on sections of the song that might be problematic. "Hey guys, let's take that from the 2nd chorus." That allows you to work through difficult passages without having to just continually run the song over and over just to see what might go wrong the next time you get to that section in the middle.

Thing two; don't get too hung up on playing everything note for note. At some point you are playing a song and doing it your way. If you don't have the skills to pull off a particular fill or pattern like it is on the record, simplify it, but keep it in a similar vein. You can work on mastering those items on your own, but no need to bog down everyone if a particular fill is an issue for you. That will just make you and everyone else frustrated. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, unless, of course, you are working on becoming a tribute band. Then you probably need to think in terms of note for note.

Thing three; take a listen to various live recording to see how bands end songs. A typical ending would be slowing down until you land on the "I" (tonic) chord. This is an easy one to accomplish in a live setting as the drummer simply controls it. Everyone has to follow. There are some very standard guitar lick endings to many blues songs. Think about the ending of "Tush" for instance. Those are signature licks that occur a lot. I am always a big fan of the band writing a unique ending to a standard song. This is a great way to put your own trademark on an otherwise typical cover song. Sometimes you might actually segue into a few bars of another tune (often referred to as a "quote" in jazz circles) or write something really creative riff based off of the song in question. Those endings were almost always my favorite part of a cover song. Another option, and a great option when playing out live is to figure out a way to segue one song into another. Not only is that pretty creative on your part, but it automatically removes another spot of dead air in your performance which is always a good idea.

Thing four: Enjoy yourselves and remember, unless their is a band leader and you are hired by him/her then you are somewhat beyond a democracy and a bit more into a communal system and everyone needs to feel that they are involved and contributing. That means you should play that song you don't really care for because the guitar player loves it. Having said that, when it is time to play out live, make sure you know your audience and play what is appropriate for them. You may love Rush, but playing the entire first side of 2112 in front of a crowd of people that just want to dance and drink beer probably won't cut it.

Good luck and enjoy. Hope you are playing the most excellent Former BigR now script badge Rogers kit!

Three or four songs in "Early Band Days" are a good number, maybe include a jam to finish and have some fun...

Good luck with it all

Cheers

1) Don't talk much.......just play!

One guy told me that they never talked before they played in his one band.........they just plugged in and talked with their music.....interesting...

2) And..start quite.........you have all night to blast away....

If you start at 6 out of 10.......not much headroom....

I have tried this a few times......just tell everyone to turn way down to start...

Kind of fools people in the crowd......they think you are going to come out of the gate loud..