What kind of rehearsal is it anyway?

Playing in bands for 25 years means I've done a huge amount of rehearsing - easily more than 5,000 hours. And as a part-time musician, all of that has been squeezed around a job, family, study etc. Finding the time is challenging and often requires trading things off against each other. 

So rehearsal time is really precious and making the most of it is vital. You'll definitely get more out of them if everyone in the band turns up expecting the same thing.  You'll get less frustration and things will move along more quickly. 

I reckon there are 5 different types of rehearsals and I always ask "what kind of rehearsal is it?"

Here they are:

1.  The learn and polish session.

For this kind of rehearsal it is important that everyone does their homework in advance. This session is about learning to play new songs together, not you learning your individual parts.  With that done, here's how it works:

• Play-through the track once or twice (no more). Then stop and agree which bits breakdown or need polish.
• Polish the parts that need it. Don't keep playing the whole song. Count in the bars that need work and focus on them. It's better to do a difficult 8 bars 10 or 20 times, than play the whole song 5 times and not get to fix the broken bits.  Brass bands and orchestras use this approach.
• Once you've finished polishing, play through the entire song 4 or 5 times to cement it. If it is clear that the polish hasn't worked then stop and go back to that. Bear in mind it might be the transition into a part that might be the issue, if you can play it fine in isolation.

In a two hour rehearsal, typically we'll do two maybe three songs like this.  Obviously, it does depend on the proficiency of the band, but I am a guitar mortal, not one of these musical sauvants who picks anything up at the drop of hat.

If there is no new material to work on, take the first 3 songs on the setlist and start there.

2.  The writing session.

There's two main approaches here. The first is the jam. I used to play in a rock band where somebody would start and the rule was that you didn't stop until there was a repeatable song thing going on.  The second is more show, tell and play - somebody comes with an idea or a song written and the task is to finish it off. At this point, you might come back later to polish it. Either way, recording this type of session makes sure you capture great ideas when they happen.

3. The run through.

If we haven't gigged for a while or if we have been focusing on other sessions, a run through session helps get the tunes back under your fingers, and knock the dust off. It makes sure you don't end up at a gig thinking "How does this one go again?".  My experience is that many bands do lots of these sessions and often put new material into these too early.  

4. The dress rehearsal.

For big gigs, we always do a full dress rehearsal. Set up the PA, count off the first song and play like it is in front of an audience.  The singer even does the talkie bits....

We normally do this two rehearsals before the gig, so that we can have a polishing session to clean up any glitches. 

5. The goof around.

Sometimes you just have to let the dog bark.  This is basically hanging out with musical instruments, after all being in a band is fun right?  As often as feels necessary.

So ask 'What kind of rehearsal is it?' and prepare accordingly.

When you train for a marathon you quickly learn that if you go out every day and try to run as fast and as far as you can, you get nowhere - except tired and sore. So you have a mix of long runs, easy days, speed sessions, hill work. 

If you want to accelerate your band, you need to take the same approach.