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.

If you want to make it talk.... first you have to sing a little

When you're learning to play guitar these days, it is very easy to become very focused on videos and tabs as ways of improving your playing. You can search for almost any song on YouTube or Ultimate-Guitar and somebody, somewhere has saved you a bunch of effort and time by working it out for you. You learn the song more quickly and that's really good, right?

Hmm...yes and no.

What if all that work you have been saved is where the real learning is?  The video or tab may give the mechanical chops but does it develop your ear? What if the listening and transcribing is the important bit?

It is really important to learn new music with your ears not your eyes.

If you want to be able to make the guitar talk, you have to use your ears. All three of them - left, right and inner. It's about connecting the sounds in your ears with the notes your fingers play. If you don't then, just like mine, your playing can end up dominated by patterns, licks and tricks that you've learned by rote and which bypass your ears. It can sound great, but does it sound like you?  It is a bit like learning lots of individual Spanish words but not being able to string them together and speak the language.

This is where I got to. And here's a few ideas that I tried to give my ears a workout and get out of the boxes.

1. Learn to sing scales.  Can you sing the major scale? In different octaves and keys? Without playing a reference not on guitar? WHOA! Are we talking about perfect pitch? No. But I am talking about using notes from songs I know well.  The opening notes of 'You Shook Me All Night Long' by AC/DC are so ingrained in my memory that I can sing them at will. One of them is a D. Using this I can sing the D major scale.

Now I've got that down, I'm learning to shift keys and octaves. And singing the minor scale. I'm finding it really tough but it is definitely helping. I'm going to move on to pentatonics next. My wife and kids are finding it hilarious.

2. Play a melody you have never played before. Can you get it right first time? You'll need to go really slow. played. Justin Sandercoe did a video on this. www.justinguitar.com . Try playing the melody to Happy Birthday, Ding Dong Merrily On High or just some pop tune on the radio.  I was amazed at how little I could play with out the need for trail and error, or relying on visual patterns.

3. Sing and jam. Put on a backing track. Sing a lead phrase and then play the same phrase. Can you match it? Recording this is hilarious and revealing.

None of this is about being a great singer. It is completely about being to play the sounds in your head. I was surprised how bad I was at this, having played for so long.

Do you play with your eyes or your ears?

What's the quickest way to learn new songs?

Top tips to expand your repertoire fast

Earlier this year I joined a great covers band called Fraudio. They have been playing for about five years and have an enormous repertoire of songs. It's a four-piece with two guitars, bass, drums and lots of vocals. They play stuff that makes people want to sing-along and dance. My job was to fit in fast!

Fraudio gigs come thick and fast - at least once a week - and run to 40 songs. New songs are tried and added all the time, so after a few years playing my own stuff, it's been a great challenge getting so many songs learned in a short space of time.

Some tunes are played pretty standard and others are tweaked and arranged, so there is a lot to learn and get comfortable with so we can perform them, not just play them. 

After the first two weeks, I realised that staying up all night was not going to work - I needed an approach.  Here's what I do to learn fast.

1. Be clear on the version we're playing.
   Radio edits are often very different to the album version. Rehearsal time is precious, so make sure you've done the right homework and listened to the same version(s) as everyone else. Agree the song structure and any changes to the arrangement - you don't need to be in rehearsal to do this. These days its not uncommon for me to get sent rough outlines of songs or passages recorded and emailed on a smart phone.
   
2. Listen, listen, listen and then cheat.
   I always start by working stuff out by ear. Each song is a step on my musical journey, so I use it to develop my ear as much as I can. I listen to a song two or three times without trying to play it, and start to sketch out a song chart (verse, choruses, etc). I have a guess at the key and chord progression. It is important to learn using your ears not your eyes.
   
   Then I scan YouTube and guitar tab sites for short-cuts when I start playing it. There is a health warning on this stuff so be sure to check it with your own ears.  Pay special attention to strumming patterns, counts into key sections and chord voicings.  WATCH OUT for 'easy' versions for solo acoustic guitar that don't reflect a full band.
   
   These days production is often so full that it is difficult to tell what chords are being played on guitar 1 vs guitar 2 vs keyboard so listen hard. 'Greatest Day' by Take That is a prime example.
   
3. Do a song chart. 
   Even if you don't use it live, doing a song chart helps you memorise the progression and structure much more quickly.  I used to use lyric sheets but I find that unless I am singing lead vocal they are too difficult to read quickly. Here's a blank song chart sheet.
   
   You should be able to recite the song structure out loud without the guitar or a sheet as a prompt. If you can't, then the risk is that you actively remembering structure as you play, rather than playing it and doing two conscious things at once causes cognitive dissonance (aka screw ups).
   
   Writing down the progression (e.g. I - IV - V  ii)  will help you spot similar songs and learn them a whole bunch quicker.  Don't forget key, time, strum pattern, riffs too.
   
   And song charts are also useful if you don't play the song for a while, after all you're investing time in it, don't lose your work and have to start again. My song chart box has upwards of 300 charts.
   
4. Tab the solo and analyse it.
   The first thing with solos is "Does it have to be like it is on the record?" Some do (e.g. Alright Now, Beat It) and some don't. If it does, I tab them out note for note by ear if I can (or find a good vid or tab if I can't).
   
   If I write a solo that works really well, I tab that too. It's a useful discipline, especially when you need to be able to reproduce the same thing every time. I tab the notes and the chords they are played over. Just like a song chart it helps lock it in memory. I almost never refer back to solo tabs so I'm sure they do change and evolve a little over time, and that's ok - it creates feel.
   
   I also analyse what scales are used, like they do in the guitar mags. That way if I get lost one night, I at least know if I'm in pentatonic minor, mixolydian etc...
    
5. I know all of that sounds a little intense but in fact that is just the preparation. It doesn't have to be forensically detailed. The best bit is obviously playing it and polishing it.  It is essential that you move from getting it in the thinking part of your head, and into your inner ear and your hands. And that is just repetition, but I have found the more I do steps 1-4, the quicker the whole process becomes.
   
   I use loopers, phones and a Boss BR-600 to record backing tracks to practice over so I can polish the parts I need to play, and dial in the eq and effects needed. Practicing to a backing track is more fun and I find if makes me tighter.
   
   Spend practice time focusing on the bits you CANNOT play - don't keep playing from the top if you can play the intro well. That is groundhog practice and you'll end up with very polished intro and verses, and a flaky middle 8 or solo.

Rehearsal time is precious. Nobody wants to hear me fumbling around the chord changes, making a complete mess of the solo, or asking "How does this one go?". I can't tell the bass player or the drummer how to play their parts - why should they learn my parts for me?  

Rehearsals are for learning to play the songs as a band, not to learn the songs from scratch. Do your homework - it isn't like it's not fun.