10 tips for successful and harmonious band rehearsals

Being in a band is great. A group of musicians: passionate, ambitious, driven and all thriving to achieve a goal (be that Wembley or the Dog and Duck). You’ve told all of your friends about it and assumed demi-rock-star status amongst your 9-5 buddies. But something’s missing. You’ve been rehearsing for months trying to get your act together, yet it seems like for every step forward, you take another back.

Often, rehearsals are the make or break aspect of many musicians’ career; good rehearsal etiquette and technique makes life a breeze and will generally keep everyone’s morale high, whilst a poor rehearsal will often lead to frustration, anger and bad feelings, not to mention taking much longer to achieve that goal you set. The good news is that like any skill, rehearsal technique can be learnt. Below are 10 tips to ensure that you practice efficiently, effectively and happily.

1 Know Your Stuff

Simple as this may sound, it’s all too often the cause of tensions, particularly in younger bands. If you’ve set a task or target to learn a song, section or set – show up having learnt it! Not only will it make you more confident and relaxed in the rehearsal it sends out a message that you are as keen to be there as everyone else in the band. People want to work with reliable people and showing up knowing what you’re doing is the best form of reliability you can get.

2 Come Prepared

This is another one that seems obvious to say, but can all too often inflict unnecessary tension in a rehearsal environment. In short: come with everything you need to rehearse, including spares of anything particularly liable to break. Especially if you’re all paying for the room, no-one wants to waste half an hour of time or money while you run around looking for a spare cable. This echoes the reliability issue again. Also, if you’re new to the group, it’s advisable to think smart with regards to gear you bring. Yes, we know you love that pedalboard with its own postcode and the 12 guitars each with their own personality. But realistically, it gives off all sorts of negative first impressions (not to mention likely taking up half of the practise space!). Be smart, take only what you desperately need to get through the session and minimise what can hinder you by going wrong.

3 Be Polite

Particularly in the early stages, or if you aren’t that close with your counterparts, it’s important to be polite and courteous. It’s always important to remember that sense of humour is a very personal thing – what you find hilarious may be offensive to someone else. Now this isn’t to say be super serious and rigid, but try to strike a balance. Friendship and humour will come naturally as you relax in each other’s company but a bad first impression will stick to you like a bad smell. Also, being polite and courteous is just good sense in this industry regardless. Being a nice person will make you the one that gets recommended time and time again, as people seek to work with people they enjoy being around more than anything else!

4 Take Regular Breaks

Practise rooms are notoriously hot, sweaty environments. Whether you’re rehearsing for 1 hour or 6, it’s important to just take a breather every once in a while; some fresh air and a drink will just settle you to be productive and proactive again and make the most of your time. Breaks don’t have to be particularly long either, a couple of minutes out between songs to refresh and regroup will set you straight for the next session. Be sure to pick your moment too, so you avoid hindering any potential growth.

5 Stay Hydrated (And Fed!)

Following on nicely, keeping well hydrated is an absolute must. Not only does it improve your concentration, keep you alert and keep you cool, it gives you that brief break previously mentioned to regroup and reform. Further from this note and particularly if you are doing a long session or working over a mealtime, make sure you eat. Whilst a twenty-minute break for lunch might seem like wasted time, it’s a far better investment than the half-hour reviving the hungry, passed-out band member would be.

6 Be A Team

This one can come across differently in different scenarios, but the aim of the game here is to be a unit rather than a dictatorship. If you’re in a band, you should all be equals with an equal voice. If one person begins to take over, frictions can be caused and rifts can develop. From this end, listen to everyone’s views. If someone has an idea for direction or delivery, try it! It certainly won’t hurt you to and could lead your good performance into a great one. The one scenario where this can differ slightly is in a session environment where the musicians are hired to perform with an act, rather than as a part of the brand itself. In this scenario, it is a little more acceptable for the named artist to impress direction, although this shouldn’t be at the expense of new ideas. Ultimately, an idea from anywhere could be just the thing you’ve been missing, so take note.

7 Use Sensible Volume Levels

Two key points to make here. Firstly, your ears are precious organs of which you only get one. Despite what some people say about loud volumes, hearing damage is a very real and dangerous issue for any musician – just ask anyone with tinnitus! Hearing is crucial to being able to continue making music effectively and it is almost impossible to fix any serious hearing damage once it has happened. Secondly, its all too easy for band practises to become a horrible war of rising volumes, particularly a plague for guitarists (Sorry!). One guitarist nudges up their amp, the next follows suit so they can hear themselves, followed by the bassist and then the vocalist at the desk. All of this means the drummer has to hit harder and play louder and before you know it, everything is three times louder than where you started, no-one can pick out any specific parts and everyone is starting to get frustrated. My advice is simple: take a couple of minutes at the start of the session to set levels, wander around if you will move about your space and agree on levels that are comfortable, manageable and equal, maybe even by sound-checking a song. After that, don’t touch volumes! This keeps everything at a level you’ve all agreed on and ensures everything is fair and easy-on-the-ear.

8 Criticise Constructively

Again, this is one of those ‘good sense’ tips that often gets overlooked. Telling someone “That was awful. What are you playing at?” may convey your emotion, but it will do little in the grand scheme of things to move forward. Instead, before you criticize someone, think about exactly what it was that went wrong or didn’t work, pinpoint it and try to suggest an alternative. This way, rather than seeming like a personal bash, creative energy is maintained and progression holds on to a fighting chance.

9 Stay Focused

Long sessions are hard work. They’re hot, they’re stuffy, they can be especially draining. But it is absolutely crucial that you maintain focus. When a positive creative atmosphere is apparent, any hint of losing focus can send it crashing down and lose all of the hard work you’ve put in. Hopefully, by practising the steps above, focus will come naturally as a by-product. Equally though, if one member is starting to stray, being sensible and polite about it could be the difference between a good session or a lost session.

10 Have Fun

Perhaps the most important point of all. Music is supposed to be fun and if you lose that aspect it can be hugely detrimental in the long run. The goal, no matter what you do, should be to leave each rehearsal with smile on your face and a drive to go back next time and do even better. Even more so, a fun, happy practise environment is one that will undoubtedly entice creative juices to flow and improve overall output.

So there it is, 10 tips to make the most of your rehearsal time. Whilst there is no set formula, following these steps will help you in making the most of whatever time you have and, hopefully, keep you coming back for more of the same, again and again. Good luck and happy rehearsing!

Sam Cross